ANYONE INTRESTED IN A 60 GALLON DRUM OF JUICE?

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kevinlfifer

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California Wine Grapes (Detroit) ordered 2 drums for me but they had to take a pallet of 4 drums as a minimum. SO there is a drum of Syrah and a drum of Grenache available. $495 each. Reach out to me or them if you are interested. I can help transport from their location to you (within reason) on my trailer.

FYI
I am trying 120 gal of a GSM.
Recipe:
60 Gal Syrah
60 Gal Grenache
200 lbs Alicante grapes

My wife is gonna kill me
 
Kevin, I hope your will and life insurance are up to date...lol

I'm always confused why juice is so cheap. I frequently ferment drums of frozen grapes. My average yield of wine from a drum is about 35 gallons. I'd need 1.5 drums to produce the volume of juice you receive per drum. And, the cost of a drum of frozen grapes averages $1500 - some more and some less depending on the variety and AVA.

Last year a drum of frozen Syrah grapes from Knights Valley California cost me $1650. This means I'm paying $2475 for what you're paying $495 for in comparative finished wine volume.

That makes no sense to me... I'd like a bottle of your wine made from juice to compare - lol...

But, seriously, do you have an explanation?
 
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It has always puzzled me as well. On a smaller scale it takes 3 lugs to get 6 gallons and a little more. We pay an average of $40 - $45 per lug and a juice bucket is about $60. When you but frozen must the price is even higher. I could never understand why unless it's shipping, storage and handling.
 
It has always puzzled me as well. On a smaller scale it takes 3 lugs to get 6 gallons and a little more. We pay an average of $40 - $45 per lug and a juice bucket is about $60. When you but frozen must the price is even higher. I could never understand why unless it's shipping, storage and handling.
LOL, this is a complete hijack of the OP...

The grapes I'm buying, both frozen and fresh, are from notable vineyards and AVAs. For instance, I bought three drums of Merlot last year of frozen grapes from Sonoma and the vineyard was Glen Oaks Ranch. Bottles of wine from this vineyard average over $80. The resulting wine is going to be awesome and shows that now. Still have another year in the barrel but it's developing nicely.
 
It's our Washington Winemaker's Group. With the exception of a few they are all under $45. I'm not sure the numbers for this year but our order usually fills 2 tractor trailers.
That explains it.

I thought we were stepping it up by ordering a a couple of bins this year with our new buying group. We’re going to have to eat some Wheaties to get to forty tons.
 
Kevin, I hope your will and life insurance are up to date...lol

I'm always confused why juice is so cheap. I frequently ferment drums of frozen grapes. My average yield of wine from a drum is about 35 gallons. I'd need 1.5 drums to produce the volume of juice you receive per drum. And, the cost of a drum of frozen grapes averages $1500 - some more and some less depending on the variety and AVA.

Last year a drum of frozen Syrah grapes from Knights Valley California cost me $1650. This means I'm paying $2475 for what you're paying $495 for in comparative finished wine volume.

That makes no sense to me... I'd like a bottle of your wine made from juice to compare - lol...

But, seriously, do you have an explanation?
This juice is from CA, I think some vineyards grow more than they can ferment and juice processors get those grapes pretty cheap. If you use juice only, it makes a pretty thin wine. I add about 4 lugs of grapes to each drum.

I also cut and toast my own oak and I think that makes a huge difference.

I'll gladly send you a bottle or 2. Right now I really don't have any inventory I'm particularly proud of. I'll have some Chilean blend to bottle in a couple of weeks and that is juice only. So far so good.
 

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