Zin, Cab, Petite Sirah blend

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.

pgentile

Still learning
Joined
Apr 7, 2015
Messages
1,113
Reaction score
938
Picked up 4 lugs of Zinfandel this morning, planning on doing a 50% zin, 25% cab 25% petite sirah. Supplier only had Zin in yet, Cab and PS will be in the next few days. Will be fermented separately and blended in 15 gl barrel. With a total of 8 lugs there won't be much excess for bench trial blending so essentially this will be a field blend.

These grapes were from a local supplier's premium list. Could't get more info on source and why are they premium other than they are from northern Cal and the vines they are from are cared for more than the regular list. From the label Lamanuzzi & Pantaleo and Google they appear to be the same source as Regina Juice. ??

Anyway, the grapes look and taste great.

Numbers after crushing:

Brix 24 (got to use my new refractometer)
pH 3.57
TA .6

IMG_20170902_110455562_HDR.jpg

IMG_20170902_104809322.jpg

IMG_20170902_104854555.jpg

IMG_20170902_104938939_HDR.jpg

IMG_20170902_105948899_HDR.jpg
 
Last edited:
Rock n roll! Great numbers too. No need to mess with it.
Maybe you'll get lucky and get a high yield for some extra wine to play with.

Great pics. I'll be there Saturday morning likely when they are mobbed. Hoping they will have everything I want in one shot.
So the Pia grapes are the premium. The other skid of lugs in the pic looks like Regina lugs. I take it there are some Regina varietals in as well. OnIy criticism is the 1st come 1st serve system there.
 
Yes, off to a good start. Happy with the numbers. Will check again in the am.

I opened a bottle tonight of last years Zin, from the premium list, and it's one of my best wines to date.

Place was jumpin' today, Pia seems to be the premium grapes. Last years crates were labeled the same. All other lugs I saw were labeled Regina.

Good luck next week.

One more shot of today's grapes.

IMG_20170902_145117525_1.jpg
 
Numbers look good and I think you'll like that blend. I'm doing to end up w/ a similar one when my 2016's are done. (Zin, Syrah, Cab and Petite Sirah)
 
Procacci bros is unlike any other supplier. For better and worse. As old school as they get. Getting info is tricky and I somehow feel like a pest asking simple questions like availability of different varietals. My fam has been all juice for years and it's my 1st time buying grapes from Procacci myself, not just juice.
But I just lucked out and spoke with Lenny over the phone for over 10 minutes today. He was awesome. He wrote down everything I needed (which is 6 dif types) and assured me all my grapes would be in, and would even set em aside if he had to.
He just finished unloading 3 trailers full of both "premium" and "da wood grapes" as he calls them. Luckily I saw your pics and noticed the prem. lugs are in cardboard so I knew what he meant. Another 1 or 2 trailers are also coming tomorrow.
I asked which trucks tomorrow and he said they will have both 'wood' grapes and the premium grapes in em.
Before I mix everything up I'm curious at the difference in numbers. 6 TA tests is more of a *****, but at least Brix and ph. I decided on 3 varietals and splitting 1/2 reg 1/2 premium. (Sangio4/CS2/merlot2) Saturday is gonna be a big day!
 
Before I mix everything up I'm curious at the difference in numbers. 6 TA tests is more of a *****, but at least Brix and ph. I decided on 3 varietals and splitting 1/2 reg 1/2 premium. (Sangio4/CS2/merlot2) Saturday is gonna be a big day!

That should have been 6.0 TA. It's fermenting solidly right now, the smell is delicious.

I like your blend.

Good to know other stuff will be in the next few days. I'm picking up two lugs of Cab Sauv and two of Petite Sirah from premium list later this week. And couple buckets of something white, french colombard maybe.
 
My fam has been all juice for years and it's my 1st time buying grapes from Procacci myself, not just juice.

By the way good luck with your first all grape batch.

Last year Lenny was my buddy, even opened a personal bottle of wine and shared. This year I can't get his attention, but he's been extremely busy each time I was in. I think I'll stop in thursday am.

Also if you still wanted to trade a bottle. I'm 10 minutes away from Procacci, I could pop in for a quick trade on saturday.
 
