Fermenting A Red & White Wine Together?

[Pooshka4]

I apologize if I am starting a topic that has been discussed before but I can't seem to find the answer to this question on any forum. As the title goes, I'm wondering if it's possible to mix a red & white wine kit together?

I would of course add everything as specified on the instructions. That is: mix 2 wine kits to the primary fermenter, add 2 yeast packets to the fermenter and add the proper amount of water as indicated per kit.

I'm curious what the flavor might turn out to be and whether anyone out there has ever tried this before?

Thank you

 

[dralarms]

I did this one a California red and white once, only used 1 yeast pack. It worked real well except it tasted like crap when it was finished. I was going to pour it out but my wife made me bottle it. Glad she did, after almost a year it is fantastic.

I say do it, just don't get in a hurry to drink it.

 

[Pooshka4]

That's good to hear! Thank you dralarms

 

[cpfan]

Pooshka4:

I would be tempted to try a different approach. Ferment the red and white separately. Bottle half of the red, half of the white, and then bottle the rest blended. Three wines for the price of two, so to speak. Of course, you can also use different percentages, as you wish.

This doesn't provide a co-fermentation, but I wonder how much difference that would make.

There is a commercial precedent, although the volume of white is usually below 10%, in Shiraz-Viognier blends.

If you do the co-fermentation check the yeasts. If they are both the same (probably EC-1118) then that's OK. But if they are two different yeasts, there may be a yeast war, and one will win out. I know that Winexpert is including 2 different yeasts in some Eclipse kits, but I don't understand that (yet?).

Steve

 

[dralarms]

Have to agree, I'd do mine apart if I did it again. That way I could choose how the blending went.

 

[Pooshka4]

Yes, I've thought about fermenting the 2 wines separately and then mixing them together. But again, as you say, will this effect the taste if they were mixed but not fermented together?
I believe there must be a difference just as there is when cooking food. A recipe will not taste the same even if you add all the same components, only in a different sequence.

 

[dralarms]

I don't know about that, but from what I'm reading most blends are done post fermentation.

 

[robie]

You should get very similar results fermenting separately. The difference being you can do bench trials to get the percentages just right.
Ferment them together and you have no control over the results.

 

[Manda]

I think bench trials would be the way to go for the first year at least. Ferment them separately and then play around with it. You may like the 50/50 blend or it might be more of a 25/75 or 75/25 or 60/40 who knows. You only will after you experiment. Then once you find a mixture you like you can ferment the next batches together and see if there is a difference. Or if you are set on fermenting them together go buy a few bottles of commercial wine of the same verities as your kits that way you can get yourself in the ball park of what to expect.

 

[TedLarsen]

It is true, however, that the chemistry of fermenting them together will change the taste in different ways than blending them will. There will be a different kind of complexity from fermenting them together, for sure. That being said, though, it would take a lot of experimenting to get the right blend, to get the acid and tannin levels just right for the two wines.

It will be way easier, as suggested, to blend after fermenting....and yeah. I love the idea of three wines for the price of two!

 

[Rocky]

Pooshka, I have done it many times using Zinfandel and Muscat (this is a very typical Italian blend). I have made it with grapes by crushing both red and white (yes, including the skins) into the primary fermenter. I have done it with juice buckets and kits both co-fermenting and separately fermenting and blending later. Frankly, I do not see a lot of difference (mainly because I know the ratio that I want to use) in these different methods. Again, this has only been my experience and others may have differing ones.