Adding water post fermentation

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

I know it is illegal, but I’m curious as to what effect it has on the quality of the wine. Is there a big difference between adding water pre fermentaion and adding after fermentation?

2

I’ve never done it post-fermentation, but from what I’ve heard, the wine is better integrated if you do it pre-fermentation. What happens when you add water?..Alcohol goes down, acid goes down, pH goes up, flavors become less intense, the wine may become less sweet (depending on several factors), but it might be dry (and could have been fremented dry to begin with, again, depending on other factors). Hopefully others can chime in.

3

I would imagine that it would taste watery? [wow.gif] [snort.gif]

You could always do a benchtop trial just to see, but I can’t imagine it would do anything good. If you are trying to lower the alcohol, just get it de-alc’d.

4

Acidify the water add to maintain the current pH level, but why add water to postfermented wine in the first place?

5

To save the time it takes for the ice cubes to melt.