Blending Alicante

[mainshipfred]

I'm trying to find which wines blend better with Alicante. After doing an internet search I come up with Cab, PV, Grenache, and Touriga which I have all of them. They also mention Syrah abd Petite Sirah which I don't have. I thought it was an Italian grape but found it is gaining popularity in Portugal so I was thinking Touriga and Tempranillo but would like to use some Grenache since it is one of the grapes used to cultivate it. I have 7 gallons and would like to save 2 for blending with other wines so I'll have 5 gallons to work with. Any thoughts?

 

[Rocky]

If you want to try something out of the ordinary, try blending it with Muscat. We used to make wine from Zinfandel and Muscat (3:1) but some years we had to buy Alicante grapes in place of Zinfandel, due to price and/or quality. Made a nice "Italian-red" table wine.

 

[mainshipfred]

If you want to try something out of the ordinary, try blending it with Muscat. We used to make wine from Zinfandel and Muscat (3:1) but some years we had to buy Alicante grapes in place of Zinfandel, due to price and/or quality. Made a nice "Italian-red" table wine.

Thanks, unfortunately I don't have any Muscat.

 

[joeswine]

Usually Alicante is a blender or filler mixed with the base to expand the volume any red will do.

 

[distancerunner]

If you want to try something out of the ordinary, try blending it with Muscat. We used to make wine from Zinfandel and Muscat (3:1) but some years we had to buy Alicante grapes in place of Zinfandel, due to price and/or quality. Made a nice "Italian-red" table wine.

That is my grandfather's blend. Thirteen lugs of Alicante to eleven Muscat. He left it on the skins and pressed to relatively dry pomace.

Some wine folks turn their noses up when they hear about it. When they taste it they smile. And ask for another glass.

It's a cradle flavor for me. At five years old during holiday time we were served miniscule portions. Full glasses by high school.

Plan to make it again this year.

 

[Rocky]

It's a cradle flavor for me. At five years old during holiday time we were served miniscule portions. Full glasses by high school.

I had a similar experience, i.e. drinking wine at a young age but our glasses were full. The downside was that in the beginning (about age 6) the glass held mostly water. As we got older, the proportion of wine to water diminished until about age 14 when we got ONE glass of real wine. Great memories. Also, my "Poppy" would work our garden and always have a jug of wine nearby. My older brother and I would work with him and he would give us a sip or two, always with the caveat, "Non dire a tua Mamma!" (Don't tell your Mom!)

 

[distancerunner]

When I was a kid I'd sit with Pap at the table in the kitchen at the back of the store. Friends would visit and drink his wine. They'd talk about politics and the news of the day. They would usually include me in the discussion.

Pap would cut up some peaches and put them into a tumbler, fill it with wine, and give it to me. Probably all of three ounces of wine. Called it a parfait. Give it to me with a spoon for the peaches. I was around ten or twelve at the time.
When peaches are in season and ripe I do it. Takes me back to the kitchen.

 

[Mac60]

I'm trying to find which wines blend better with Alicante. After doing an internet search I come up with Cab, PV, Grenache, and Touriga which I have all of them. They also mention Syrah abd Petite Sirah which I don't have. I thought it was an Italian grape but found it is gaining popularity in Portugal so I was thinking Touriga and Tempranillo but would like to use some Grenache since it is one of the grapes used to cultivate it. I have 7 gallons and would like to save 2 for blending with other wines so I'll have 5 gallons to work with. Any thoughts?

I have been blending Alicante for 20 years with Zin to give a deeper color, also Cab and Sangiovese. Really adds color to the blend

 

[distancerunner]

Have you ever used Alicante in a Bordeaux style blend?

 

[Bts]

Last year I did some alicante straight. Early results are promising, if you like big reds. This year I'm not doing much, but I am picking up a bucket of barbera juice and a lug of alicante. They're both inexpensive and I'm hoping to get acidity from the barbera, and body/color/tannin from the alicante. We'll see how it works.

