Lidl selling 75ml bottles of merlot not from concentrate grape juice - 2 for £2. I've made two gallons using two bottles and carton red grape juice. Currently sitting in the garage waiting to be degassed. Someone on another forum has also used the stuff but used twice as much. His post below:
"Sure enough, I found 4 bottles and bought them, along with 3 litres of the generic red grape juice at 95 per litre.
My refractometer says 18g per 100 ml and my jug says 800 ml of juice per bottle. So 4 bottles = 3.2 litres. To turn this into a gallon of wine of 12% abv would require 1.5 litres of syrup with enough sugar in it to bring the sg to 1090, or slightly lower if a dry wine is intended, about 500 g. 6 bottles of merlot juice with 200 g sugar would be the ideal, and not really that expensive at £1.50 per bottle of wine. However, considering that the Cellar 7 kits are only 50% grape, only some of which is pure varietal stuff, yet still produce a decent 'merlot', it's worth considering an alternative recipe. Substituting merlot juice with generic red grape juice concentrate doesn't work out much cheaper, but using generic carton red grape juice does, at 95 per litre. Therefore I propose to make a 2 gallon batch, using the 4 bottles of merlot and the 3 litres of generic juice, topped up with sugar and water, about 500g in 3 litres, plus 12 g oak chips, which would work out at about £1 per bottle."
There was no follow up so I don't know how this tastes. Can I use just merlot grape juice and regular red grape juice to make something decent? Also would the oak chips make a real difference? If so i'll get some. The fella reckons tartaric acid may be necessary to adjust the PH. Any help here appreciated.
"Sure enough, I found 4 bottles and bought them, along with 3 litres of the generic red grape juice at 95 per litre.
My refractometer says 18g per 100 ml and my jug says 800 ml of juice per bottle. So 4 bottles = 3.2 litres. To turn this into a gallon of wine of 12% abv would require 1.5 litres of syrup with enough sugar in it to bring the sg to 1090, or slightly lower if a dry wine is intended, about 500 g. 6 bottles of merlot juice with 200 g sugar would be the ideal, and not really that expensive at £1.50 per bottle of wine. However, considering that the Cellar 7 kits are only 50% grape, only some of which is pure varietal stuff, yet still produce a decent 'merlot', it's worth considering an alternative recipe. Substituting merlot juice with generic red grape juice concentrate doesn't work out much cheaper, but using generic carton red grape juice does, at 95 per litre. Therefore I propose to make a 2 gallon batch, using the 4 bottles of merlot and the 3 litres of generic juice, topped up with sugar and water, about 500g in 3 litres, plus 12 g oak chips, which would work out at about £1 per bottle."
There was no follow up so I don't know how this tastes. Can I use just merlot grape juice and regular red grape juice to make something decent? Also would the oak chips make a real difference? If so i'll get some. The fella reckons tartaric acid may be necessary to adjust the PH. Any help here appreciated.
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