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Well it has been almost 6 months since I last chimed in. Decided to rack and take a test to see how things were going. First off the oak was a bad idea. Either I put too much or left it in for too long, but it now tastes like IKEA furniture. I do not think I will blend the oaked portion or...

I would imagine that with a mid-range product like World Vineyard (10-12 liter concentrate?) that you should get a much better end product with less concentrate flavor than the 7 liter I used. Please keep us informed!

Well, 2.5 months of ageing and time to check in... I am still mostly smelling cheap kit. Kind of overpowers any other smell. Taste on the other hand is really not bad. At least it has about met my low expectations for taste. Heat has dissipated so I am sensing this may balance out nicely...

I have done both of them in the past and initially the WS was better, but after 2 years the En Primeur overtook it. I wonder with the merge what components of each will be kept?

Welcome aboard!

Such a hard thing to nail down. I am so used to it that half the time I no longer catch it... until I have a bottle of commercially made wine to compare it to. I catch it mostly in the smell, slightly muted in the taste (decanting does help!). Words that come to mind: Synthetic, canned, yeast...

And to clarify, I am only referring to the plastic raspberry KT that I am getting from sweet low end kits. I also get a different KT from kits that is harder to describe, one that diminishes with higher kit quality, longer aging, various oaking, etc; but that is definitely present in all kits...

I think you are on to something there. I thought it was just the sorbate, but I have added sorbate numerous times in the past into white kits I was not going to back sweeten... and there was no KT noticeable. Mixing sorbate and fpack might be on the right track. Then again I have back...

I do not think forgoing ALL the additives is a good idea. Depending on the kit you may still want to use the clarifying agents (especially with whites). I do not use them on reds as I age them enough that they clarify on their own. You will want to add the Kmeta. Leave out sorbate if wine was...

Last night I was stabilizing a couple of cornucopia kits and noticed something interesting. The wine prior to any additions had very little smell to it. When I mixed the Kmeta and sorbate into water I gave it a whiff... And I did catch the raspberry plastic smell slightly... And after adding it...

Racked the port last night into 3x Gallon jugs as I need the carboy free to start another port kit. Took a sampling. My expectations were low to begin with so while I am pleased with the results so far, I am not overwhelmed. Looks are dark crimson and thick (viscous), nose is rich with heavy...

So far I have just been letting it sit in the carboy. In the coming weeks I will be racking it off any sediment and the oak I added. I am omitting any sorbate additions as I believe them to be unnecessary in this case, but will be adding some Kmeta. Then I will be topping up with a...

Costco sells something similar under the Argentia Ridge Chateau brand.

Thanks for following! It is a double kit... 2x 7 liter bags to make 2 batches of 30 bottles. First bag I made normally, this thread is following the second bags evolution into something (hopefully) better.

Last night we were down to 1.012 Racked to carboy. Added 1/2 liter of the remaining 1 liter of concentrate bringing SG to 1.022 Added about 2/3 cup of light toasted oak. Going to let it be for a week or so...

I was considering adding some oak to the carboy tonight when I rack. Considering how much body this experiment has I figure it can deal with a lot of oak, but not sure if that fits the flavor profile... Heavy toast would bring some nice vanilla, while the light toast might have add more...

Still chugging away... slowly! Down to 1.015, giving me a total of 17.08%. If I can get it below 1.01 then I figure we have pretty much maxed out the yeast. Still fizzing a little. Taste is really good, considering it has not been racked or clarified yet. Going to hold off judging that for a...

I started this experiment aiming for this to ferment dry at 18%, and then have exactly enough concentrate to back sweeten to 1.01-1.02. Presently I am just hoping it gets to 18%... and with 1 liter of concentrate left I think I will have some of it left over after sweetening.

Well the yeasties are still trying! Down to 1.022 today. I have still not added any further concentrate... I need to see this get closer to 1.000 before I add any more. Numbers wise things are getting interesting. Based on my original methodology the SG of 1.022 would mean an additional...

Day 7, the addition of the extra yeast and the fermaid has not made a huge difference yet. Still lightly fizzing, and although ferment has slowed, it is at least still ongoing. SG today is 1.030. Still holding back the 1 liter of concentrate I have left. Took a little taste: very sweet, not...