WineXpert Share your Island Mist aging experience

I just started making Island Mist kits about 6 months ago and was wondering at what age they peak. I know what WineXpert says, but would like your personal experience and opinions.

So, if you have made Island Mist kits, please help by answering the following four questions. Please count times from date of pitching yeast.
1. Did you add any sugar? Yes/No ; If yes how much?

2. At what age in Months or Years was it the best in your opinion.

3. What was the oldest Island Mist wine you have drank? Rate it at that point.

4. Have you had any that started to go downhill? Yes/No ; If yes at what age.

My personal experience to date is
1. Yes ; 2 to 4 lbs.
2. 6 months this is the oldest I have and it is still improving.
3. Sorry I haven't tried any older than 6 months.
4. Haven't had any that old.

Thanks Dave

I made my first one recently. It was the blackberry Cabernet. Added two pounds of sugar and its been in the bottle for two months. I hid 4 bottles as these are going down quickly. Family loves them.

Looking forward to others replies as I will be making more of these.

Pear Kiwi the first one we made, added enough sugar to 1.085 started last June we drank a bottle last night and it was just as good as the earlier bottles as best as we can recall. Bumping the sugar increases shelf life. We do that with all the mist type wines.
We have made many of different ones, just guessing at about 12 total. Including Orchard Breezin and Cornicopia (from Amazon)

The Red Ziff Blackberry, we made a 2nd one right away after we drank/gave away a few bottles. because it was our favorite. It is now ready to be bottled. Still waiting to be bottled, Strawberry Merlot, Coconut Frasscoti, Green Apple Frasie.
Our daughter ordered the following and had them shipped to us and they should be here today. Midwest had a buy 2 get one free sale last week so she ordered them. She loves the "mist" type wines. [FONT=&quot]

Blueberry Pinot Noir Kit from Island Mist[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]White Cranberry Pinot Gris Kit from Island Mist[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Exotic Fruits White Zinfandel Kit from Island Mist[/FONT]

Here and waiting to be made Black Cherry Pinot Noir. Stored in the wine cellar where it cooler than the 85 degrees in the house until we have time.
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Sammyk

I think you are in for a treat with the IM White Cranberry. It is my favorite so far. But I think it comes into it's own at about 4 to 6 months with 3 -4 lbs. of sugar added to primary as simple syrup.

Which brand is the Red Ziff Blackberry you liked so well?

I have made the following so far.
IM Black Raspberry now 7 months old and still improving. Pretty good. 4 lbs. sugar.
IM White Cranberry now almost 6 months old and very good. 3 lbs. sugar= OG 1.173
Cornucopia Coconut Frascati just over 4 months too sweet and too strong a coconut flavor. SG after adding full f-pack was 1.026 would only add part of f-pack if made again.
IM blueberry Pinot Nior too new to tell how it will turn out.
IM Peach apricot also too new but pretty strong peach flavor.
Cornucopia Tropical Riesling just bottled.

Maybe we can help each other find new favorites and decide at what age they are best with the added sugar. I am currently guessing about 5 months to something over 12 months.

Dave

Sure I am interested if you find something you really like, do keep me in mind.

It was a Cornucopia for the Red Zif from Amazon. I think the Coconut will be too sweet also so I am going to add some Everclear. Never did this to a mist type kit so it will be an experiment. This is the only one I cannot get the gravity to drop below 1.010 so that may be why it is so sweet in primary.

We have a lot of drinkable wine now so waiting will not be a problem, park of the reason for building a wine cellar.

Fruit flies are a huge problem and so is the heat (we don't run the air-conditioning) so I will hold off from starting anything else. But who knows I may get the bug and get some started and move the to the cellar.

Found 2 1-liter swing top bottles in the bottom of my wine closet. They are (were) just under 2 years old, Citrus Sauvignon Blanc flavor.

Nothing but following the instructions to the letter.

Wine was still fantastic as a sit-around-the-pool drink.

Never going to be considered a "fine" wine, but they do serve their purpose perfectly!

I started making these kits last summer. To date I've made the IM Green Apple Riesling, IM White Cranberry Pinot Gris, the IM Blueberry Pinot Noir, the OB Seville Orange Sangria, and the OB Cranapple Chardonnay. Of these, my favorite has been the Green Apple Riesling which I have made twice, now.

I have added 4 lbs of sugar to the primary in each kit. My primary purpose for making these wines is to have something that I can drink quickly as a "sit around the pool" sipper. Because of this, I don't plan on aging them. In fact, except for the Cranapple Chardonnay which I gave away for Christmas gifts last year, I've been bottling these wines in half gallon jugs rather than 750 ml bottles. So, not much lasts up to six months. However, I do still have one bottle of that Cranapple Chardonnay left from Christmas. I bottled it back last November, so it's been sitting in the back of my closet for a little over six months. I was thinking I would open it around Thanksgiving after it had been in the bottle for a year. In fact, I'm planning to repeat that gift this year, so will be bottling a second batch again in November. I think I'll plan to do a side-by-side comparison with the newly bottled and the year old. That would be very interesting.

