KSmith3011
Senior Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2010
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I started making Amazon Paklab kits 18 months ago,bottom line, because the price was right. Out of the 40 cases I made last year, about 2/3 was Paklab. The other wines were upscale kits, frozen grapes, and wild Concord. I have been tweaking the Paklab kits to try and make a passable table wine.
Since bottling I would open a bottle every few months just to get a taste. They always had the same problem, kit taste. That Jolly Rancher, sickly sweet aftertaste. I kept reminding myself what I learned here, to let it age two years to get a better sense of what it can become. After 18 months, my wines have turned the corner. We tried a number of bottles this weekend, and all of them were excellent. The kit taste is vanished and each variety of grape seems to stand out. The purpose of this post is to remind new wine makers, be patient. Make it part of your plan to age the wine 18- 30 months. Also, I am sold on Paklab kits. The early kits I made I did not tweak at all. I followed the directions closely and today it became a real winner in my book.
Since bottling I would open a bottle every few months just to get a taste. They always had the same problem, kit taste. That Jolly Rancher, sickly sweet aftertaste. I kept reminding myself what I learned here, to let it age two years to get a better sense of what it can become. After 18 months, my wines have turned the corner. We tried a number of bottles this weekend, and all of them were excellent. The kit taste is vanished and each variety of grape seems to stand out. The purpose of this post is to remind new wine makers, be patient. Make it part of your plan to age the wine 18- 30 months. Also, I am sold on Paklab kits. The early kits I made I did not tweak at all. I followed the directions closely and today it became a real winner in my book.
