Blending wines

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

wineview

Still waiting.........
Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2018
Messages
1,390
Reaction score
794
ive got a wine that turned out a bit sweeter than I hoped and despite all my efforts could not bring the gravity down below 1.004. I’m thinking of blending this wine with a Grenache that is very dry. Any thoughts?

Thanks
WV
 
What’s the wine though?
I think a dry Grenache could be nice. As the base wine in Chateauneuff du Pape, there’s over a dozen other possible varietals they use in the blend.
I’ve got a similar situation as you. Never got the wine fully dry (1.001 ish) and also overadjusted the tartaric acid. It’s a Tuscan blend from 2017 grapes.
I may attempt to remove some acid but thinking blending may still be needed.
Might make 4 small batches to use for blending - a Syrah, Cab, Grenache and Cab Franc. To have 4 variations of 50% Tuscan (Sangiovese/Cab/merlot) and 50% each new one.
Playing the odds because really have no way of knowing until I start blending and tasting.
 
What’s the wine though?
I think a dry Grenache could be nice. As the base wine in Chateauneuff du Pape, there’s over a dozen other possible varietals they use in the blend.
I’ve got a similar situation as you. Never got the wine fully dry (1.001 ish) and also overadjusted the tartaric acid. It’s a Tuscan blend from 2017 grapes.
I may attempt to remove some acid but thinking blending may still be needed.
Might make 4 small batches to use for blending - a Syrah, Cab, Grenache and Cab Franc. To have 4 variations of 50% Tuscan (Sangiovese/Cab/merlot) and 50% each new one.
Playing the odds because really have no way of knowing until I start blending and tasting.


I agree it’s all trial and error.
 
I agree it’s all trial and error.

But what varietal is the 1.004 wine your planning to blend with Grenache? You never said the type!

I like the Grenache blend idea just because Grenache has such a different profile compared to the majority of the wine’s style I make - Cab/merlot/Malbec/Sangiovese etc. Grenache is like a fun sidestep for me. I made one from juice that’s at 15 months and still not bottled. Took some time but its now very tasty.
 
I'm not sure I would take properly made Grenache and then blend it with wine that didn't finish fermentation, in an attempt to average the flaws. The risk is that all the wine will be bad, or improper for type.

Why not celebrate the Grenache and bottle it as it's own thing?

No way to re-start fermentation?
 
But what varietal is the 1.004 wine your planning to blend with Grenache? You never said the type!

I like the Grenache blend idea just because Grenache has such a different profile compared to the majority of the wine’s style I make - Cab/merlot/Malbec/Sangiovese etc. Grenache is like a fun sidestep for me. I made one from juice that’s at 15 months and still not bottled. Took some time but its now very tasty.

Chianti.
 
I'm not sure I would take properly made Grenache and then blend it with wine that didn't finish fermentation, in an attempt to average the flaws. The risk is that all the wine will be bad, or improper for type.

Why not celebrate the Grenache and bottle it as it's own thing?

No way to re-start fermentation?

I tried everything for 6 weeks to try and restart. No luck.
 
I tried everything for 6 weeks to try and restart. No luck.

Yeah man. That little bit of sugar is just about impossible for us home winemakers to get to restart and finish fermenting.
And @CDrew I understand your thought— but then your still left with a bunch of wine you don’t wanna bottle by itself and back to the initial issue.
Luckily God created Benchtrials!
 
Yeah man. That little bit of sugar is just about impossible for us home winemakers to get to restart and finish fermenting.
And @CDrew I understand your thought— but then your still left with a bunch of wine you don’t wanna bottle by itself and back to the initial issue.
Luckily God created Benchtrials!

But having said that, the wine tastes pretty good even if it is a touch sweet.
 
But having said that, the wine tastes pretty good even if it is a touch sweet.

Interesting. There’s another member on WMT, @NorCal, who has discussed this happening to his GSM blend. Fermentation stopped a little short—maybe 1.002ish IIRC. Disappointed at first, the wine ended up benefiting from the little bit of residual sugar and was one of his best wines in his opinion.
If mine id probably let it get some age and not make any decisions until the summer. Maybe a touch of French oak could give that sweetness more complexity. Then maybe keep half as is and use the other half to tinker with blends (depending on amount).
*edit- since it is a Chianti you’ve got tons of options IMO. Grenache sounds interesting, but all the typical heavy hitters would work too. Basically you can do whatever the hell ya want!
 
