Peanuts!!!

[whino-wino]

Got 3 big boxes full from George today!!

Oh, and these were in there too (except the pink and black glove of course):

 

[Goodfella]

Ohhhh my goodness.......


Um Um Um...... Speachless!!! haha


Go to town.... C'mon..... get some bubblin going on!!!

 

[whino-wino]

They're half frozen (it's been hovering between 0° and -15° here lately) so the bubbling will need to wait a few days. The plan is to get one going on Friday. Another problem I have besides the kits being half frozen is that everyone in my household has been playing musical flu for the past week and a half. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it runs its course this week.

I do have a question if someone can chime in. I'm thinking of "tweaking" one of them by adding a pound of raisins during the primary fermentation. Has anyone tried this with any of these three kits and how did it turn out?

In case you can't make them out in the picture, the kits are as follows:

Mosti All Juice Malbec
Rienissance "Old Vines" Zinfandel
Mosti Masters Edition Carmenere Mondiale

Two of my favorites and one I have not tried before! (that would be the Carmenere)

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Goodfella]

I like the idea of adding extra body.... But my concern is that the quality of grapes used for raisins wont be near the quality of the wine grapes in these kits. IMO.... But the flip side of the coin says... We have all had great results adding raisins to fruit wines, ect ect.


How about adding a grape skin pack instead. (George sells them)

 

[Wade E]

I agree with Goodfella here. If I were to play with any of them Id probably play with the Ren. Zin. I would not do anything except possibly add more or less oak with the Masters according to your oak preference but I cant recall anyone ever saying that kit had too much oa after they have made it, I have seen many people before they put it in ask if all the oak supplied should go in as it seemed a lot but they were very happy with it afterwards and many actually added more during bulk aging afterwards. I dot think Id play much with a Malbec as they are just supposed to be nice and smooth.

 

[whino-wino]

I'll definitely leave the Masters kit alone. I was actually thinking of trying this on the Malbec. There's a store in town that sells all "organic" stuff and they have some raisins in their store that caught my eye. Not sure what kind of grapes they are made from but these things are HUGE. Most of them are bigger around than a nickel. They're certainly not your average "supermarket" raisins. Perhaps I'll get some and try them with a fruit wine first and see how it reacts.

Thanks for the input!

 

[grapeman]

Those are probably Muscat raisins made from muscat grapes. They would most certainly impart a different flavor than you expect. I would not add them to most wines, but that is me. Buy a few if you like or ask to sample a couple raisins if they will allow it, then make a decision if to use them or not.