Getting startedPlease help 159It is need...or neat. New winemakers are generally advised to start with a wine kit. Kit manufacturers are pretty adept...
A main contributor to perception of "body" in wine is alcohol content. Earlier in the game you could have bumped up the sugar prior to fermentation or used a higher alcohol-tolerant yeast to boost the alcohol content, but at bottling time I think the only option on that front would be blending with a higher alcohol wine (or "fortifying" the wine with some spirit, like vodka).
Another big component to "body" in wine is the residual sugar content, so if you want to make a semi-sweet wine, you could add sugar (and potbuttium sorbate to keep the added sugar from fermenting in the bottle). You could also add glycerin, which is usually the main component in "wine conditioners" sold at homebrew stores (glycerin is non-fermentable to it won't contribute to refermentation in the bottle). Glycerin has a sweet taste (so adding it will add some negligible sweetness to the wine), but the glycerin itself is a very viscous fluid (which I believe is what gives it the body-enhancing properties). Be careful not to add too much glycerin to your wine (glycerin is also a laxative ... could make your wine a moving experience :o). Some yeasts generate glycerin as a by-product during fermentation, so choosing those yeasts could allow you to end up with higher glycerin levels in your wine ... look for wine yeasts that they "enchance mouth-feel due to complex carbohydrates" such as Lalvin's D-47.
A final major component to "body" are grape solids left in the wine, and you can maximize those by not filtering, fining only lightly, and racking less. Also, note that some new wine drinkers confuse tannin content with "body" in the wine (so, maybe some modest tannin addition might satisfy those folks, if the wine will support it).
Jon Check out my winemaking homepage
