My fresh grape order keeps getting bigger!

[Bartman]

2 yeasr ago, I bought 3 lugs, last year it was 6. Now, after a bunch of back and forth my family and in-laws (who are paying for most of the order), I have probably over-reached and ordered 500 lbs (14 lugs) of fresh grapes from California (F. Colavita & Son) through Fine Vine Wines here in Dallas. Delivery is expected around the middle to end of October. I'm making 5 batches (3 lugs / ~6 gal each) as follows:

2x - Cab. Sauv. (1/3), Cab. Franc (1/3), and Merlot (1/3) - kinda, sorta a Bordeaux blend

My 'Chianti' blend- 2/3 Sangiovese and 1/3 Barbera

100% Cabernet Sauv. (3 lugs)

100% Malbec (2 lugs) (this is the oddball)

All 5 will get RC212 yeast. Now my first concern is what I will use for fermenting buckets - I think I will need at least 9 and maybe 10 big fermenters and I have 6 now. And then, my next problem will be having enough carboys to store it in. Oh, well, there's an easy answer to the last problem - buy some more carboys. What to do about enough fermenting buckets?

Does anyone else use a local distributor of F. Colavita & Son?

 

[ibglowin]

Buy the 20G Brute trash cans from Home Depot. They are food grade. That is what I use. They will hold 3 lugs easily. I have the white ones but the Grey ones are cheaper.

 

[Bartman]

Mike, I went against your advice (I know, I know - try not to slap your forehead too hard ), and bought 4 of the smaller 5-gal food-grade buckets from Home Depot. Based on the volumes of grapes and the number of different blends I was making, it was either 4 of those little ones or 2 of your 20-gal 'bad boys', and I decided I am not strong enough to haul those up a flight of (carpeted!) stairs to the 'grape re-education room' (a.k.a. the fermentation bathroom). With 3 - 36-pound lugs, those would have weighed over 100 pounds each!

As it turned out, I carried 4 of the MM Alljuice and Chile Fresco frozen juice buckets (6 gallons each) and my main primary bucket upstairs, and after a lot of grunting and cursing, I was exhausted. The last four (3 of the 5-gal buckets and 1 more 6-gal) took a detour to the downstairs bathroom tub - since my wife wasn't home at the moment, she couldn't stop me, and she isn't strong enough to pick them straight up and move 'em now! Ha!

So, now it's a two-story fermenting operation - it's gettin' all yeasty up in here!

 

[ibglowin]

Dang, thats some serious heavy lifting! Sounds like you need a better situated wine space with no hauling up stairs for sure. Keep us posted on how things turn out with Georges fresh grapes from this year. As far as I know, your the only one posting on the quality etc.

Mine from last year are turning out spectacular! I rotated 3 carboys back into the Vadai's yesterday for another month or so of barrel aging before I start rotating this years in to the barrels.

Can't wait to blend these guys up sometime late this Winter.

 

[Bartman]

The quality is just as good as last year - perhaps slightly better. No sulfites on the grapes, no spoilage, no raisining on any of my grapes (Joseph at FVW said some of the Suav. Blanc's had some raisining, but not much - last year, the Sauv. Blanc was a no-show due to low quality (I think)), the berries were all evenly and fully ripened, not too big, not too small - it's the Goldilocks grape harvest! I had to stop my 9-year-old from eating the grapes and drinking the juice straight from the buckets!

George's orders were way down this year due to the fiasco with last year's delivery - I think I heard they had about 2/3 as much as last year, but it nicely filled their new, larger retail/warehouse space. The motorized crusher/de-stemmer was working smoothly and efficiently, and the weather was perfect - about 78 degrees and blue skies.

My 'Chianti' (Sangiovese-Barbera) and Zinfandel-Pinot Noir blends from last year are big hits - my wife wants to make sure we don't give too many away at Christmas.