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Thank you for the info. I'm going to contemplate my options for a while, perhaps while sipping my pomegranate zinfandel. Enjoy your raspberry and please give us an update at bottling time.

Couple questions for you. First, are you still liking the elderberry, or do you have the same feeling about it, seven or eight months on, that you have about the raspberry? Second, when you make the Island Mist raspberry, do you make it per the recipe or do you goose it up with sugar and a...

Thank you for sharing your "elderberry in detail" notes. Really useful information -- at least for me, as I contemplate making my first Vintner's Best fruit wine.

Thank you for your very helpful response. Just so I can be sure I understand, are you using Color Pro for wine you are making from grapes, or are you using it with kits?

This is the first time I've ever heard of Opti-Red and Lallzyme -- and Color Pro, for that matter. All new to me. You experienced winemakers, do you taste a real difference with these products? It seems like a simple addition (if you have a gram scale) and pretty cheap, so I'm thinking I'll...

Ten years of winemaking and I've never made a Chardonnay. It's time for that to change. Do any of you good people have a favorite Chard kit to recommend? I've made a lot of FWK reds, but I'm open to other makers too. I'd appreciate any guidance you can give.

Thank you so much for the info.

Did you ever get an answer to this question? There's a thread from 2006 that talks about flying with homemade wine, but I couldn't find anything more recent except your question. I'd love to know about someone's recent experience with bringing homemade wine in checked baggage on a domestic US...

I have experimented with just removing the cork, and it doesn't have the same effect, at least to my taste on these particular wines, as pouring out a glass, thus leaving a bunch of head space, and then letting it sit 24 hours or so. I haven't noticed the same difference in other wines that I...

Just plain. I think it's the air in the bottle that does the work. Taking the cork out but not pouring a glass doesn't seem to have the same effect.

I was sipping my Tavola Cabernet Sauvignon, bottled about a year ago, and luxuriating in its wonderful flavor and complexity. I can't decide if it or the Tavola Bordeaux is my favorite "early drinker." For those of you who have tried these wines and didn't like them, let me make a suggestion...

Here is an update to my post from June of 2022. In December I started two kits of On the House Merlot ($37.50 per kit including shipping). One I made exactly per the included instructions (batch 1), and the other (batch 2) I tweaked -- blackberry fpac, Chaptalized to just under 1.10 S.G...

Is there a reason to use wine conditioner versus sugar, or the other way around? I want to back sweeten my FWK Riesling. I know the WE Riesling kit uses juice, which is more like the way Riesling is made in Germany, but I couldn't figure out how to get an appropriate juice/concentrate, hence...

Perfect. That's what I'll do. Thanks much for your excellent advice.

I'll try a slurry. Thoughts on the easiest, least dusty way to do that?

Is the only purpose of the carbon to keep the white wine from darkening? I used it in their Riesling and didn't mind it, but if I can skip it and only affect the color, I think I might do that. Are there other beneficial effects also, or just color?

My first thought is swap out the kit yeast for something that will enhance your wine. The couple of yeasts I checked that were listed for Tempranillo in MoreWine's yeast pairing don't seem to be available in single-batch packets, but if you can find a specialty yeast that will enhance the fruit...

To revisit my comment about the FWK Riesling, I made it last year, didn't like it much, and put it aside (I don't usually age my Rieslings very long). So now it's been in the bottle a year and I tried it and I quite like it. In fact, I just purchased another kit (on sale) and I think I'm going...

RJS Cru International German-style Riesling is my recommendation for a dry Riesling. I myself prefer halb trocken, and I'm pretty happy with the WineXperts Washington Riesling, although I liked the old process better than the new "improved" version. I didn't care much for the FWK Riesling...

I thought it was hilarious. Well done, Label Peelers. Thanks for the April Fools' Day chuckle.