Juice bucket and grapes - fermented separately

[jas3019]

So I know plenty of people around here advocate adding grapes to a red juice bucket and cofermenting for added tannins/dimension from the skin contact. But what would happen if you fermented the bucket separately from the grapes and blended after fermentation? From a lug of grapes you could get around 2 gallons of wine that could be blended back with 6 gallons of bucket wine and then also decide your desired blend with a bench test. Is this heresy? Dumb? Brilliant?

And just so you know what I'm considering...it's a Zinfandel juice bucket with a lug (36 lbs) of Petite Syrah grapes.

 

[salcoco]

with a good bench test the blend should be better than either wine by itself.

In future add powdered tannin to juice bucket post fermentation using bench trials to determine dosage. then blend.

 

[JohnT]

Depends on what your concerns are..

by blending together, you are basically increasing the solvents that the fresh grapes are exposed to. In other words, IMHO, you get more body/color extraction when you blend them together.

By blending separately, however, you can control the amount of color and body in your end product.

It has been my experience that bucket juice runs way too light for my tastes. as a lover of big bold reds, I would ferment the two together to try and get as much as I can from the fresh fruit.