I had never head of using Splenda in wine before, but according to the link its supposed to work. What I normally do is add regular sugar everytime I rack my wine off. The yeast in the wine will only work up to a certain acohol level, usually around 11%-12% depending on the type of yeast used. There are yeast types that will work upto around 20%, but those are usually reserved for those making "Shine". Any sugar added after the acohol level is reached will only sweeten the wine.
I never add all my sugar at the start of the wine making process. I prefer to add it a little at a time to make sure that I dont cause a stuck fermentation, and to make sure I dont get the wine to sweet. I will rack the wine, taste test, and then add more sugar . If the recipie calls for 4 cups of sugar, I will usually add 2 cups at the start of fermentation, one cup when I rack it off into the carbouy, and the 4th cup the next time I rack. Then, if the wine is too dry, I will just keep adding sugar every time I rack until the taste suits me.
I question how much Honey was used to make the orange spice mead? The recipes I have found suggest that a gallon of honey will make 5 gal of mead, which means you have to use 4 gal of water. In fact most of the wine recipies call for so much juice and add so much water. I have found that when following those recipies that I lose most of the fruit taste once the wine is made. With my wines, I use all fruit juice with no extra water added, and with my mead I use 1 gal of Honey and two gal of water. I have three gal of mead that needs racking off one more time before placeing in the bottles. At last racking, the wine was still sweet and you could still taste the honey. I havent checked the acohol level but it tasted potent.