Last edited:
@Ajmassa5983 is right. Hands down, the wine that people have said they like the most was the Grenache Mourvèdre Syrah blend with the stuck Grenache. The resulting wine was 1.002 (.6 brix). As a comparison, white Zin is around 1.5 brix. It had just enough residual sugar (RS) to bring out the fruit and the whole thing played well together to my friends and family that could not get enough. We went through that wine fast.
 
@Ajmassa5983 is right. Hands down, the wine that people have said they like the most was the Grenache Mourvèdre Syrah blend with the stuck Grenache. The resulting wine was 1.002 (.6 brix). As a comparison, white Zin is around 1.5 brix. It had just enough residual sugar (RS) to bring out the fruit and the whole thing played well together to my friends and family that could not get enough. We went through that wine fast.

I will let the wine bulk age for many months and make a decision then. Might just split the batch as a blend.
 
I'd like an opinion. I have 6 gallons of each cab Sav, Merlot and Syrah from juice that I plan to blend as 50% Merlot, 35% Syrah and 15% Cab Sav. Any other ideas on ratios?
The Cab Sav turned out a little "weak' on the flavor, hence my intended blend ratio.
 
I'd like an opinion. I have 6 gallons of each cab Sav, Merlot and Syrah from juice that I plan to blend as 50% Merlot, 35% Syrah and 15% Cab Sav. Any other ideas on ratios?
The Cab Sav turned out a little "weak' on the flavor, hence my intended blend ratio.

By no means am I a blending expert and I can't yet taste a wine and know how it will benefit another. What I do with a 3 wine blend is start with a 50/50 blend of each. To see which combination of the 2 I like best and then my second choice. I take the common wine of the 2 and use it as the primary wine or maybe 50% with a 30/20 both ways of the other 2. I'll probably taste 8-10 blends before I come up with something I think I may like unfortunately at that time anything tastes good. good luck with it. A 100 liter graduated cylinder work really well for measuring.
 
By no means am I a blending expert and I can't yet taste a wine and know how it will benefit another. What I do with a 3 wine blend is start with a 50/50 blend of each. To see which combination of the 2 I like best and then my second choice. I take the common wine of the 2 and use it as the primary wine or maybe 50% with a 30/20 both ways of the other 2. I'll probably taste 8-10 blends before I come up with something I think I may like unfortunately at that time anything tastes good. good luck with it. A 100 liter graduated cylinder work really well for measuring.
That's pretty much what I've been doing. Thought I could get some different inputs. Thanks.
 
I usually start my wines in mid September and bottle around mid April. How long do you guys bulk age your wines before bottling?

Good question, and lots of different answers, as we all do it differently. My current bulk aging time is in years. For instance, my 2017 wine from grapes went into a 30 gallon barrel around a year ago, and I won't begin to consider its readiness for bottling until spring, but it may go longer. 2018's are about to go into a 60 gallon barrel, where it will stay for a couple of years. When I was doing kits and really pumping out the wine, most of them were also over a year by the time they got through a barrel and bottled.
 
Good question, and lots of different answers, as we all do it differently. My current bulk aging time is in years. For instance, my 2017 wine from grapes went into a 30 gallon barrel around a year ago, and I won't begin to consider its readiness for bottling until spring, but it may go longer. 2018's are about to go into a 60 gallon barrel, where it will stay for a couple of years. When I was doing kits and really pumping out the wine, most of them were also over a year by the time they got through a barrel and bottled.
Thanks. I don't use barrels because I don't have the room for them so I'm limited to 6 gallon glass carboys.
 
I usually start my wines in mid September and bottle around mid April. How long do you guys bulk age your wines before bottling?

I’ve been slacking and haven’t bottled anything in a while. But I also starting tinkering more with oak and barrels and whatnot.
Prior to that I was content bottling anywhere from 9-12 months. And prior to THAT my family made wine and bottled early- about March-April if the wine was co2 free. If not? Just meant it wasn’t ready yet ! And the co2 used to be their determining factor.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top