Last year I purchased 5 lugs each of 3 grapes. While I love the outcome, it's a bit of a juggling issue with relatively small amounts of 3 wines (~2 carboys each).
This year I decided to do it differently. I settled on a Merlot-heavy Bordeaux blend. I'm not making enough of the secondary grapes to make a carboy of each, so I decided to roll the dice and make a field blend. The plan was 12 lugs of Merlot and 1 lug each of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.
In late August the wife & I toured the Biltmore Estate in NC (USA), and my favorite wine was a melange of Bordeaux and Rhone grapes ... with Zinfandel. At the last minute I chose to buy 4 lugs of an old vine Zinfandel, and reduced the Merlot to 8 lugs. I made both the Merlot and Zinfandel last year, and am highly pleased with both.
The grapes arrived Saturday and I have them in 4 fermenters -- 2 Merlot, 1 Zinfandel, and 1 "other". One Merlot and the Zinfandel have 1 pound each of medium toast shredded American oak for fermentation, while the other Merlot and the Other have 1 pound each of French oak. I'm experimenting to see how if the oak makes any difference in fermentation. Supposedly it doesn't in fermentation, so we'll see.
I have a 54 liter neutral barrel and am buying a second, so the Merlots and the "Other" will go into the barrels. Depending on the amounts produced, I may have to add some Zinfandel to fill the barrels, and expect to need some for top up.
The barrels are 10+ years old so I'll be adding French oak cubes, probably 6 oz each. I'm undecided if the Zinfandel (which will be in carboys) will get French or American, or possibly Hungarian.
In the spring I will bench test blends to see how much (or if) I want to blend the remaining Zinfandel into the barrels.
EDIT: Following are links to my online records for this year. At this point I'm tracking the 4 batches separately. However, once blending begins (post-fermentation), I'll condense the records, and will update this list.
2020 Merlot 1 (American fermentation oak)
2020 Merlot 2 (French fermentation oak)
2020 Zinfandel
2020 Red Blend (Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot)
2020 Sauvignon Blanc
This year I decided to do it differently. I settled on a Merlot-heavy Bordeaux blend. I'm not making enough of the secondary grapes to make a carboy of each, so I decided to roll the dice and make a field blend. The plan was 12 lugs of Merlot and 1 lug each of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot.
In late August the wife & I toured the Biltmore Estate in NC (USA), and my favorite wine was a melange of Bordeaux and Rhone grapes ... with Zinfandel. At the last minute I chose to buy 4 lugs of an old vine Zinfandel, and reduced the Merlot to 8 lugs. I made both the Merlot and Zinfandel last year, and am highly pleased with both.
The grapes arrived Saturday and I have them in 4 fermenters -- 2 Merlot, 1 Zinfandel, and 1 "other". One Merlot and the Zinfandel have 1 pound each of medium toast shredded American oak for fermentation, while the other Merlot and the Other have 1 pound each of French oak. I'm experimenting to see how if the oak makes any difference in fermentation. Supposedly it doesn't in fermentation, so we'll see.
I have a 54 liter neutral barrel and am buying a second, so the Merlots and the "Other" will go into the barrels. Depending on the amounts produced, I may have to add some Zinfandel to fill the barrels, and expect to need some for top up.
The barrels are 10+ years old so I'll be adding French oak cubes, probably 6 oz each. I'm undecided if the Zinfandel (which will be in carboys) will get French or American, or possibly Hungarian.
In the spring I will bench test blends to see how much (or if) I want to blend the remaining Zinfandel into the barrels.
EDIT: Following are links to my online records for this year. At this point I'm tracking the 4 batches separately. However, once blending begins (post-fermentation), I'll condense the records, and will update this list.
2020 Merlot 1 (American fermentation oak)
2020 Merlot 2 (French fermentation oak)
2020 Zinfandel
2020 Red Blend (Cab Sauv, Cab Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot)
2020 Sauvignon Blanc
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