Combining frozen must containers - preferment

Has anyone tried blending prior to fermentation? For example taking 2 5-gal cabernet buckets and a merlot?

If so, how did it turn out?

I know it would be ideal to ferment separately and blend to taste, but squeezing out 3 gallons from a single must pail and trying to coax it into a small enough carboy and having enough to top up with rackings may not be feasible.

At least with 2-3 buckets I can fill a 5-6 gallon carboy with some left over for topping up.

Nothing wrong with that at all. I would be sure to blend well, and re-test your SG, pH and TA.

Starting out, I always blended post fermentation and it had its negatives.....

When post ferment blending, I found that I tended to always blend in the same proportions. On a Cabernet, for example, it always seemed to come down to a blend to either 10 or 15% merlot.

Also with post fermentation blending, I need to keep the wines separate and there was always the issue of "left-overs" (or the wine that you hold out of the blend). This all comes down to needing a LOT more in the way of tanks, carboys, and Demijohns.

I would also find that the "left-overs" were never as good as the blend. I realized that it would be better if I made ALL of the wine a blend.

So I now do field blending.

With field blending, I can buy the grapes in the proportions that I intend to blend and not have the problem of needing keep the different wines separate. I simply order the grapes in the proportions that I want. No muss, no fuss!

JohnT said:

Starting out, I always blended post fermentation and it had its negatives.....

When post ferment blending, I found that I tended to always blend in the same proportions. On a Cabernet, for example, it always seemed to come down to a blend to either 10 or 15% merlot.

Also with post fermentation blending, I need to keep the wines separate and there was always the issue of "left-overs" (or the wine that you hold out of the blend). This all comes down to needing a LOT more in the way of tanks, carboys, and Demijohns.

I would also find that the "left-overs" were never as good as the blend. I realized that it would be better if I made ALL of the wine a blend.

So I now do field blending.

With field blending, I can buy the grapes in the proportions that I intend to blend and not have the problem of needing keep the different wines separate. I simply order the grapes in the proportions that I want. No muss, no fuss!

Click to expand...

Great answer, John. Only two problems I can see with this are having enough experience to know how you want the blend and grapes having different flavors from different years. Think the biggest thing is the experience and that comes with time. Arne.

JohnT
I find this interesting and was thinking about doing this. for instance I was thinking about buying Cab Sauv, Merlot and Syrah. This would require me to have 3 primaries whereas if I did a field blend I could cut it down to two. Like Arne said, I am not sure what my percentages should be. Any guidance? I'm thinking about a Cab merlot blend 80/20 and a cab syrah blend but not sure as to percentages.

I have done that and it has produced great results. I have a 54 liter demi that I use for blends. A mix of 2/3 nebbiolo and 1/3 barbera was very good. Also I am ready to bottle a 2/3 sangiovese and 1/3 merlot blend.
I ferment in the bucket for 7-10

Days and then rack intl the demi and finish in the demi. I usually rack three times and bottle in about a year.

I make a lot of blends from juice buckets. I currently have in my cellar the following blends (all of which were co-fermented):

1. Super Tuscan - a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese and Merlot in a 2:1:1 blend.
2. Ricetta DiStefano - a blend of Zinfandel and Muscat(!) in a 3:1 blend.
3. Cabernet Sauvignon/Sangiovese in a 1:1 blend.
4. Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot in a 1:1 blend.

I feel the best blend I ever made was really an accident or a "blend of necessity." This was a blend of Barolo and Brunello which was blended at 2:1. It came about because I had made a kit of Barolo that was very "thin" but had a good enough taste and a Brunello from Italian juice buckets. I had a hard time getting the Brunello to ferment completely so I went through several iterations of "fixes" adding raisin, "turbo" yeast, grape packs, tannin, etc. and I wound up with a wine that was very thick and such a deep red that it was almost black in color. At the time, my Bride and I belonged to a "gourmet group" which was just a bunch of people who liked to eat and drink. I made up three different blends, 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 Barolo to Brunello and sought to get the group's opinion on which was the best blend. They selected the 2:1 so I blended all of the Barolo with enough Brunello to make what I called "Gourmet Select" because of the way I settled on the ratio. I still have a few bottles of the Brunello left which is "drinkable" but much better applied to a thinner wine in a blend.

zadvocate said:

JohnT
I find this interesting and was thinking about doing this. for instance I was thinking about buying Cab Sauv, Merlot and Syrah. This would require me to have 3 primaries whereas if I did a field blend I could cut it down to two. Like Arne said, I am not sure what my percentages should be. Any guidance? I'm thinking about a Cab merlot blend 80/20 and a cab syrah blend but not sure as to percentages.

Click to expand...

Sorry for the late response....

IMHO, you can not go wrong with a cab/merlot blend.

Cabernet seems to be on the light side (at least the cabernet I get).
80/20 will make for a potentially darker, more full bodied cabernet.
Big-N-Bold!

IMHO, syrah is also on the sharp side and could benefit from the smoothing effect of a merlot (again, only my opinion).

I would consider 80/20 cab/merlot and an 80/20 syrah/merlot

This is what I would do. I want to point out, though, that tastes differ and one should not rely on any tongue but one's own.

When racking the Chileans last night, although it wasn't preferment (sort of the end of AF / MLF start), I did a 75% Cab / 25% Malbec blend. We'll just have to wait and see how that works out............

I did a coferment of a merlot/petit syrah from juice buckets that turned out very well I think.
It's still aging in my cellar.
Ratio was 66% merlot and the rest petit syrah.