6 gal Chilean Merlot pails

[usafcajun]

Here'sa question for ya. I havea kit of Cab Sauv at the house waiting to be started. It has a 2gal bag of juice in it and will make 6 gallons if I remember right. Here's the question: If I buy a 6 gal pail of Chilean merlot grape juice from a vineyard can I split that into 3 2 gallon batches to make 3 6 gallon carboys?


I'm not sure what the difference between the juice concentrate in a kit as opposed to a juice pail directly from a vineyard.


TIA.


Bob

 

[masta]

I would think the juice from the vineyard is not concentrated so 6 gallons of juice would make 6 gallons of wine.


The other question is how much they adjusted the juice from the vineyard such as pH, SO2. Once you know that and adjust as needed I don't see any reason why you couldn't mix the vineyard juice with the Cab kit after it is reconstituted to volume.


Is the goal to make a Cab/Merlot blend?

 

[MedPretzel]

I agree with masta. I have made 2 grape wines from juice from vineyards, and they resulted (after careful racking) in about 5.5 gallons of wine.


If you want to experiment, I would probably suggest the following:

1. 
   <LI>Get the 6 gallon pail of Chilean Merlot.</LI>
   <LI>Split it into 2 - 3-gallon batches.</LI>
   <LI>Whip up the kit and proceed as normal (diluting, etc) until you get to the "6-gallons in the primary" part.</LI>
   <LI>Split that into 2 3-gallon batches</LI>
   <LI>Mix each of the 3 gallon batches into 1 6-gallon one.</LI>

Now, your guarantee with your kit wine is out the window when you do this. You still would need to test for SO2, pH, TA, SG, etc, when you have blended the two.


You also should think about the yeast type you plan to use. The kit wines usually come with unlabeled yeast, so you would never know what made it good/bad. I would probably do a search on different yeast strains and what is good for each particular wine type.





A Cab/Merlot blend will taste great.

Cab/Merlot hybrid grapes are known as Dornfelder grapes (I believe) and they make my absolute favorite wine in the whole entire world.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[usafcajun]

Martina


That's an interesting idea about mixing the two. I think I'm going to stick with making the kit as per the directions. It'll be my first kit evah. I might see about ordering a pail of the Merlot and another of the Cab from this vineyard. http://www.harfordvineyard.com/





Thanks for the info you two.

 

[pkcook]

You can always do a blend with two different finished wines. Safer that way with the kit too.