Juice with grape skins pack

[Gwand]

Hello everyone, With the help of the forum I now have several kits going at various stages of development. Thank you. It's been a lot of fun. I am ready to get more ambitious. I found a source of montepuciano juice locally. Thank you Boatboy. However the fresh grapes that I was going to crush and add to the juice during primary may not arrive when the juice arrives. Instead of making my wine from juice alone, which may be thin, what do you think if I crush Merlot grapes instead for the grape skin pack, which may be available when my Montepuciano juice arrives. Do you think this will throw the wine off-balance? Alternatively I can try to work with the juice only and add tannin and glycerin for body and for structure. What do y'all think? Thanks.

 

[Gwand]

Addendum. I just read Joe's thread from March. I see a third option is to add raisins during the secondary.

 

[Bartman]

I think you would be alright using merlot grapes as part of the ferment. Using raisins is a second-choice alternative in my opinion, but that's not to say that I haven't done it many times and will in the future. If you have fresh, high-quality grapes available at the primary fermentation, I would prefer those to raisins in the secondary every time.

 

[LoveTheWine]

I too am getting some juice weeks before my grapes are ready this year.
I have decided to sulfite the juice and refrigerate it until the grapes come in.
With that being said I'm sure Merlot would be just fine if you can get 'em

 

[Pumpkinman]

I will be doing just that, I will be purchasing a lug or two of Merlot, destemming and crushing, and putting it into gallon ziplock bags, hopefully 5 lb each.
I'll freeze them and pop one out of the freezer as needed.

 

[geek]

I will be doing just that, I will be purchasing a lug or two of Merlot, destemming and crushing, and putting it into gallon ziplock bags, hopefully 5 lb each.
I'll freeze them and pop one out of the freezer as needed.

Tom, is that pretty much the quantity you get when you buy the grape skins pack from M&M?
Sounds like a good idea. I wonder if there's $$ advantage?

 

[Pumpkinman]

The grape skin pack at M&M is 4 kg, just under 9 lbs.