Italian blends
- Thread starter Stevew1
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seems like you are wasting some premium varietals to make a blend . Each should be able to stand on their own. If you insist do a bench trial lean toward a 80/20 blend so that you can save the majority of wine for a single varietal bottling. for example I would take the Nebbiolo with small amount of Barbera and also reverse for a trial blend.
Steve, I have to agree with Sal. I would make straight Nebbiolo (Barolo like wine) and Barbera separately. If you want to enhance either wine, add a complementary fruit to the primary fermentation like cherries to the Barbera or cherries and/or prunes to the Nebbiolo. If you insist on blending, make both wines separately and bench test various ratios of the two wines. Good luck and keep us up to date on what you are doing.
The blend of nebbiolo and barbera was the beat wine I've made. It was from juice and the fruity barbera added greatly to the drier nebbiolo. I plan to do something similar this fall. I had a little neb that was bottled without the barbera and it was not as good as the blend.
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You should ferment separately and then blend after the fact if needed. I have disagree with Rocky (sorry rocky) that these premium grapes will stand perfectly on their own and need no real enhancement like cherries.
I just started my LE Aglianico CC kit and decided to add 2 cups dried cherries to primary fermentation. Since you brought this up, have you done this and how have you liked the results?
Yes, tbuck, I have been very pleased with the results. What I try to do is to enhance one of the characteristic tastes of the wine. I have added black cherries to Zinfandel, Blackberry to Barolo and I have "juiced" Granny Smith apples and added the juice to Riesling, all in primary. For a 6 gallon batch, I buy one of the 96 ounce cans of fruit base or puree available from suppliers like Vintner's Harvest.
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