Hi Mike,
I use Regina, which is from Lamanuzzi and Pantaleo. They have a
website and might be able to tell you where to get it in your area.
It's readily available in the Northeast where we have a hard time
growing good grapes. I don't know what SGBrix's producer is doing
either, but the only way I know of to get red juice from red skinned
grapes is natural fermentation or hot pressing.

I am not expecting to make fine wine from central valley fruit, just
good table wine. I apolgize if it sounded overly harsh, but as in all
things theres is a wide range of outcomes, we do not consider our
wines to be low end and lifeless.

Homemade wines here in Pittsburgh vary quite a bit, I have tasted some
gawd awful wines made from grapes, and some good ones too. I'm only
saying I am limited by the quality level of the grape itself, and hot
pressing if done corrctly does not seem to damage our end product. A
well made wine from hot pressed juice tastes better than a poorly made
wine from the same producer.

This year I bought some cab grapes to make alongside the juice and
while it's too early to tell, I am doubtful this will end up better
than the juice did. All that said, if I had access to high quality
grapes I would not hot press them, I would want to control the
extraction myself.

Regards,
Joe






MikeMTM > wrote in message >...
> Joe Sallustio wrote:
>
> > As far as I am concerned the theory that hot pressed reds are inferior
> > products lacking body and character is hogwash.
> <<<snip>>>
> Joe,
>
> I have no experience with hot pressed red juice wines, so I fully accept
> your description of them. Perhaps I unfairly lumped them together with
> red concentrate wines, which I still maintain are inferior to whole
> grape wines. At least the dozen or so I tried over the years were.
>
> Please remember that the sgbrix never said that the juice in question
> was hot pressed, but that the vendor gave some confusing explanation of
> how the juice was processed. That vagueness, together with the vibrant,
> Disneyesque color makes me wonder if the juice were simply cold pressed
> and color added. The taste seems OK to sgbrix, so perhaps the juice is
> everything it should be. The bright colors are still a puzzle, though.
> Do hot pressed reds usually show such vibrant colors ?
>
> I'd like to try a hot pressed red. Are they available in small
> quantities or only in bulk? Maybe I can convince my local supplier to
> stock some. When I was there recently, he was as surprised as hell (and
> annoyed) to learn that the 5 gal pails of "juice" he'd gotten in were
> actually reconstituted from concentrate. He hadn't read the fine print.
>
> Regards, Mike MTM