Blending is a wine-making process, as a result of which juices from different berries and fruits are mixed, or different varieties of berries of the same type, or ready-made wine materials for the subsequent production of wine.
Blending makes the taste of the wine softer, improving its quality, gives the wine a delicate aroma and rich bouquet. Also, blending reduces the acidity of the drink and removes an unpleasant aftertaste. Densely colored juices mixed with lightly colored juices give the blended wine a beautiful shade.
For the production of blended wine, first of all, you need to determine the amount of fruits and berries that will be used. Blended wine can be prepared using various technologies, depending on the available raw materials and your taste preferences.
Technology No. 1
After determining the composition and amount of raw materials, fruits and berries are weighed, then crushed and mixed. You can grind it with a special crushing plant or in a meat grinder. Soft berries are pounded with a crush. The pulp obtained in this way is put into a press, squeezed out and the presence of sugar and the amount of acid in the resulting juice are determined. The proportions of acid and sugar are very important for a quality wine. Thanks to blending, they can be corrected by adding sour juice to the sweet juice and vice versa. When preparing must for blended wine, it is easy to achieve the desired sugar content and acidity without adding water, acid or sugar. The resulting wort is allowed to ferment.
This method is considered easy and quite popular, but it has two drawbacks. Not all fruits and berries ripen at the same time, which significantly limits their choice. Berries give off juice easily, and fruits, such as pears, are difficult to part with. A lot of unused juice remains in their pulp. Therefore, it is better to use a more complex technology for the preparation of blended wine.
Technology No. 2
With this method, the juice of each type of fruit and berries is squeezed out separately. The content of acid and sugar in each of them is determined before mixing. They are corrected by adding acid, sugar or diluting with water (for example, red currant juice), and mixed immediately before the start of the fermentation process.
This method allows the use of fruits that ripen throughout the season. New wort is simply added to the one already fermenting, even if the fermentation process is nearing completion. When fresh wort is added to the old one, fermentation is activated, harmful fungi are suppressed and the wort begins to ferment more actively and efficiently.
Technology No. 3
Blended wine can be prepared not only from raw materials and must, but also from ready-made wines by mixing them. This method has an undeniable merit - it is simple. But it also has an obvious drawback. Not all wines are in harmony with each other, and instead of an exquisite bouquet, you can get a wine with not the most pleasant taste and aroma.
