[bzac]

The ones I used to get from mosti said vinifera raisins on the bag. They were very large berries double the size of your regular sunmaids and they were red with thick skins. They had white ones too but I never bought any.

ABC Cork also sells bags of south african vinifera winemaking raisins , they are a canadian distributer so any of their retailers can get them. They have a presence in the US too.

thompson seedless are as you say not the best ,

If you can't find winemaking raisins , then I'd reccomend the zante currants over thompsons , Zante Currants are not actualy a currant but a vinifera grape call black corinth. you can sometimes find these grapes fresh in the produce section , sometimes called champagne grapes , you can reccognise them because the berrys are black and very tiny in tight clusters.

I would want to minimise any stems , others may want them . to each their own, if the stems were nice ripe and brown when harvested it could potentialy give some nice character .

My prefered addition is not raisins as they by nature are oxidised , as is any dried fruit . But they are still a worthwhile tweak.

If in season you buy a lug (36 lbs) of red wine grapes , you can hand stemm them fairly easily and add them to a 5 lb ziplock bags crush them and put them in the freezer. then when you make a kit add 1 or 2 of the five pound bags to the must .
let them thaw over night in the must and pitch the yeast the next day.

you get nice aromatics and the concentrate flavours are minimised . this is my favorite red kit tweak , it realy brings out the flavours adds some tannins and gives the wine a much more commercial wine charateristic. one or two bags of grapes won't throw the kit all out of balance in my expireince . don't worry about matching the variety exactly with the kit , a small amount like this won't mask the kit. a medium wieght grape like merlot is a good choice, but any ripe red wine grape will do. if useing cab sauv make sure its ripe or it can taste a bit green.
here's a thread on adding grapes I did on the other forum
http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=19356&hl=bodega%20port%20gold& st=0
its a port kit but the grape part is the same for any kit.

[grapeman]

Great tips on the raisins. I also like the destemming a lug of them and freezing for later use in kits. Nice touch.

[phat]

Originally Posted by grapeman

Great tips on the raisins. I also like the destemming a lug of them and freezing for later use in kits. Nice touch.

My biggest problem up here is finding any kind of source for fresh grapes. Edmonton's a bit far north and far away from any areas that produce anything like this..

We do get of course the usual red and green eating grapes, and even on occasion a small black eating grape. Finding the likes of zante currents or the like is more of a challenge. That and fresh fruit up here can be pretty expensive out of season.

I do like the idea of cheap kits as a concentrate/sugar to supplement a fruit recepie. However, in this case I am considering tweaking a complete un-concentrated kit (these kits come as a complete pail of "juice" - I suspect itself may be reconstituted with sugar, but it's not clear from the label)

I've not yet decided.......... Funny nobody seems to be suggesting the Sauv. Blanc from the poll

[altavino]

Any where that has Italians or a little italy will have someone selling grapes in season.

http://www.italiancentre.ca/winemaking.html

Even edmonton.

[Tyroneshoolace]

I was thinking about taking a cellar Craft Showcase kit with the big grape pack and let it "cold soak" in the must before fermenting for a few days.

Anyone see any real benefit to this or would I be wasting fermenter time?

[spiggots]

Wondering, has anyone successfully employed barrels in their kit tweaking regime w/out the added expense of the ph meters and vinmetricas I read about ?

[ibglowin]

It would not be very smart to drop $$ on a barrel but not spend the extra $$ on testing equipment to properly check your SO2 levels. These small barrels drop SO2 levels down to almost nothing in 3 months so when you pull your wine out you really have to know how much you still have and how much you need to add to protect it properly. How much you need is based solely on the wines pH and its current SO2 level.

[Trackinghound]

Question on Step #3

I just added the clearing agent ( I can't think of the name at the moment) the sediments are filling up the carboy niceLy. I am going to rack it after it sets 3 weeks. Is this where I add the kmeta and I plan on long term storage in the carboy min 6 months. Adding kmeta again in 3 months. It's a red blend

Keep in mind this is my first 6 gallons...... Ever

[ibglowin]

Kmeta is the first step after you have racked off the gross lees (normally). I would get it added ASAP so it will protect your wine. You will stir up the fines that have settled but they will fall back to the bottom quickly. If you plan on bulk aging add 1/8 tsp every 4 months. Make sure the carboy is topped up or you have racked down to a smaller carboy.

[FRANKC]

I have 18 gallons of Brunello currently in MLF. I decided to buy a 40L Vadai barrel. After a lot of reading, I decided it would be best to break the barrel in a bit before putting the Brunello in. I want a significant amount of barrel time (at least 3-4 months) for it. I also have two Cellar Craft Showcase Argentinean Malbec kits with grape skin packs that I was going to start the break in with. I've read your posts re the Chardonnay barrel ferments for the first fill of the barrel. How do you feel about using the Malbec instead?