Thanks Peter. I thought I read somewhere once (maybe it was you) where the addition of tannins actually binds to the existing tannin to lenthen/soften them. Regardless, I will be taking your advice and focusing on the basics for now...I just got a bunch of new testing kits from MoreWine, PH Meter, Chromo, AO, etc, so this should where my learning curve steepens a bit ...I hope!
Good luck with your wine and please keep us posted!
Steve