WineXpert Vintners Reserve vs. Selections Series

Now that it has been in the bottle a couple of months I am quite impressed with the VR Sav Blanc I made. I will need to get another white going pretty soon since I gave away a lot of this batch to friends. I was curious if anyone has comments on the VR sreies vs. Selection series. Is there a big difference? My LHBS has the VR kits for $70-80 and the selection are about $110. The VR is surprisingly drinkable. Is this the same for other white kits? I imagine there might be more of difference in quality in the red kits, maybe? I was thinking I might buy the VR series for the whites and save my money to buy higher-end red kits. any thoughts?

I haven't ever tried a VR line of kits, but I imagine you would see a greater different between the VR and Selection Red's more than the White's. Particularly the Red's that are supposed to be heavy. Even with the White's, though, I would expect the Selection line to be better overall if you let it develop long enough.

I assume the VR kits are 10 L or 12 L in size. The Selection line of kits will be 16 L, so you're getting more varietal juice in that kit than the VR line.

But if you're happy with what you've got, that's all that matters.

My experience is that, in general, kits with more juice are better. The VR line is a 10 liter format and the Selection line is 15 liters (assuming you are talking about the Selection "Original" or "International" series and not the "Estate" series which is 16 liters) so I would expect it to be better. Another thing I have learned is that white kits are generally better than reds as far as quality is concerned. What I am cautioning is that you should not necessarily expect a 10 liter red kit to be good because a 10 liter white kit was. With these two pieces of information, I would recommend the 15 liter kit for a red. One more piece of information. My first kit was a 10 liter VR Sangiovese and I found it very thin and lacking in great flavor. Good luck.

Tim VanderBilt of Winemaker magazine wrote something like - The extra money you spend on a better kit will show up in the bottle.

I have always found that to be true.

robie said:

Tim VanderBilt of Winemaker magazine wrote something like - The extra money you spend on a better kit will show up in the bottle.

I have always found that to be true.

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Words of wisdom here! To "coin" phrase, you get "for that which you paid" and note that I did not end the sentence with a preposition.

I agree, you get what you pay for. I tried a $45.00 Vino Italiano Chardonnay kit from Amazon for kicks. I'm only about 2 months into it but I have to say it's pretty bad at this point. I'm hoping time will help.. But in comparison to some of the premium kits I have sampled at the same stage there's no comparison. On a brighter note I just took delivery of a 5.25 G pail of frozen Brehm Vineyards Chardonnay juice today. I'm looking forward to starting this one!

Rocky said:

Words of wisdom here! To "coin" phrase, you get "for that which you paid" and note that I did not end the sentence with a preposition.

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Good job you did your post on! Everyone knows you are never to end a sentence a preposition with.

You always get for that which you paid!!!
Or, you always get which you paid that for. (Oh, I like that one!!)

Fun to end my work week with a nice laugh. Have a great weekend, everybody! Back on-the-air Monday.

fishonline said:

I agree, you get what you pay for. I tried a $45.00 Vino Italiano Chardonnay kit from Amazon for kicks. I'm only about 2 months into it but I have to say it's pretty bad at this point. I'm hoping time will help.. But in comparison to some of the premium kits I have sampled at the same stage there's no comparison. On a brighter note I just took delivery of a 5.25 G pail of frozen Brehm Vineyards Chardonnay juice today. I'm looking forward to starting this one!

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You have no idea how jealous I am!!! I want so badly to make a really great Chardonnay someday soon. I feel that to get what I really want, I will need fresh or frozen Chardonnay, so I can also do an mlf.

Someday soon, I promise (myself)!!!!!!

Well...after the words of advice I decided to go for the selection Luna Bianca vs. the VR Mezza Luna. Got her all mixed up and she's off and cooking. Maybe one day I will make the Mezza so I can compare and see if there is a $30 per kit difference. Seeing how that works out to be $1 per bottle less I guess I know who the real winner is...ME

robie said:

Tim VanderBilt of Winemaker magazine wrote something like - The extra money you spend on a better kit will show up in the bottle.

