Hypothetically - improving jug wine

[Donasay]

Lets say that hypothetically my local liquor store had big bottles of 4 liter jug wine on sale for 6.99 and considering that one gallon jugs cost 5 - 6 bucks to begin with, I went out and bought 5 jugs to do some experimental batches. Not wanting to waste the horrible horrible jug wine I siphoned it into a 5 gallon glass carboy for storage. I had a little left over and drank a glass of it, frankly it is pretty bad stuff. I was wondering if you wine makers have any ideas about what I can do to it to improve the taste.

I was thinking of putting some french oak chips in the fermenter to add some extra flavor, perhaps mixing it with some mead, I don't know I'm at a loss, but I have to come up with something to avoid throwing this stuff out.

 

[enderwig]

Mix it in the glass with some sprite and call it a wine cooler. Drink it real fast before your taste buds know what happened!

 

[PAC762]

When I was low on bottles, I bought some "Pacific Peak" cab at the local wine store for $3/bottle. The stuff was pretty bad. Since wasteing wine = alcohol abuse, I was determined to drink it. I just took quick gulps of it and chased with a beer. It went down much easier that way.

It was actually quite pleasant by the 3rd bottle.

 

[KingBrianI]

Coq au Vin Recipe : Alton Brown : Food Network
Trust me.

 

[Bobby_M]

Life is also too short to drink bad beer/wine/tequila. I don't know, maybe try carbonating it?

 

[Pogo]

Hmmm...very interesting...

I wonder if jug wines have been sorbated?

I may take a half-gallon of jug wine myself and add a half-gallon of Welch's, pitch a yeast, and see what happens.

Or, even better, if they have been stabilized, make a gallon of 100% Welch's Concord wine and start mixing at different ratios to see if anything good/better will come out of it.

Thanks for planting the seed.

Pogo

 

[jmulligan]

If it's red wine, turn it into mulled wine. Add some cinnamon, nutmeg, orange and lemon zest, some sugar, even some brady and usually that makes even godawful wine decent.

Or, make sangria! Throw that wine into a keg with some sugar, lemon, lime, and orange juice, maybe some cranberry juice and either add sprite/7UP or soda water. YUM.

 

[CBBaron]

Sangria is a great way to hide the flaws of a wine with sugar and fruit flavors.
Cooking also does not require quality wine.
I think blending with another wine or mead will just result in more poor wine. I'd rather make something good to drink and throw out the poor junk.

Luckily my LHBS, wine and beer store sells used wine jugs for cheap. This way I can get a deal on a small fermenter without finding a way to dispose of bad wine.

Craig

 

[etp777]

Cooking would be my suggestion. Going to make a big batch (18 pint jars worth) of my rabbit stew in a couple weeks, plan on just getting a jug red to make it.

Also, it's unliekly the wine was sorbated, probably just filtered, at least on the dry reds, so you could add sugars and yeast and referment if you want.

 

[david_42]

Sangria has my vote. After the second pint ...

I've been lucky, the local orchard sells fresh cider in glass jugs for about what the supers sell juice in plastic.

 

[the_bird]

Another vote for Sangria. Not the perfect time of year for it... maybe turn the heat up, put on a pair of shorts, turn on every light in the house and pretend that it's the middle of the summer. Find an old baseball game to watch on ESPN Classic.

I, personally, would be inclined to experiment with some of it. Get some acid blend, see if tarting it up a bit makes it more palatable. Maybe add some tannin, see if it improves it at all.

 

[bob1852]

take it to some sorority party - you'll be the hit of the party...