Freezing fruit before making wine
Ok, the reason to freeze is simple. As someone already mentioned, it breaks down the fibres in the fruit. When you thaw the fruit, you will notice the berries or fruit is a bit soggy. The tissues break down and help to release the juices, and makes winemaking much easier.
Chemical addition or not
Some people like to ferment just the juice, and nothing but the juice. Sadly, not all fruits have the same amounts of nutrient for a good fermentation, and will often
"stick" (stop fermenting before the sugar is converted to alcohol). I add a nutrient to many of the frouts I know are low and they NEVER stick!
Potassium metabitsulfite (sulfite, k-meta, metabi, etc)
Again, not necessary. HOWEVER; I like to use bleach on my kitchen counter tops to kills nasty microbes so I don't get food positioning. Same for wine - the
K-meta will kill nasty microbes in the must (the fruit pulp that you make the wine with) so you don't end up with a bunch of really icky wine that potentially could harm you. Or at least make you feel very sick! If you have a reaction to sulfite, DON'T use it, but take every precaution to keep airborne germs out of the wine and use very clean fruit.
ACID or Acid blend
If the wine isn't acid enough, the wine can stick and/or turn out a bit flabby. Plus the acid helps to prevent oxidation. If you don't want to add acid, you can use fresh orange or lemon juice.
Wine Yeast
There are a lot of different wine yeasts on the market. Each yeast give a different character to the wine, even from the same batch of fruit.
http://www.lalvinyeast.com/strains.asp
This is one place to start - look at the description of each and choose the one you think would fit your style.
Ok, I think that's enough for now - I did this for some folks coming over from another thread, so if this is repeat information, please forgive me. I haven't read the WHOLE thread yet
One reall good book (I loaned mine out and never got it back) is "First Steps in Winemaking, by C.J. Berry, and you can download it free here:
http://www.4shared.com/document/XquJUZE6/First_Steps_in_Winemaking.html
Good winemaking everyone
