Cellar Craft Need a Pinot Noir kit

We need to make a Pinot Noir wine kit. Looking at Presque Isle's site they have a Cellar Classic one for $100, & a Eclipse Ultra Premium for $150. For 50% more $$, do you think the wine will be that much better? I've done C C kits, never a Eclipse one. Thanks Roy. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I have not tried either, but ...

In general, the more juice, the better the kit. I believe the CC is a 15L kit, and the Eclipse is 18L. Also, the Eclipse is the top of the line for WE, whereas En Premier is the top of the line for RJS.

Not that I am a wine snob, but my preference is to make the highest line I can find. I figure if I am going to invest 1 year into making 30 bottles of wine, the extra $2/bottle is no big deal. I did make the LE Pinot Noir (March 2014), and I will be sharing it today with the family (first time trying it).

FTC Wines said:

We need to make a Pinot Noir wine kit. Looking at Presque Isle's site they have a Cellar Classic one for $100, & a Eclipse Ultra Premium for $150. For 50% more $$, do you think the wine will be that much better? I've done C C kits, never a Eclipse one. Thanks Roy. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Personally I would go with the Eclipse kit. Check out the price on LabelPeelers.com Add it to your cart to see the real price. Once you see the real price your decision will be a no brainer.

Agree with the Eclipse. I haven't made the Pinot, but have been very pleased with every Eclipse kit I've made.

Label Peelers has a great price on it too. Do what @jumby said.

Thanks all. Probably will go with the Eclipse Kit. Will check Label Peelers site. Now racking 10 gals of Cab that's been fermenting for 13 days, it's now at SG 1.001. Roy

I'm kinda in the same boat - I'd really like to add a Pinot to my cellar, but I am a little picky about them. I favor the Willamette over the Sonoma, though. It's just a bit more of a graceful wine (if one can have more grace than another).

Does anyone have tasting notes to share on the Eclipse?

Pino noir

It all depends on your pocket ,have the funds go for a high end kit ,not so much intermediate kit in the low hundreds, want to play and make a good pino for every day ,then lean toward a moderate priced kit like vintner reserve and make it a decent wine with the thought you had something too do with its out come and you made the difference, just a thought.

jgmann67 said:

I'm kinda in the same boat - I'd really like to add a Pinot to my cellar, but I am a little picky about them. I favor the Willamette over the Sonoma, though. It's just a bit more of a graceful wine (if one can have more grace than another).

Does anyone have tasting notes to share on the Eclipse?

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We've made three different WE pinot kits. Selection, Eclipse, and LE Oregon. The Eclipse has the most flavor of the three, the LE is quite a bit thinner, but has a profile that better matches most commercial pinots. The Selection was lacking overall. The Eclipse is currently your best option from WE, since the LE is long gone, but I don't know that we'll make any of them again. Still waiting on results from our RJ's WS and EP pinots, both of which are still bulk aging.

Brian55 said:

We've made three different WE pinot kits. Selection, Eclipse, and LE Oregon. The Eclipse has the most flavor of the three, the LE is quite a bit thinner, but has a profile that better matches most commercial pinots. The Selection was lacking overall. The Eclipse is currently your best option from WE, since the LE is long gone, but I don't know that we'll make any of them again. Still waiting on results from our RJ's WS and EP pinots, both of which are still bulk aging.

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Thank you!

My wife and I started an experiment about two years ago where we made a VR, Select and Eclipse Pinot kit all at the same time using the same instructions to see which kit would taste the best. Here is a link to the post http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48122 The next office Christmas party is in two weeks. I'll update the thread with this year's taste test results after the party.

I did order the Eclipise Pinot Noir kit. Ordered it from Label Peelers, thanks for the recommendation, great price at check out & even got a free T shirt! Not sure why the quote high prices then the price is almost 20% less at check out. I very excited to do this kit. Roy

FTC Wines said:

Not sure why the quote high prices then the price is almost 20% less at check out. Roy

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Careful now, you might start a war with statements like that!

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=585742&postcount=35

Search the forum for "MAP" and you will see...

jsiddall said:

Careful now, you might start a war with statements like that!

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=585742&postcount=35

Search the forum for "MAP" and you will see...

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Don't get me started!

Not trying to start anything. I was just surprised that the price quoted became Like 20% less at checkout. Just not sure why they wouldn't quote the lower price on the the first page U see when your first looking at the product. I would think more people would buy that way. Roy

MAP is a price fixing scheme adopted by WE's American distributor that prevents stores from advertising the lower price, which is why you don't see the lower price until you put it in your cart. Just be aware it is a polarizing topic here.

Ok, thanks, got it! But still don't understand it! Roy

Here is how I understand it. They cannot advertise a price below $x for the product. That is what you see on the web page. However, once you put it in your cart, it becomes a private transaction and they can charge whatever they want.

There is some information from the manufacturer in this thread:

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=585742#post585742

I think the idea is to help keep the LHBS competitive

FTC Wines said:

Ok, thanks, got it! But still don't understand it! Roy

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Manufacturer's are free to control ADVERTISING of their product. If you are a store and want to buy their product at wholesale prices, you have to agree to their terms.

However, a manufacturer cannot control pricing. That is illegal Price Fixing.

For a website, the fine line is: On the product page, the retailer can display the MSRP (the product page is an Advertisement the manufacturer can control). When you are actually purchasing the product (it is in your "cart"), the manufacture can no longer control the price between you and the store.

It's still surprising to me that aside from the place that cannot be mentioned, there is only one place I know of that is NOT charging MAP.