Some questions regarding this years grape harvest

[goodwood]

Hello,

I have a few questions regarding the grapes I will get this year. The plan is to have 10-16 gallons of wine. It could be as low as 8. I harvested 8 gallons last year from some vines in the backyard last year. We pruned it for this year. I am anticipating more or about the same. The dang little kid next door keeps picking them and crushing them.

The variety is concord I believe. Not the best but free grapes. My batch last year had good results with friends. Some are wine drinkers and honest. Another possible location is "wild" grapes I have permission to pick. I am thinking of blending the two. These wild grapes have bigger and longer clusters. So maybe they are closer to a wine grape. Both grapes are turning purple right now.

My buddy I brew beer with sourced a new medium toast french oak barrel. 13 gallon. I know these aren't the best wine grapes but he said give it a shot. We can eventually use this for beer.

I am looking in to field blending if they are both ripe at the same time. I not, I will process each grape separately.

We have committed to a barrel now. If we do not meet the volume for the barrel, what do you recommend?

If I can't source grapes, what do you think of using berries to make a wine? I am thinking blackberry, blueberry or strawberry to achieve volume.

 

[scarekrow]

I made a batch for my son's wedding using a combination of concord, Interlaken (green) and some kind of red grapes growing on my property. It doesn't need to be all juice, you can add water and sugar to stretch it.

Both me and my son's new father-in-law get headaches from most commercial wines but that wine not headaches.

Strawberries are good but sometimes spoil easy. Blackberry and blueberries are also good.

Good luck and don't drink it all in one sitting.

 

[goodwood]

Scarekrow,

Maybe I will ass a gallon of 1.080 sugar water. I might use honey so I can get more than just alcohol and volume.

I really want to try blueberry/blackberry but am not sure of what it will taste like. I was even thinking of staggering these by adding them to the must later in the maceration. If I don't do it this year, I will at least do a separate fermentation and blend just for taste. I guess I will need a gallon jug to see how that goes.