how to make a good flavorfull sweet fruit wine

I have 3 fruit wines making and I want to know the best way to make it flavorfull and sweet with a good kick. Is the best method to feed the yeast with a 1/2 cup sugar and rack every 3 to 4 weeks (or is it when the meter gets to .990), or run it to dry use potasium sorbate and sweeten wait ten day and bottle?

My next question is what is the best method for finning, chemical or filtering?

<snip> <snip>

Hi Jack

Seems to me you said quite a lot in just three short paragraphs !! ;O))

Very broad questions. My suggestion is to pick up some books on country wines and read them critically. Jack's site is great for his comments about making country wines of many types. Read his recipes, not just his methods.

More flavorful wines. I assume you want wines that taste like the original fruit. In that case use the maximum amount of fruit called for in the recipe. Then make it dry. At this point it will probably not taste like the original fruit. Stabilize and sweeten in a little and the fruit character will probably come back. Adjust it to your taste.

You can try using more fruit than called for in a recipe but be ready to adjust the acidity or it will get way out of balance real quick.

I agree with Greg. Slow feeding is a great way to make high alcohol wines of 16-18%. That will not make them flavorful. It just makes them get you drunk quick. Actually you can get drunk just as quick off 6-8% wine because it is so smooth you will drink too much of it before you know it.

Racking every 3-4 weeks will do nothing but expose the wine to air and lessen the quality. That is way too much handling. Rack to secondary, Rack after fermentation and it starts to clear to get it off the gross leas (I always wait at least 2 weeks after fermentation), rack 2-3 months later when it mostly clears, and rack one more time only if necessary but not before
3-4 months.

Aim for 11-13% wine and adjust the sweetness. It will have plenty of flavor and plenty of kick.

I suppose that depends on how balanced you want your wine. The feeding method will produce a wine with significantly high alcohol (15% or higher).
That may be ok if it tastes balanced with the residual sugar and acid - but
I would expect it to be a bit more port-like than wine-like in that respect.
Personally, I would opt for fermenting to 11-12% alcohol (dry), stabilizing with sorbate and bisulfite and then sweetening to taste. I suspect you will find a more balanced product in the end.

Do you mean getting it clear? Or adjusting some other property of the wine (taste, color, etc)?

I would not use any fining materials unless the wine has bulk aged and been racked when necessary for at least 6 months. Then, it depends on what specific problem is causing your haziness. Pectin, protein, etc. will each need something different to fine with.

You cannot filter a cloudy wine. It will not go through a filter. You should only filter a wine that already looks completely clear. Thus, it is not an option for the clearing process.

I apologize. The above has noting to do with this post. I thought I was answering another thread. Don't know how I got here?????/ ;o