WineXpert First kit Vinters Reserve

I finally ordered my first wine kit, after making a few 100 bottles of fruitwine and a few gallons of Catawba wine. Can't wait to see how it is.
It's the WE Vinters Reserve Merlot. Any advice other than taking more time than the kit instructions say?

for the first wine kits just follow instructions, get some confidence then start tweaking.

What salcoco just wrote above but I would add that in my experience the lower end kits benefit more from tweaking than the higher end kits.

bkisel said:

What salcoco just wrote above but I would add that in my experience the lower end kits benefit more from tweaking than the higher end kits.

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That makes sense to me. Cost of importing high end kits is just too high. Almost 1.5 times the price of the kit if it's on special.

Tweaks I would do are:

1) Skip the Bentonite and other clearing stuff
2) 1 heaping tablespoon of Wine Tannin into the Primary
3) 1 Pound of raisins, chopped up a little (grape skin effect) into the Primary
4) Skip the Sorbate
5) Let it bulk age 9 months, racking every so often
6) Get some oak chips, cubes, spirals for use during aging

Well, you have the process down if you've made several hundred bottles of fruit wine. My advice would be to mostly follow the kit instructions, but you may want to add tannins, skip sorbate if a dry wine, and skip the clarifiers if you give the wine the time to clear on it's own.

Good luck!

RevA said:

That makes sense to me. Cost of importing high end kits is just too high. Almost 1.5 times the price of the kit if it's on special.

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I think we take it for granted how inexpensive our kits are here in the States. I made a VR International Pinot Grigio and people didn't notice a big drop off from my Chilean Juice bucket from last Spring. Only tweak I did was to bring the pH down a bit to give it a bit more bite.

The VR Diablo Rojo I have bottle aging has really nice mouth feel, I did add some "used" grape skins from another batch and a bit of tannin in the beginning, but overall it is a really nice wine for the price. I think it may just need to age another 6 to 12 months (because of the tannins I added, a little sour flavor note).

Good luck and have fun!

Thank you! Will follow the advice.

Maybe you can get fresh juice from South Africa.

richmke said:

Maybe you can get fresh juice from South Africa.

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How does one convince a vineyard to sell either frozen or fresh juice?

RevA said:

How does one convince a vineyard to sell either frozen or fresh juice?

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Ask. Make friends with them.

richmke said:

Ask. Make friends with them.

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I really have to move South! The Northern part of the country is very nice and warm, but grapes don't do too well here.

Cheaper wine kits are fun to play with and can be very creative, the process for kits are very clear for a reason, never skip a step unless you are that good at making corrections after the fact. In the primary bentonite aifx in preclearring but assist fermentation. Kit manufacturer no their products, I can tweak a wine silly but never omit the bentonite process in the primary.just my opinion have you looked at the cheap wine kit thread?

Don't use raisins unless you like raisin flavored wine. This is why you should start tweaking slowly, so you know what the end result will be. With the first kit, simply add longer times to the steps. Tweak the next one with extra tannins, the next skip the clearing stuff, the next...let your imagination run. If you do everything at first, you will never know what imparted the qualities you wanted.

joeswine said:

Cheaper wine kits are fun to play with and can be very creative, the process for kits are very clear for a reason, never skip a step unless you are that good at making corrections after the fact. In the primary bentonite aifx in preclearring but assist fermentation. Kit manufacturer no their products, I can tweak a wine silly but never omit the bentonite process in the primary.just my opinion have you looked at the cheap wine kit thread?

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I have thanks, and will try a few of the options.