Italian Juice Bucket Observations

Purchased two Italian buckets at the beginning of October 2015 in South Jersey. A Pinot Grigio and a Borolo.

The Borolo was already fermenting and hissing away when I loaded it in the car . These buckets did not have yeast added prior to purchase. So I added RC212, it fermented normally. I then inoculated it with a little Petite Syrah that had just finished MLF. After about 4 weeks tests said that malo had ended. Added K meta and oak, after about three days MLF was at full force again. This lasted about 3 weeks. It is now bulk aging. Taste is very interesting, good interesting, but will need to age.

The Pinot Grigio was pitched with D47. After 20 days, and now in secondary, it was at .996. Racked 5 gallons into carboy with 5 Campden tablets and put remainder into 1 gallon jug with 1 Campden tablet. The 1 gallon jug started clearing within days, the 5 gallon carboy stayed cloudy and continued to bubble away. After about three weeks I stirred up the sediment and degassed a bit. It continued to send up bubbles. After six weeks I racked of off lees, used my drill whip and degassed some more. SG .992 . Continued to send up bubbles over the next six weeks, I racked at 3 months from originally adding Campden tablets. Taste is very good. Added 5 tablets to the 5 gallons at this racking. Not much now but is still sending up bubbles and it's almost clear as a bell.
Unfortunately the 1 gallon that cleared quickly was consumed and was delicious.

I have two all-grape batches and 10+ kits as well as number of fruit wines batches under my belt. I know not way out of the norm but the Borolo and the Pinto Grigio were the only fermentations that strayed from what I experienced with all the other batches. But then again 30 or so batches of wine is really not that much,, I'm sure, to have seen the spectrum of situations. Still learning.

May want to find another source... Should not be fermenting on pickup!

Were the juice buckets sitting around (at your supplier) for an extended period of time? In the fall, I notice that juice buckets become available much sooner than the beginning of October.

sdelli: yeah I hear you, my source for grapes and juice buckets in Philly seems much better quality than the those buckets from South Jersey. My source in Philly is California harvest and Jersey is Italian harvest. I wanted some from both harvest.

But like JohnT points out the jersey source had them a couple weeks before I could fit in my schedule to get them. So this year I will try and get them as soon as they arrive.