I am in a bit of experimenting stage with different grapes, and on a
whim I picked up 2 boxes of Ruby Cabernet grapes. I should have done my
research a little better beforehand, I found out later these make a
fairly generic and mediocre wine. Rather than let them go to waste, I
went ahead and fermented them straight up- the juice came in with a SG
of about 1.090. They just finished fermenting to dryness overnight, so I
am open for suggestions/blends/additions after I press the skins and
transfer it to carboys for secondary fermentation/racking.

Ruby Cabernet is a Carigan X Cabernet Sauvignon cross
designed to bring Cab Sav style Flavours to a vine that would
like Central Valley Ca Conditions IE hot and overcropping.
It can produce decent wine. It is the most successful of the
Davis -California Red wine crosses. Gallo has Vartietial on the
market.

Try treating the finishing like a Cabernet . Oaking with
French oak dominate might help. A Malolatic Fermentation
in Second Fermentation would help as well . Also blending
with real Cab or Merlot for a Sort of Mertiage can help .

A few quick suggestions... I hope this helps.

The Chateau Plonk de Jacques wrote:
> Ruby Cabernet is a Carigan X Cabernet Sauvignon cross
> designed to bring Cab Sav style Flavours to a vine that would
> like Central Valley Ca Conditions IE hot and overcropping.
> It can produce decent wine. It is the most successful of the
> Davis -California Red wine crosses. Gallo has Vartietial on the
> market.
>
> Try treating the finishing like a Cabernet . Oaking with
> French oak dominate might help. A Malolatic Fermentation
> in Second Fermentation would help as well . Also blending
> with real Cab or Merlot for a Sort of Mertiage can help .
>
> A few quick suggestions... I hope this helps.
>
Thanks, I definitely plan to add some oak chips. It has pretty much
fermented to dryness, SG of .995, measured in the free-run juice, but
pressing seems to have released a bit more sugar, so it is still burping
through the airlock a few times per minute now.

This is my first attempt at a dry red wine, most of my previous wines
have been a bit sweet. It should come in about right at 12 percent
alcohol based on my starting SG. I just hope I avoid the H2S problems I
am having with my Chardonnay in the neighboring carboy. Never really had
a problem with my reds and H2S, but I left the white on the gross lees
for about a week after it went dry. Live and learn, and I am trying to
work out the stink as I speak.

The Chateau Plonk de Jacques wrote:

> Ruby Cabernet is a Carigan X Cabernet Sauvignon cross
> designed to bring Cab Sav style Flavours to a vine that would
> like Central Valley Ca Conditions IE hot and overcropping.
> It can produce decent wine. It is the most successful of the
> Davis -California Red wine crosses. Gallo has Vartietial on the
> market.
>
> Try treating the finishing like a Cabernet . Oaking with
> French oak dominate might help. A Malolatic Fermentation
> in Second Fermentation would help as well . Also blending
> with real Cab or Merlot for a Sort of Mertiage can help .
>
> A few quick suggestions... I hope this helps.
>
I stopped by my favorite seasonal grape vendor and picked up a box of
Cabernet Sauvingnon grapes to blend with it.

My son was helping me cranking the crusher/de-stemmer when after 9
cases of Zin I tipped in the last one and he choked all up. I even
tried to help turning the blasted wheel. Then I looked at the lug and
found it said Ruby Cabernet. Good bless anyone that is into that kind
of wine. These small tough grapes make little juice and are a pain in
the "cranking" to use. So that is our batch on Zin composed of this
year, I hope for the best. Usually I blend with Syrah but this year we
have this one lug of black "sheep grape" as well.

SG Brix

wrote:
> My son was helping me cranking the crusher/de-stemmer when after 9
> cases of Zin I tipped in the last one and he choked all up. I even
> tried to help turning the blasted wheel. Then I looked at the lug and
> found it said Ruby Cabernet. Good bless anyone that is into that kind
> of wine. These small tough grapes make little juice and are a pain in
> the "cranking" to use. So that is our batch on Zin composed of this
> year, I hope for the best. Usually I blend with Syrah but this year we
> have this one lug of black "sheep grape" as well.
>
> SG Brix
>
Actually, my Ruby Cabs seemed easier to handle than the Zinfandels I did
last year. A qualification: I have been stripping them from the stems by
hand, then crushing them with my feet (a bow to tradition!) and they
seemed to come off the stems easier by hand than the Zinfandels. I'm not
sure how they would handle in a typical stemmer/crusher though. Only
made about 4 gallons of juice from 2 lugs, but I did not have a press
available at the time. Squeezed the pomace in a mesh laundry bag by hand
till my hands ached, and decided it was worthwhile to put some of my
weldings skills (what they are) to work and build a press out of some
allthread and some scrap iron I had laying around. It's functional
enough to work with an improvised press basket (wire mesh trash can) and
the lid off a plastic storage container to catch the juice and direct it
into a bucket, but I plan to refine it a bit more.

I am oaking the Ruby Cabernet right now while secondary fermentation
winds down, and will try a mix with some of the good stuff. In 2 years,
hopefully I will have all the Chambourcin and Seyvals I can handle from
my own backyard, but in the meantime I am trying different grapes as I
educate myself. It might not turn out half-bad after all

Bruce,
I have made Ruby Cab a few times and the only thing I noticed was the
acid was a bit higher than the others I made that year. Olmos crossed
that one; it makes good wine. I crush by hand also and am not sure
what happened on SG Brix's last lug, I can tell you the Merlot was much
thicker skinned than Syrah this year, not that that means anything.
The color on the Syrah was outstanding.

Oak and any dry red are made for each other as far as I am concerned.

I get more out out of my lugs of grapes as a heads up. I will rebuild
my press some day but I still just use 3 pails, one with a ton of 1/8
inch holes as a press basket, one to catch the press fraction, one to
press. It fits two lugs with ease and I get over 5 gallons from 72
pounds of grapes (which is not out of the ordinary for a real press).
I got the idea from Lum's book when I broke a junk press at 7 PM on a
Sunday... I used 6 gallon juice buckets. It's free and takes about 20
minutes to make. I place a quart jar in the base bucket to stand off
the press bucket. You can use anything for wieght.

Joe


Bruce_Nolte_N3LSY& wrote:
> wrote:
> > My son was helping me cranking the crusher/de-stemmer when after 9
> > cases of Zin I tipped in the last one and he choked all up. ...I looked at the lug and
> > found it said Ruby Cabernet. Good bless anyone that is into that kind
> > of wine. These small tough grapes make little juice and are a pain in
> > the "cranking" to use.
> >
> Actually, my Ruby Cabs seemed easier to handle than the Zinfandels I did
> last year. A qualification: I have been stripping them from the stems by
> hand, then crushing them with my feet (a bow to tradition!)