I have always found that to be true.

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That would be Tim Vandergrift. Sorry.

wineh said:

That would be Tim Vandergrift. Sorry.

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It probably would not be a bad thing to be Tim Vanderbilt!

Rocky said:

Words of wisdom here! To "coin" phrase, you get "for that which you paid" and note that I did not end the sentence with a preposition.

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Ya know, those of us who are from Minnesota know that you HAVE to end every sentence with the preposition there!

I always liked Winston Churchilll"s response to a person who had corrected him for ending a sentence with a preposition. He said, "This is the kind of nonsense up with which I shall not put!"

Rocky said:

I always liked Winston Churchilll"s response to a person who had corrected him for ending a sentence with a preposition. He said, "This is the kind of nonsense up with which I shall not put!"

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Very good, Rocky!!!

Sorry for mis-stating your name, Tim

wineh said:

That would be Tim Vandergrift. Sorry.

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Since Tim is in the business of developing and selling wine kits, I wouldn't expect him to say the cheaper kis are just as good. I usually make the Selection series but have made a few Vintners Reserve that turned out very good, Merlot is one that was excellent.

bstnh1 said:

Since Tim is in the business of developing and selling wine kits, I wouldn't expect him to say the cheaper kis are just as good. I usually make the Selection series but have made a few Vintners Reserve that turned out very good, Merlot is one that was excellent.

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Man, you had to be digging around in the boneyard to find this one. While I did not enter the conversation about good and better, and only provided the correct spelling of Tim's last name, I agree with those other commenters that "you get what you pay for". Yes, less expensive kits make good wine, and some even medal at the International Amateur Winemakers' contest. I'm sure your Merlot was very good, but I'm also sure that my Eclipse Napa Valley Stag's Leap District Merlot is even better. Try them side by side sometime.

BTW, Tim hasn't worked for WinExpert since it was purchased by Global Vintners. You can still find his blog at https://winemakermag.com/

wineh said:

Man, you had to be digging around in the boneyard to find this one. While I did not enter the conversation about good and better, and only provided the correct spelling of Tim's last name, I agree with those other commenters that "you get what you pay for". Yes, less expensive kits make good wine, and some even medal at the International Amateur Winemakers' contest. I'm sure your Merlot was very good, but I'm also sure that my Eclipse Napa Valley Stag's Leap District Merlot is even better. Try them side by side sometime.

BTW, Tim hasn't worked for WinExpert since it was purchased by Global Vintners. You can still find his blog at https://winemakermag.com/

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I was wondering if any of the 2012ers would answer, @wineh was the only name I recognized in the posts. I agree with your assessment, both then and now, spot on, you get what you pay for, but you can get some pretty good stuff that's well priced.

wineh said:

BTW, Tim hasn't worked for WinExpert since it was purchased by Global Vintners. You can still find his blog at https://winemakermag.com/

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I believe he's starting his own wine kit company in California.

hobbyiswine said:

Now that it has been in the bottle a couple of months I am quite impressed with the VR Sav Blanc I made. I will need to get another white going pretty soon since I gave away a lot of this batch to friends. I was curious if anyone has comments on the VR sreies vs. Selection series. Is there a big difference? My LHBS has the VR kits for $70-80 and the selection are about $110. The VR is surprisingly drinkable. Is this the same for other white kits? I imagine there might be more of difference in quality in the red kits, maybe? I was thinking I might buy the VR series for the whites and save my money to buy higher-end red kits. any thoughts?

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Let me throw in my two cents worth. I've made about 25 kits, all but one from Winexpert. I've made both reds and whites from the Selection series and the Vintners Reserve series. I don't drink any wine other than the low alcohol Island Mist, but my entire family and relatives drink it daily. For the most part, they seem to like the California wines better than the international ones and the VR series seem to be more of favorite than the Selection series with two exceptions - the Italian Pinot Grigio and the French Cabernet Sauvignon. Those two were outstanding according to most of the clan!