Wine kits - worth a go?

[i-a-n]

I have to agree.
Wine made purely from grapes, no additives, water, not even yeast is the simplest booze I've ever made.
This was years ago in the UK, grapes were delivered by the lorry load from Italy around the end of September, start of October, and a magical drop of red complete with a slight fizz was on the table with Xmas dinner.

The hardest part was getting the juice stains off the hands.

The drinking was really easy.

As for the kits, I've never done them, but I've sampled a drop or two, very passable.

 

[HBHB]

If you want cheap and nasty, buy a cheap and nasty kit. If you want quality, buy a quality kit. We make 6 or 7 kits a year and love the results.

Minimum worth while kits are about $80-$90. Crand cru and the 10L vintners reserve ones. Once you're up in the $120 range, there's no turning back. The premium kits are exactly that. But don't judge them all by the results of some cheap arse 7.5L kit that costs $40.

Which style were you thinking?

 

[rehabs_for_quitters]

I have just had a bottle of a Brunello kit I did about 2 and a half 3 years back and its coming along nicely, the cheap kits are shite but the more expensive kits make a fairly tasty drop,

 

[r055c0]

If you want cheap and nasty, buy a cheap and nasty kit. If you want quality, buy a quality kit. We make 6 or 7 kits a year and love the results.

Minimum worth while kits are about $80-$90. Crand cru and the 10L vintners reserve ones. Once you're up in the $120 range, there's no turning back. The premium kits are exactly that. But don't judge them all by the results of some cheap arse 7.5L kit that costs $40.

Which style were you thinking?

The missus is a fan of Shiraz & Cab Sav so those are what I'm aiming for. I'm definetly keen to avoid the nasty cheap ones and have no issue spending the cash to get a good one, is there one in particular you'd reccomend?

 

[HBHB]

The missus is a fan of Shiraz & Cab Sav so those are what I'm aiming for. I'm definetly keen to avoid the nasty cheap ones and have no issue spending the cash to get a good one, is there one in particular you'd reccomend?

As a starting point, the Vintners reserve Cab Sav and the Shiraz are both OK kits and certainly the most popular. The Cab Sav is pretty mellow. We do the Wine Expert Selection Cabernet Shiraz blend each year at least once. It's very good.

On your linked page for LC, it's listed about 3 or 4 down from the top in the table. white & black box.

Cheers,
Martin

 

[supertonio]

I made a red wine kit and for some reason it was crap. Didint taste the best and didn't age very well either...

However I have made this a couple of times -

http://forum.craftbrewing.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=454

and it turned out quite nice. A bit like a reasonably priced bottle of white. Tasted good and easy to drink but it still was missing something along the lines of the nice aroma that good white wine has.

Was good fun to make and showed what can be done with some cheap orange and grape juice.

 

[Ironsides]

If you have a decent winery nearby you could arrange to buy a quarter of a barrel or so and follow it from vineyard to bottle. The joint I work for is happy to have people come through and give us a hand during vintage.

 

[dora]

I've been making wine from these kits for quite a while now. Don't buy a cheap kit.Go for the premium kits,14-16 litres. You won't be disappointed. I put away 12 bottles from every kit that I make and my plan is to let them mature 7-10 years. So far I have made approximately 12 kits, all premium reds. All drinkable after 6-8- weeks of bottling.I wouldn't bother buying a bottle of wine from a bottle shop again. These are as good as you can buy for a fraction of the cost-around $6.00 per bottle.

 

[The_Radelaide_Hills]

Sorry to be blunt but bollocks. Making good wine is easy, making good cider is a mystical art requiring Druids steeped in the ancient lore. And the sacrifice of virgins on mid summers, what poncy winemaker ever sacrificed a virgin?

Maybe the trick to a good cider is virgin blood?

 

[fraser_john]

The issue with wine kits, and a lot of home made cider, is that they fail to go through malolactic fermentation, this is critical for converting malic acid to lactic acid and results in a far smoother, less "sour" product. Sour is probably the wrong word, but lactic acid is a more smooth mouthfeel/tasting acid than malic acid. Some of the premium kits may have already had the malic acid converted...... not sure.

If you make cider from kits or bottled juice, buy some malo culture from one of the site sponsors and pitch it toward the end of fermentation.

 

[GalBrew]

The issue with wine kits, and a lot of home made cider, is that they fail to go through malolactic fermentation, this is critical for converting malic acid to lactic acid and results in a far smoother, less "sour" product. Sour is probably the wrong word, but lactic acid is a more smooth mouthfeel/tasting acid than malic acid. Some of the premium kits may have already had the malic acid converted...... not sure.

If you make cider from kits or bottled juice, buy some malo culture from one of the site sponsors and pitch it toward the end of fermentation.

Speaking of MLF, does anyone use a chromatography kit to determine MLF completion? If so where can you get them? I've had little luck finding them in Oz.

 

[TimT]

Allow me to put in a word of recommendation for the simplest of all wines - the sugar-based Country Wines. Don't even need a kit. Their trick is simply dissolving the sugar in water, and usually at some point adding some kind of a garden ingredient - eg, boiling the water and steeping elderflowers in it overnight, or whatever. The results can be surprisingly good, and they're an excellent starter for wine brewers.

 

[Bribie G]

Fruit wines of all sorts can be excellent, I once made prickly pear wine from a stand of cactus growing near Bargara and it turned out like a 12% version of tawny port. In the UK, Dad used to make plum wine, rhubarb wine and elderberry wine, really just for the price of the sugar. Got the Vicar pissed on more than one occasion (back in the days when Vicars would do the rounds).
I was planning to do a huge batch of lychee wine but the Rosellas ate the lot.

 

[Blind Dog]

Elderflower wine was my first ever deliberate home made alcohol, was surprisingly nice for such a simple recipe after a year or so in the bottle.

 

[TimT]

Elderflower wine is beautiful.

Parsnip wine, too, is supposed to be one of the best wines you can make, oddly enough. I haven't tried that yet.