Coastal Red w/orange?

[Jblyth]

I'm going to throw this one out there for the masses, but might be more suitable in the recipe section.

My wife has been pestering me to try something but I'm just not sure how it would come out. She wants me to experiment with an Orange Zin, but since I only have an abundance of Coastal Red (WE two for one kit sale), I'm curious how that might taste with some orange zest thrown into the fermentation? Maybe even add a little mixed berry to give it more breadth? Anyone ever tried something like that?

I bought the Coastal Ref purely for cheap experimentation, but I'd hate to kill a batch of perfectly drinkable red wine.

Thoughts?

 

[cpfan]

I just did a Google search for Orange Zinfandel. The one wine was a red Zinfandel from a region called Orange in NSW Australia. Is this what your wife meant?

If I was going to make a citrus flavoured Zinfandel, I would choose a Zin Blush rather than a red Zin.

Steve

 

[botigol]

I like the Coastal Red how it is. Orange might perk it up a bit, but I'm not sure that it would taste right...I'm thinking that it might taste okay, but maybe not necessarily match. Hopefully that makes sense. It seems to play well with blackberry, but citrus just hasn't crossed my mind as a good match. If nothing else, it might be hard to determine how much to use in primary. In any case, maybe a better route than putting it in primary would be to ferment it as is and then separate a gallon or two and place some orange peel and/or berries into those for experimentation.

 

[Boatboy24]

I say start with a glass and simply add some zest to it. Let it sit a while and try it. I wouldn't be willing to take that gamble with more than a glass. For me at least, citrus is for white wines.

 

[botigol]

I thought about this a bit more and by adding citrus you would be heading towards sangria pretty quickly. The Coastal Red is relatively subtle and wouldn't stand up to those flavors very well. I also like Boatboy's suggestion.