I've only been at this for just over a year, but the girls and I got together to make out summer sipper wines in a co-op. So far we've done:
IM Peach Apricot x2
IM Green Apple Riesling
IM Strawberry White Merlot
IM Blackberry Cabernet
IM Cranberry Malbec
OB Blood Orange
OB Apple Pomegranate

Thus far the oldest any has made it is 9 months (the first peach apricot) and it was liquid gold. It's really hard to keep these in the house - they keep sneaking off...

we've done the blueberry pinot noir and and pommegranate zin. both turned out great, 2# sugar added and 1+ years age on them, i have the green apple kit staring at me ready to go just haven't had free time to do it... maybe tonight.

I recently made my first IM, the Blueberry Pinot Noir. I added 2 lbs of sugar. I wonder, though if the blueberry FP was made from real blueberry. It was clear so I am thinking that it was artificial flavoring. I like it but, I am just wondering if it would be better just to buy a cheap Vino Italiano (or similar) kit off Amazon and then add your own FP using (or making) concentrated fruit juices. There would not be any need to add additional sugar. Anybody ever try that?

I'm in the middle of the coastal white challenge with a group of people on here, it's the cheap white kit that midwest offers at 2 for 1 special alot using strawberry for flavoring. I fermented mine to dry and am planning on using a strawberry f-pak but i have no idea how it tastes yet. in reality there isn't much difference in price. a cheap amazon kit runs $40+whatever you use for the f-pak and the IM is usually $60. it's going to run you the same amount either way. Wifes favorite is the pom-zin.

Can someone explain or describe the flavor of these IM kits? Is it more like a fruity, sweet wine or a wine cooler? How much does it actually resemble the specific varietal?

I have never done an IM type kit and in my head I keep thinking they will just be too sweet and no one will drink it.

-Josh

It is sweet unless you add sugar up front which increases the alcohol and cuts back on the sweetness. Some only add a portion of the fpak at the end.. They taste just like the fruit in the name, green apples tastes like green apple, coconut tastes like coconut, and so on and so forth. I have not found anyone who did not like them!

Thanks Sammyk. Sounds like I should focus more on what fruit I like rather than the grape when selecting one.

-Josh

LoneTreeFarms said:

I'm in the middle of the coastal white challenge with a group of people on here, it's the cheap white kit that midwest offers at 2 for 1 special alot using strawberry for flavoring. I fermented mine to dry and am planning on using a strawberry f-pak but i have no idea how it tastes yet. in reality there isn't much difference in price. a cheap amazon kit runs $40+whatever you use for the f-pak and the IM is usually $60. it's going to run you the same amount either way. Wifes favorite is the pom-zin.

Click to expand...

The Coastal White Competition looks like it was exactly what I was suggesting. Cost is one thing (the IM is $70 at my LHBS), but having a wine made with real fruit is more important IMHO. Just not sure what is in the WE (or other mfgrs) FP. Good luck with the challenge. Just visited the thread and it looks like fun.

Island mist kits

THE first thing to remember is that the mfg. has these kits ready to go they are not meant for aging, this really doesn't improve them, you make them and if you can hold on to them for a few weeks drink them, that's there intent.

TO BALANCE THE KIT, start off with a SG. OF 1.010.this will balance out the super flavorful FPAC,they, can with stand the extra dryness ,when the FPAC is added you know longer have a sweet juice drink what you end up with is a wine with great flavor., and the women love them that was the direction the market aimed for and got it.just my thought's..................

Last summer I made 2 kits of the IM strawberry white merlot. I have a few bottles left. My daughter just opened one couple of days ago and she said it tasted better than last year. Going to bottle my peach apricot chardonnay tomorrow. I added 3 1/2 pounds of sugar plus about 1/3 of the f-pac up front. The samples taste really good so far. Bakervinyard

I think Joe is spot on. While not an IM kit I just racked off an OB Watermelon White Merlot. I had jacked the SG up to 1.088 and IMO, that was a good move. The "Finishing Blend" as RJS calls it is very sweet and I think this has balanced it out quite well. At least my wife is in love with the early taste. Going into bottles this weekend most probably...

Joes wine- my experience is different

Joeswine, have you tried any of the IM kits when they were 6 months old or older?
If so, did you add sugar or make per the instructions?

I know the manufacturers say these mist style kits do not require any aging.
But my experience with adding 2 to 4 pounds of sugar to the primary has been that all the mist kits I have made were MUCH better at 5 or 6 months than they were at 1 or 2 months. I realize that you can drink them right away. But, I am trying to discern at what age they are at their best. I also realize that our tastes may be somewhat different.

I've been keeping tasting notes on each kit I have made at 2 months, 4 months and 6 months after pitching the yeast. I will also do this at 1 year and 2 years just for my own information.
I fear we are doing new winemakers a disservice by telling them to drink these kits right away. If they don't keep some back to try at 6 months they will never know how good they can be. I know at 2 months I was very disappointed and at 4 months I was very happy. At 6 months I was elated.

As I stated, I usually add around 3 pounds of sugar to my kits. My starting SG is usually 1.073 to 1.080. Also, my taste and yours may vary.
If you make them strictly per the instructions and do not add sugar to the primary your results may also be different than mine.

Hopefully, by sharing our experiences and results we can all enjoy our wines even more.

Dave

One of my first kits I made was the Blackberry Cabernet in December of 2010. Being one of my first kits I did not add any additional sugar, I followed the instructions exactly (mistake). The flavor was okay at bottling, but was a little watery tasting. I found at around 1 year it peaked, with the watery flavor greatly reduced. I still have a few left but did notice a degradation of the flavor starting at about 18 months.