Other making a brut rose style wine with two kits

[someirishman]

Hey guys, I was thinking about making a rose wine as there are not many rose kit available where I am mostly zins, I was thinking doing a brut rose style by making a chardonnay kit with less volume and making a merlot kit at same time and adding some of the merlot to the chardonnay before fermentation to make a rose style wine, I've read this works but ratios etc I am not so sure about. reason I could do this is because I always have a merlot kit on the go for my brother in law and could use some of his to add to the chardonnay. I've seen some say 80% chard and 20% red but I dont want it too red, Thinking maybe 1 or 2 liters of red to make the chard 23 liters. has anyone ever done anything like this? any advice or better ideas for a brut style rose let me hear em please.

 

[Boatboy24]

I was drinking a Sauvignon Blanc Rose just last night. As I understand, it's just a regular SB with a little Merlot added. So, yes; you can certainly do it. I can't advise as to the ratios, but would recommend simply doing some bench trials to see what works. Start with 95%/5% and work from there, slowly adding more Merlot until you get it where you want it.

 

[someirishman]

I wonder how much difference there would be mixing the two before fermentation and after at bottling time, I read somewhere theres an advantage adding before fermentation but cant find that article now, I think it was to do with the skins of the red helping the white but may not apply when using a kit without skin pack. Ive got some chardonnay bottled and some merlot I might mix a bottle of chard with 5% merlot and see what it tastes like for a bench mark. Ive got sb too so might also try that and see which tastes more like a brut, Id say the chard with oak will win?

 

[ibglowin]

I made the Sauv Blanc Rose' last year and added the entire F-Pack up front and fermented to dry. Turned out freaking awesome. The F-Pack was only about 1-1.5L in size.. There are pics of it bottled here under the Sauv Blanc Rose' thread.

 

[Kraffty]

We drank a couple of bottles of our pinot rose this weekend made the same way. Ours is 75 pinot grigio and 25% pinot noir BUT the PN was a second run so probably 50-75% color and flavor of full strength Pinot. I think your 80-20 blend is not a bad guess but like boatboy above said, do a couple of bench trials.....Fun AND tasty.
Mike

 

[SouthernChemist]

I second the recommendation of doing bench trials. Never just blend things on a large scale from the start. The result may be okay (it may be good), but it could be even better in another ratio! Also, if by some chance it was a disaster, you are stuck with it. Start with small percentages/ratios...especially if color is the primary factor you are looking for.

Co-fermentation is certainly done, and there are some advantages for red whites blended with small amounts of white (color stabilization being one of them such as with Syrah/Viognier). I do not think those advantages are really valuable for a kit wine, though, compared to working with fresh grapes. Ultimately, you end up with more control by blending post-fermentation.

 

[someirishman]

I shall have to do a taste test this weekend, I've got pinot grigio and chardonnay and sb so ill open a bottle of each and try adding 5% merlot to each and see which is the best before doing a full batch, Ive also got a kit of pinot blanc at hand i could use for a rose but Ive never done that kit before and would like to try it as is.