# which one? juice buckets?



## kendo (Sep 4, 2013)

besides the grapes ,, i want to do a few juice buckets, now the choice's i have are santa clara, collina del sol,, festa brand,, im looking for a half decent cabernet sauv, zin, merlot buckets which of these brands has good juice?..thk u..


----------



## kendo (Sep 5, 2013)

Woooooooooooooooooowwww.. Noboby does the juice buckets?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????


----------



## Pumpkinman (Sep 5, 2013)

I make Juice buckets, I will usually purchase any of the Italian Juices that M&M Juice grape Company offers.


----------



## seth8530 (Sep 5, 2013)

I ordered 12 gallons of chard juice buckets. My guess is that you are better off sticking to white wines for juice buckets.


----------



## Julie (Sep 6, 2013)

kendo said:


> besides the grapes ,, i want to do a few juice buckets, now the choice's i have are santa clara, collina del sol,, festa brand,, im looking for a half decent cabernet sauv, zin, merlot buckets which of these brands has good juice?..thk u..





kendo said:


> Woooooooooooooooooowwww.. Noboby does the juice buckets?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????



Calm down, sometimes it takes awhile for people to get thru all the posts and unfortunately some do get missed.

Cab sauv or the zin are pretty good juice buckets. You really can't go wrong with either one of these.


----------



## JohnT (Sep 6, 2013)

I agree with Seth. If you are making wine from fresh grapes anyway, I would stick to fresh grapes for my reds. You will find the end product to have more body, color, and mouthfeel.

Like seth, I do not see any major downfalls in using bucket juice for white wines.


----------



## Pumpkinman (Sep 6, 2013)

> My guess is that you are better off sticking to white wines for juice buckets.



Why is this? 

I have 2 - 5 Gallon batches of Amarone from Juice buckets that are incredible, another few months in the barrels and they will be ready to bottle.
Add a grape pack to the juice buckets (red) and they will be incredible. I purchase a lot of higher end (within reason) Italian Reds, so far everyone that has tried these wines agree that these are as good, and sometimes better than the bottles that I've bought.

If you start making a Juice bucket under the pretense that you can only make mediocre wine from it, you will only make a mediocre wine thinking that it has reached its potential....


----------



## seth8530 (Sep 7, 2013)

Pumpkinman said:


> Why is this?
> 
> I have 2 - 5 Gallon batches of Amarone from Juice buckets that are incredible, another few months in the barrels and they will be ready to bottle.
> Add a grape pack to the juice buckets (red) and they will be incredible. I purchase a lot of higher end (within reason) Italian Reds, so far everyone that has tried these wines agree that these are as good, and sometimes better than the bottles that I've bought.
> ...



I did not mean to imply that you can not make good red wine from a juice bucket but the skin contact is so important for red wines is why I would go with non inoculated must for a red wine. Adding grape packs is one thing that you can do to make a red juice bucket better, but I cant help but wonder how much better could it be if you had the actual skins? What I am trying to put out is that when available I would use frozen must over a red juice any day.

Not that I am knocking using grape skins on a juice bucket because I believe it is a great idea.

BTW, last paragraph, very true words and something every winemaker should keep in mind.


----------



## Pumpkinman (Sep 7, 2013)

Seth,
I am going to buy a lug or so of Merlot, M&M has them really reasonable, I plan on making my own grape packs from fresh grapes.
I wish that I had enough Amarone to send anyone that has doubts about Juice buckets a bottle.


----------



## chrisjw (Sep 7, 2013)

Woooooooooooooooooowwww! Oh sorry, I just dropped a carboy on my foot. Just kidding, have not done that ... yet.

uh, I believe Kendo's original question was about what juice bucket brand was good and Kendo has Santa Clara, Collina del Sol, and Festa brands available. Sorry, I have only done 1 fresh juice bucket (an Amarone) and it was very good after year 1 and so so after that, and it was not one of your brands.


----------



## seth8530 (Sep 7, 2013)

Pumpkinman said:


> Seth,
> I am going to buy a lug or so of Merlot, M&M has them really reasonable, I plan on making my own grape packs from fresh grapes.
> I wish that I had enough Amarone to send anyone that has doubts about Juice buckets a bottle.




May I ask where you live? One of the reasons why I am going for frozen must and juice for my chard is because I heard the expensive would be quite expensive.


----------



## TomK-B (Sep 17, 2013)

Seth, who do you get your frozen must/juice from? And what has been your experience with the different distributors?


----------



## joshs (Sep 17, 2013)

Pumpkinman said:


> Seth,
> I am going to buy a lug or so of Merlot, M&M has them really reasonable, I plan on making my own grape packs from fresh grapes.
> I wish that I had enough Amarone to send anyone that has doubts about Juice buckets a bottle.




Tom, just curious if you put your juice bucket reds through MLF?

Thanks,

Josh


----------



## geek (Sep 17, 2013)

joshs said:


> Tom, just curious if you put your juice bucket reds through MLF?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Josh



oh yeah, ALL of them...

I see we're close by...uh?


----------



## joshs (Sep 17, 2013)

Yes sir, very close by....

-Josh


----------



## geek (Sep 17, 2013)

maybe we can trade a bottle any day and share experiences.....


----------



## LoveTheWine (Sep 17, 2013)

I just got a couple 'Home wine' juice buckets from Alexander and sons.
Going to use it doing second runs this year


----------



## geek (Sep 17, 2013)

Pumpkinman said:


> Seth,
> I am going to buy a lug or so of Merlot, M&M has them really reasonable, I plan on making my own grape packs from fresh grapes.
> I wish that I had enough Amarone to send anyone that has doubts about Juice buckets a bottle.



only send a bottle to your close buds....


----------



## seth8530 (Sep 17, 2013)

TomK-B said:


> Seth, who do you get your frozen must/juice from? And what has been your experience with the different distributors?



I will be getting mine from M&M, but I have also heard that the must from midwest is also of good quality. I can not comment on previous experiences since this is also my first time using frozen must/juice.


----------



## Pumpkinman (Sep 17, 2013)

I live in Poughkeepsie NY, about an hour from M&M.
I put all of my reds through malolactic fermentation.
I have a large group buy set up, club members and friends are ordering from M&M.


----------



## Rock (Sep 17, 2013)

seth8530 said:


> I ordered 12 gallons of chard juice buckets. My guess is that you are better off sticking to white wines for juice buckets.


Yes in deed.I agree as well Grapes for red wine.Juice buckets for white wines.


----------

