Has anyone order from grapesforwine and grapemust ?

[ericsp]

I currently make wine during the harvest season. I’ve tried kits in the past as well . I’m looking to try frozen must .

Has anyone used grapesforwine.com and grapemust.com ? I believe they are the same company .

 

[Tim3]

They are the same company. I’ve actually ordered from them a number of times and have been generally happy with the product, understanding how inexpensive they are relative to Brehm or winegrapesdirect, particularly factoring in shipping costs. Many people on this forum have had negative experiences but usually on account of how the product arrives and the lack of customer support to resend or comp questionable buckets. I live in AZ so maybe the shorter shipping duration is why I’ve never experienced any issues, but my buckets have always arrived sealed and still frozen. My biggest issue with them is they aren’t truthful about the quality of their grapes on their website with the stated PH, and usually SG is off by a brix or 2. All of the grapes I’ve ordered (cab or Merlot) came in at 3.9+ PH and brix between 22 - 23.5. But trust your own readings, adjust appropriately, add nutrients, and you’ll make good wine. Also the grapes are machine harvested so you’ll find plenty of MOG you’ll need to pick out (wood, stems, bugs, etc). Just thawing and pitching yeast will create a poor wine in my opinion. That said, if you’re going for really high quality and you don’t have the desire to adjust and spend time hand picking MOG you should pay the premium and buy from Brehm or winegrapesdirect.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

Wine grapes direct is reliable and good quality I ordered from them once because I wanted to try them out and the must was good quality and produced a good wine, they are also really helpful if you have issues.

 

[ericsp]

Tim , thank you for such a thorough review. I guess I’ll look into Brehm . I agree with spending more to get premium . Checking SG and PH would been done regardless on my part. I think being truthful is important with any company . So if they aren’t I’ll spend the extra money .

 

[ericsp]

Also how do I determine if grape skins are included or If I need to press the Must ? I’m not familiar with the terminology of what I should be looking for .

 

[Nebbiolo020]

Also how do I determine if grape skins are included or If I need to press the Must ? I’m not familiar with the terminology of what I should be looking for .

Brehm and wine grapes direct do include skins in the must it’s literally crushed and frozen so you will need to press if you buy from them.

 

[Tim3]

You're welcome ericsp. I don't disagree with your decision, as I've made excellent wines from some of Brehm's vineyards. But horses for courses, and I find the challenge of making very good wine from average quality grapes is rewarding, sometimes more so than making an excellent wine from excellent grapes. But if you're just starting out you should begin with high quality grapes since they require less intervention and are more forgiving. I'm attaching my full notes for a merlot dominant blend I made earlier this year from frozen 2020 grapesforwine buckets. Page 3 might be a good read for you since you're just getting into making wine from fresh grapes.

 

[ericsp]

Oh I just read some of your post .. This won’t be my first time doing grapes . I started with kits maybe 14 years ago and slowly went to all grapes . I currently have about 12 gallons of Barolo Wine I just pressed this past weekend .

So I’m up to the challenge if need be to pick the MOG out .

your notes are awesome thank you ..

 

[Cap Puncher]

Has anyone ordered from grapesforwine.com recently? I ordered a petite sirah 3weeks ago and have heard nothing. I tried calling, one line is busy the other goes to some Google voice thing that no one ever answers or returns calls. I have emailed 3 times without response. Have anyone received buckets from them recently?

 

[Nebbiolo020]

Has anyone ordered from grapesforwine.com recently? I ordered a petite sirah 3weeks ago and have heard nothing. I tried calling, one line is busy the other goes to some Google voice thing that no one ever answers or returns calls. I have emailed 3 times without response. Have anyone received buckets from them recently?

If I recall that site is a scam, wine grapes direct is legit and I have ordered from them I would cancel and change to them before you lose your money.

 

[Cap Puncher]

If I recall that site is a scam, wine grapes direct is legit and I have ordered from them I would cancel and change to them before you lose your money.

