Juice Pails from LHBS

[richmke]

I stopped by my LHBS, and they are offering pre-orders for fresh juice pails. All are $90/6 gallon pail (juice only, no skins). The options are:

Italian Red
Amarone
Brunello
Chianti
Montepulciano
Nebbiolo
Sangiovese
Valpolicella

Italian White
Frascati
Malvasis
Moscato
Pino Grigio
Trebbiano

California Red
Alicante
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet/Merlot Blend
Carmenere
Grenache
Malbec
Merlot
Pinot noir
Shiraz
Zinfandel

California White
Chardonnay
Chenin Blanc
Gewurztraminer
Muscato
Pinot Grigio
Riesling
Sauvignon Blanc
Thompson Seedless
Viognier

Any suggestions on what I should try for my first pail? I have the big reds from kits. I mostly make Reds, with an occasional white.

I was thinking Chianti, and read that it is at least 80% Sangiovese.

I have no idea of the name of the supplier. The codes next to each varietal starts with FJ.

 

[Julie]

Wow, $90. I'm paying roughly $55 per pail. Try Malbec and zinfindal

 

[cmason1957]

$90 seems high to me as well. Here in Missouri we ate plaguing $55, also. I am a big fan of both Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. And if you wanted to do three add some Merlot in there and Chianti is yours.

 

[syncnite]

I've paid $200 for a pail from a high quality famous vineyard and am happy with the results. So don't judge only by price, but on quality and what you want to make. Personally, if I make red, I want skins. But Sangiovese may work well without much skin time.

 

[JohnT]

My vote is the cab/merlot blend.

let's see, If we translate to how much per lug of grapes..

6 gallons is roughly 2.4 lugs. At a cost of $90, we are talking roughly $37.5 per 36 pound lug. I normally pay (on average) somewhere around $28 to $30 per lug.

But hey, it's July. There is the cost of storage, packaging and processing.....