tested three different Riesling kits

Once again my wife and I went to friends of ours that ended up being a Wine and Beer tasting event..lol
I was very curious to test the difference between the following Riesling kits that my good friend had made following the directions to the letter, all of these kits had been aged 6 months:

• Winexpert Eclipse Washington Columbia Valley Riesling
• Vintners Reserve Riesling
• Washington Riesling (World Vineyard)

The first thing that we tested for was the color:

The Eclipse Kit was crystal clear, very inviting, The World Vineyard was a bit more golden in color, followed by the Vinters Harvest, which was a more pronounced golden color.

The next thing we checked was the aroma.

Believe it or not, the Eclipse kit had no wine or fruit aroma at all, it almost smelled like a cardboard box as the ladies put it, the Vinters Reserve had a pronounced fruit forward aroma, very inviting, it made you want to taste it, while the World Vineyard had a nice aroma, not as pronounced as the Vintners Reserve, but better than the Eclipse kit.

The last thing we tested was the actual taste:
The Eclipse was great, very smooth, good balance, not too acidic, it was crisp and refreshing.

The Vinters Reserve was still green, it was very much "hot", and needed to be aged at least another 6 months to a year.
Any further assessments of this wine would be unfair to it due to it needing more time to age.

The World Vineyard was much more acidic, not as balanced or rounded as the Eclipse kit, a much more dry wine, no sweetness or smoothness to it.
I feel that it would greatly benefit from a gentle back sweetening to off set the acidity.

All in all, the Eclipse kits was worth the cost, except for the lack of aroma,

Nice review! I'll keep this in mind when battling between the less expensive kit and a Eclipse. I always give in to my cheap side and need to get over that.

Tom, do you think that since the kits were only aged 6 months that maybe the aroma in the Eclipse would come thru at a later time?

great review Tom.

I wonder the same as Julie and also wonder if the lower-end kit would benefit from joe's style using raisins

Julie,
I hope so, but we all were a bit surprised to find a lack of aroma. To be very honest, I was expecting to taste a very bland, flat wine due to that lack of aroma, thank God it was a superior wine in all other aspects.

The only Riesling I made so far is the Eclipse. Your review is spot on. This is a great example of a Washington State Riesling. The balance and acidity is perfect. The stone fruit comes through nicely. The only negative is the aroma but is made up by the taste.

Thanks for adding to this! I agree 100% the only negetive was the lack of aroma.
It appears that the lack of aroma is common in this particular wine.
At least others will know what they are getting when they purchase this kit.

Thanks again!

I have the RJ Spagnols EP Riesling Gewertztramminer (<--- lol nice spelling) in the carboy doing the secondary fermenting thing... i'll let you guys know my thoughts in say.. 7 months. Thanks for the review tom.

Very cool! The more reviews the better!

Would you guys make the RJS Eclipse Riesling again?

The wine was really great in almost every way, but was it worth $100.00 more than the Vinters Reserve....hmmmmm.... I'd like to taste the Vinters Reserve in another 6 months, I think that it will be great.

I am making my first Riesling next week. It is a Grand Cru kit. I was hesitant to tweak it. I would like your opinion on raisins though. What is Joeswine practice with raisons. I do know he does it after primary.

olusteebus said:

I am making my first Riesling next week. It is a Grand Cru kit. I was hesitant to tweak it. I would like your opinion on raisins though. What is Joeswine practice with raisons. I do know he does it after primary.

Click to expand...

I can't speak for the Riesling, but I just finished Joes raisin tweak on a WE Mezza Luna White. I'll be bottling this weekend.
I can tell you it really helped give it some body and nice, buttery mouhfeel. It's still very young, but I think it will very drinkable and much softer than without it.

Tom - Great review. Thanks for doing this and posting the results. My wife has asked me to make a Riesling & after reading this I'm going to do the Eclipse kit. Just one question .... It looks like the kit has an F-pack. Would you do anything different with the F-pack if you made it again? (i.e. put only half in, or put half in the primary and the rest later?)

Nah, I'd add it, I think it'll be great! The Eclipse kits are supposed to be at the top of the best, let us know how it comes out!!

Great, Thanks. I'll let you know

Dave

Thanks for taking the time to post your review... especially since I just make wine from kits.

I think that WE Eclipse kit is going for around $105 plus shipping.

Geek - I'm looking at $116 plus shipping on "Southern Homebrew and Wine Supplies". Do you know a cheaper site? I usually get my WE kits there.

I apologize, yes i see around $116 also on the place i buy from, plus shipping.
I got my numbers mixed up with another kit I was looking at.