2015 Merlot

At our local wine grape vendor, California Wine Grapes, I walked through the coolers tasting the merchandise. I like the Merlot pretty well. When I got home, I made a little glass of grape juice that was less impressive. 

I decided to make the Cab Sav into a blush, and after pressing the blush, I took the left-over skins and put them into the Merlot to strengthen the flavor. 

2015 Merlot

108 lb Merlot grapes
Pressed grape skins from 72 lb of Cabernet Sauvignon
1200 g sugar
11 g Yeast Energizer
2 packets of Red Star Montrachet

The Merlot grapes were a little juicy and measured at 23.8 Brix (26.1% sugar) for 12.4% alcohol. To get to the desired 14.1% alcohol I would need 29.8% sugar so I added 1.2 kg of sugar on the estimated 31 kg (7.5 gal) yield. 

With the Cab Sav skins in the primary fermenter, there may be too many skins for the volume of liquid. I am a little worried about fungus growth on the surface. I hope the liquid weeps out of the solid material to make this work a little better.