 

[Dom1950]

I have been blending Alicante for 20 years with Zin to give a deeper color, also Cab and Sangiovese. Really adds color to the blend

Just made a batch of this, was my grandfather's recipe

 

[Mac60]

Just made a batch of this, was my grandfather's recipe

Awesome Dom, This is actually the first year I have not used Alicante, decided to change it up after 20 years. We shall see. The recipe that was handed down to me and I have used it every year since I started making wine. It makes a great drinking wine that goes with anything, from a nice filet to a pizza. Also, it taste good in a small Orange Juice Glass.
This year I used Petite Sirah instead of Alicante, and Syrah instead of Barbera, We shall see what we like better, this time next year.

• Old Vine Zin 75%
• Barbera 15%
• Alicante 8%
• Muscat 2%

Or Sangiovese (Super Tuscan)

• Sangiovese 63%
• Cabernet Sauvugnon 33%
• Alicante 4%

Here's a few pictures of this year vintage getting started.

 

[Dom1950]

Mac60
Wow liked the pictures. It has been a couple of years since I last made this combination. I'm also very new to wine making and am enjoying and learing the process. (Except all the cleaning lol). Good luck with your wine I am interested to see how it turns out.

Dom

 

[Dom1950]

Awesome Dom, This is actually the first year I have not used Alicante, decided to change it up after 20 years. We shall see. The recipe that was handed down to me and I have used it every year since I started making wine. It makes a great drinking wine that goes with anything, from a nice filet to a pizza. Also, it taste good in a small Orange Juice Glass.
This year I used Petite Sirah instead of Alicante, and Syrah instead of Barbera, We shall see what we like better, this time next year.

• Old Vine Zin 75%
• Barbera 15%
• Alicante 8%
• Muscat 2%

Or Sangiovese (Super Tuscan)

• Sangiovese 63%
• Cabernet Sauvugnon 33%
• Alicante 4%

Here's a few pictures of this year vintage getting started.

Mac60 this is Dom Savino it’s been a while. Have progressed in my wine making but I was interested to find out how you’ve enjoyed your new blend. This year I’m thinking about 80% Sangiovese, 15% cab sauv, and 5% cab franc. Hope to hear back from you.

 

[Mac60]

What's up Dom,
Great to hear your progression, I must say that we are really enjoying our new blend from 2 years ago. This has been bar far the best wine we have made. Its big and bold, very smooth, dry but with lots of fruit flavor.
This is what we did
Sangiovese Brunello (Lanza Grapes) 45%
Cabernet Sauvigon (Lanza) 35%
Merlot 15%
Petite Sirah 5%
We fermented in two seperate batchs 1 with D80 Yeast and 1 with D254 after fermentation to dry we blended them it really turned out to be a winner exactly the taste we were looking for.

Prior years we did hight percentage of Sangiovese and it tasted closer to a Chianti which was nice but we wanted something big and bolder this blend did that for us. This year were are going with 2 blends
For our Super Tuscan
27- Lugs Sangiovese 44%
24- Lugs Cab Sauv 39%
6- Lugs Merlot 10%
4- Lugs Petite Sirah 7%

Skipping the Zin this season and going with a Barbera
Barbera 90%
Petite Sirah 10%

 

[Dom1950]

Mac60
This blend sounds like it was great.
I did go with:
80% sangiovese
15% cabernet sauvignon
5% cabernet Franc

I blended the sauvignon and franc and am going to create the wine totally and then created the sangiovese separately. Then when i go to bottle next year i am going to blend them at that time. I am interested to see how this comes out. Good luck this year with your wine. I used the same yeast for both batches - Red Star Premier Rouge, I've had success with this yeast and its generic and safe. I wanted to use EC 1118 (Champagne yeast) but waited too long to find it.

Dom

 

[Mac60]

We used our 25 year old manual crusher destemmer, that I added a motor, we completed 77 cases in 2 hours 3 of us plus hour for clean up.
This years grapes were really good. Sangivoise 26 brix, Cab 169 clone 25 brix, Barbara 26 brix. PH on the San/Cab 3.89 TA .65 and 3.51 and .80 on Barbera.