It looks like some ppl have gotten frozen buckets from them before. Tim3 seems to have gotten them from his post last year on this thread.

 

[Cap Puncher]

Nevermind, I finally got a response. They apparently just harvested this last Monday and will be shipping out next Monday.

 

[Tim3]

I’m happy to hear they’ll be arriving next Monday. Definitely run your own numbers and adjust according to what you find and not what they have posted. If you look at some of the other 2022 Livermore Valley grapes from reputable vendors like winegrapesdirect you’ll see it was a warmer year than normal and PH is likely to be high, but verify. The YAN last year was very low so I’d expect the same this year too. My Merlot I made last year is about 18 months old now and is drinking well but still needs time, reminds me of an Aglianico and I’m very excited to see how it continues to develop. My cab I made from those grapes needed help, so I added some sweetness (10g/liter worked best for me) and it really brought everything into balance and is quite pleasing.

 

[Cap Puncher]

I’m happy to hear they’ll be arriving next Monday. Definitely run your own numbers and adjust according to what you find and not what they have posted. If you look at some of the other 2022 Livermore Valley grapes from reputable vendors like winegrapesdirect you’ll see it was a warmer year than normal and PH is likely to be high, but verify. The YAN last year was very low so I’d expect the same this year too. My Merlot I made last year is about 18 months old now and is drinking well but still needs time, reminds me of an Aglianico and I’m very excited to see how it continues to develop. My cab I made from those grapes needed help, so I added some sweetness (10g/liter worked best for me) and it really brought everything into balance and is quite pleasing.

Thanks Tim3, yeah I will make sure to balance it all. I’ve had to same thing happen with wine grapes direct, where the numbers are pretty far off and high pH. Good to know on the YAN. I am actually only doing one bucket of petite sirah. I was going to use it to coferment an Old Vine Zin I was doing from fresh grapes, but that did happen. I’ll just blend it later.

I’ll ferment with Bravo (no sulfide) to make sure Low YAN doesn’t get me in trouble.

 

[Khristyjeff]

Has anyone ordered from grapesforwine.com recently? I ordered a petite sirah 3weeks ago and have heard nothing. I tried calling, one line is busy the other goes to some Google voice thing that no one ever answers or returns calls. I have emailed 3 times without response. Have anyone received buckets from them recently?

I've ordered from them in the past with no issues. Just ordered more last night and noticed they must have been selling a lot of wine must lately as their inventory is much smaller. Could be that they are just overwhelmed.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

I’m happy to hear they’ll be arriving next Monday. Definitely run your own numbers and adjust according to what you find and not what they have posted. If you look at some of the other 2022 Livermore Valley grapes from reputable vendors like winegrapesdirect you’ll see it was a warmer year than normal and PH is likely to be high, but verify. The YAN last year was very low so I’d expect the same this year too. My Merlot I made last year is about 18 months old now and is drinking well but still needs time, reminds me of an Aglianico and I’m very excited to see how it continues to develop. My cab I made from those grapes needed help, so I added some sweetness (10g/liter worked best for me) and it really brought everything into balance and is quite pleasing.

Ph is insane this year , I got fruit from a cold area of California that is known for having higher acidity and the ph was 4.3 and 24 brix which was surprising I didn’t believe it at first.

 

[Cap Puncher]

Ph is insane this year , I got fruit from a cold area of California that is known for having higher acidity and the ph was 4.3 and 24 brix which was surprising I didn’t believe it at first.

I expected high pH fruit this year and when the old vine Zin came in from mokelumne river sub AVA of Lodi it was only 3.6 to 3.85 (not bad at all)

 

[Cap Puncher]

I've ordered from them in the past with no issues. Just ordered more last night and noticed they must have been selling a lot of wine must lately as their inventory is much smaller. Could be that they are just overwhelmed.

Are the measurements decently accurate to what they say on the website in your experience? Have you done their petite sirah?