WineXpert Age of kits

[Just-a-Guy]

Hi Kit People,

After about 10 batches of fruit wines (and my wife hinting that she doesn't love fruit wines after all), I was thinking of trying a kit for something like a syrah or cab. Went to the LHBS (which is half wine, half beer). They had maybe 20 Winexpert kits, and all but one of them had numbers ending in 13. If I'm reading it correctly, this means these kits are from 2013. They seemed to be from various times in 2013, but I didn't take notes or pictures. I didn't buy a kit because I was wary of the dates.

Two questions:

1. Should I avoid these kits? Even the Winexpert site appears to suggest I should.
2. When you order a kit online (say, from Morewines), how can you be sure it will be a good date?

TIA!

JAG

 

[Putterrr]

Did you check this out for the code breakdown?

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f84/main-link-date-code-3338/

Edit: I'm just about to start an RJS EP kit with a date of Sept 2013. I'm not worried about the date at all. It will be fine.

cheers

 

[Just-a-Guy]

Did you check this out for the code breakdown?

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f84/main-link-date-code-3338/

Edit: I'm just about to start an RJS EP kit with a date of Sept 2013. I'm not worried about the date at all. It will be fine.

cheers

I did see that, but I have to confess I found it confusing. And it seems the codes have changed? I'll have to go back and look and maybe take a pic, but all of these had two sets of numbers, one short (maybe 5-6 numbers) and the other longer (maybe 10-12 numbers), and the longer ones all ended with either a 3 or in one case a 4. It would seem unlikely that they all had batch kit numbers that ended in 3?

 

[Putterrr]

Just ask the guy when the kit was made and if it is over a year or so, see if you can get a price break. doesn't hurt to ask

 

[Just-a-Guy]

Just ask the guy when the kit was made and if it is over a year or so, see if you can get a price break. doesn't hurt to ask

The guy who works there doesn't seem to know much about wines (nice guy, but I just don't think he knows much). More importantly, I care more about the age of the kit than the price. Even for free, I wouldn't want to spend my time on a kit that was beyond a safe age. Unless you guys are telling me it doesn't matter?

 

[DoctorCAD]

The only thing that might be suspect is the additives, which are cheap and easy to get at a LHBS. The juice will be fine as long as the bag is not opened.

Buy the kit, but ask them to throw in a batch of yeast, sorbate and k-meta for taking an old kit out of their inventory.

 

[Brian55]

The guy who works there doesn't seem to know much about wines (nice guy, but I just don't think he knows much). More importantly, I care more about the age of the kit than the price. Even for free, I wouldn't want to spend my time on a kit that was beyond a safe age. Unless you guys are telling me it doesn't matter?

WineExpert date codes are quite simple, if you know what to look for. You're looking for an 11 digit string of numbers, for example: 06 21214 0168. The third through seventh digits are your only concern. In this case 21214, the 212 indicates that the kit is from the 212th day and the 14 indicates that it's from the year 2014.

 

[bkisel]

RJ Spagnols box dates are a straight forward yyyymmdd. I got the following information from RJS CS with regards to expiration dates...

RJ Spagnol's Expiration...

• Vino del Vida and Orchard Breezin’ brands a 24-month expiration from the box date.
  
• Grand Cru products have an 18-month expiration.
  
• ALL the rest of the wine kits have a 12 month shelf life starting from the box date.

This is what I use when buying from my LHBS. Just a week or so ago I put back on the shelf a Grand Cru California Muscat because its box date was almost 3 years old.

 

[richmke]

Post a pick of the label, and let us know what kit it is for.

 

[Putterrr]

The guy who works there doesn't seem to know much about wines (nice guy, but I just don't think he knows much). More importantly, I care more about the age of the kit than the price. Even for free, I wouldn't want to spend my time on a kit that was beyond a safe age. Unless you guys are telling me it doesn't matter?

I would never tell anyone it doesn't matter. What i say is that it doesn't matter to me. I started 17 kits last year and half them were beyond the 1 year recommended for premium kits. They are all fine and in various stages of aging. I did not pay full price so was able to buy more kits. I like making the grape skin kits, just not paying the grape skin price.

cheers

 

[Just-a-Guy]

I would never tell anyone it doesn't matter. What i say is that it doesn't matter to me. I started 17 kits last year and half them were beyond the 1 year recommended for premium kits. They are all fine and in various stages of aging. I did not pay full price so was able to buy more kits. I like making the grape skin kits, just not paying the grape skin price.

cheers

Hm, interesting. Thanks for that info, maybe I'll try "bargaining" after all. First have to get back over there and confirm the numbers, haven't had a need to stop in there in the last few days.