Numbers look good and I think you'll like that blend. I'm doing to end up w/ a similar one when my 2016's are done. (Zin, Syrah, Cab and Petite Sirah)

I just had a commercial blend like yours that was delicious.

You are fermenting separately? Is your goal one blend?
 
By the way good luck with your first all grape batch.



Last year Lenny was my buddy, even opened a personal bottle of wine and shared. This year I can't get his attention, but he's been extremely busy each time I was in. I think I'll stop in thursday am.



Also if you still wanted to trade a bottle. I'm 10 minutes away from Procacci, I could pop in for a quick trade on saturday.



Perfect. Sounds like a plan. I will keep in touch.
I'm picking up a bucket as well, probably petite sirah.
I did a 3 gal Gino pinto grape trial run in May. 54 lbs. pretty much just to get a feel for it knowing I was going bigger in September. I'm glad I did.
And even though my family did Procacci grapes for years, they did "old style winemaking" not really playing by any set of rules. I started with many bad habits. Imagine researching what a hydromter is after already making several seasonal buckets!
 
I just had a commercial blend like yours that was delicious.



You are fermenting separately? Is your goal one blend?



I've been buying similar blends for the last couple months to see what I liked the best. And that's how I settled on 50% sangio and 25% ea. Merlot CabSav. Though every variation imaginable can work for this style.
I wanted to blend down the road, but decided not to for multiple reasons. Equipment/space/ extra time ya know. I also would likely be too indecisive and not trust my palate. Nope. Going to throw em all in my 44 gal brute, and let 'er ride. Making sure I feed the proper nutes along the way, and using both a strong & versatile yeast and ML. High hopes.

Edit: now I'm imagining all the different bottles. Full varietals, cab/merlot, sangio/cab every which way etc... Having variety would be great. But I'm sticking to the plan. Maybe next year ill play with blends.
 
Last edited:
I just had a commercial blend like yours that was delicious.

You are fermenting separately? Is your goal one blend?

Fermented separately - 3 lugs of each. All 4 are very good on their own right now, but I'm looking forward to the blending trials in another month or so. @ibglowin gave me some details he found on the 2010 "Prisoner" blend and that will be my starting point for blending trials. One blend is the goal, but I'll enough leftover for some single varietal bottling (maybe with a little of something else mixed into each). Of the 24 gallons total, I will probably do 10-12 gallons of the blend.

44% Zinfandel
26% Cabernet Sauvignon
18% Petite Sirah
9% Syrah
2% Charbono
1% Grenache

I don't have the Charbono or Grenache, so I'll have to squeak by without 'em.
 
Fermented separately - 3 lugs of each. All 4 are very good on their own right now, but I'm looking forward to the blending trials in another month or so. @ibglowin gave me some details he found on the 2010 "Prisoner" blend and that will be my starting point for blending trials. One blend is the goal, but I'll enough leftover for some single varietal bottling (maybe with a little of something else mixed into each). Of the 24 gallons total, I will probably do 10-12 gallons of the blend.

44% Zinfandel
26% Cabernet Sauvignon
18% Petite Sirah
9% Syrah
2% Charbono
1% Grenache

I don't have the Charbono or Grenache, so I'll have to squeak by without 'em.

At 2 & 1% how much would they contribute anyway? Although both are tasty grapes. But your approach sounds good.
 
Where would you find a bottle of pure Charbono that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg though esp on the east Coast?

@boatboy24, you can alway buy a bottle of Grenache and 2 bottles of Charbono varietal and use them in your blends.
Mike
 
Ended up getting the other lugs this afternoon. 2 Cab 2 Petite Sirah.

Brix
Cab Sauv 21
Petite Sirah 24

Will take other reading tomorrow am when it's warmer.

Not crazy about the Cab being 21, but the Zin and PS are 24. 6 lugs 24 brix + two lugs 21 = 23.25?
 
Pressed the 4 lugs of zin this afternoon. pH 3.37 and .998 didn't take any other measurements yet. Smell is very good.

Put the zin cake back into a fermentation tub added 2 pails sangiovese and 1 pail syrah I picked up yesterday.

All 3 Regina pails were pH 3.70 and 1.090 on the nose.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top