I find that when I use large amounts of fruits in mead-making (pyments, cysers, melomels, capsaiglins) that the fruit essences drop out of the final product significantly unless I do three things:
1. Ensure I heavily oxygenate the must when I pitch the yeast at first. I use a wand with a 50 micron porous stone at the end of it that attaches to an O2 bottle I pick up at Home Depot, but you can also get away with a very energetic and extended sloshing of your container.
2. Ensure I use a yeast nutrient/energizer additive when pitching.
3. Rack the product off the trub, at least for the first racking, quickly after primary fermentation is concluded and attenuation is reached. If you oxygenate well and have a nutrient/energizer in there, it'll complete even a 15% fermentation in 2 weeks, maybe 3 tops.
I think the weakening of fruit essences in a wine has to do with over-enthusiastic yeast that is trying to reach its attenuation threshold, but lacking in potassium and other nutrients that yeast require. It ends up throwing off-esters that mask the flavor profile of the base wine. And leaving any must/wort on its trub can have flavor dulling effects during a long resting period.
I've never had a strawberry wine. Sounds like a fun project.
