Other Best Pinot Noir kit

[big-al]

My cellar craft sterling Pinot Noir will be soon ready to drink (thought I over oaked but it turned great) and I am looking to start another kit to replace this one in about year or so.

The sterling came with grape skins and I am looking for another with skins but better quality. My research shows only one other with skins, the RJ Spagnols winery series.

My questions are:

Has anyone made this kit and how did it turn out?

How important is it to have skins for Pinot's ?

From my reading in the forum, the EN PRIMEUR takes to long to come around.

Any feedback about the Eclipse would be welcome.

 

[Brian55]

I have the Eclipse at 13 months. It's drinkable at this point, but I'm sure hoping it will get better with some more time on it. The only other Pinot I have bottled is the WE selection original. It's at 16 months and is decent, but I'm thinking the eclipse is almost as good at this point, but will blow right past it with a bit more time. I will be bottling the WE LE Oregon Pinot in a month or two, expecting it to be very similar to the Eclipse. I recently purchased both RJ's EP and WS pinots, but we'll have to wait another year to see how they turn out.

 

[jurbello]

Brian, did you bulk age and for how long, or age in bottle?

 

[DoctorCAD]

I really liked my Williams pinot noir. Very fruit forward and highly alcoholic.

 

[Brian55]

Brian, did you bulk age and for how long, or age in bottle?

The SE was bulk aged 8 months.
The Eclipse was bulk aged 10 months.
The LE will be somewhere between 10 and 12 by the time I'm ready to bottle.

 

[jurbello]

Did you age with oak chips? Do you notice a difference in bulk ageing vs bottle ageing. Have a lodi ranch cab kit and was thinking of bulk ageing for 3 mos with oak...

 

[Brian55]

Did you age with oak chips? Do you notice a difference in bulk ageing vs bottle ageing. Have a lodi ranch cab kit and was thinking of bulk ageing for 3 mos with oak...

I use oak cubes or sometimes the spirals, the chips are more difficult to work with. I only use the chips in primary, where I can put them in the bag with the grape skins.
I haven't done a direct comparison of bulk vs bottle, but the biggest benefit I've found for bulk aging is still having 30 bottles of wine left 10 to 12 months later when it comes time to bottle.
I'd let that cab bulk age for at least 8 months, you can leave it on the oak, but be sure not to add too much at first. Try a taste now and then, and add a bit more if you feel it needs more. Another benefit to bulk aging, is if you over oak, you can blend in another wine to save yourself from winding up with 30 bottles of Chateau du Sawmill.

 

[terroirdejeroir]

The Eclipse Pinot Noir has no grape skins, mine is just short of a year old and is outstanding. No tweaks.

 

[francois_du_nord]

Did you age with oak chips? Do you notice a difference in bulk ageing vs bottle ageing. Have a lodi ranch cab kit and was thinking of bulk ageing for 3 mos with oak...

Jurbello,

If you are referring to the Eclipse Lodi Ranch kit, I just racked off the provided (60 g?? 2X bags) of oak cubes after 2 months conditioning on the oak this past weekend. The flavor profile is pretty darned good, but there is just a hint of charred oak on the finish.

I'm going to bulk for 3 mos now, and then rack/taste again. I expect the char to diminish. If it needs more oak, I'll use a medium char rather than the heavy as supplied.

Depending upon your personal preference, YMMV.

Best, Fran

 

[Dhaynes]

We started an experiment 11 months ago to see for ourselves the differences between the various price ranges of kits. We ordered three Pinot noir kits from Winexpert one Vintners Reserve, one select and one eclipse. We started them all within a week of each other and bulk aged them side by side for 9 months and then bottled them. We recently did a blind tasting of all three with friends and family (no wine experts, just wine lovers). We had each person rank the samples from 1-3 based on the taste at that point in time without regard to how they might taste in the future. The results were very interesting. All three kits received almost an identical number of 1st place votes. The VR is probably about as good as it is ever going to get by now while the select and the eclipse will probably continue to improve. Honestly right now I would have to say that the selected is probably better than the eclipse but you can definitely taste the promise in the eclipse so there is no doubt that it will eventually be better.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[roger80465]

That is great information. Thank you for doing this. I have always been curious how that would work out but was never willing to make the investment to make it happen. Hopefully you can update us in another 6-12 months and let us know the changes you observe, if any.

 

[byathread]

I think grape skins add a ton to red kits. But, I think there are many excellent high end Pinot kits without skins (the vast majority of them). Any 16L+ Pinot kit is likely to produce an excellent wine after aging. My first (and only, so far) Pinot kit was the RJS Okanagan BC Pinot, 12L with no skins (even though the other reds in this line all have skins). I'm not disappointed for the price point, though its just under a year old and still developing.

I do plan on buying some Chilean grapes this spring and making my own grape packs to add to kits. Maybe I'll even do a Pinot.

I haven't heard much about the RJS WS Australian Pinot but its bound to be good, and it does have skins as you mentioned.