Drinkable wines while waiting for others to finish aging

[GoOutside&Play]

I am pretty new to the hobby but I already have a couple 6 gallon carboys sitting around aging (1 white that i am aging for 6months prior to bottling and a red aging to 10-12 months prior to bottling). After reading more posts than I care to admit I am getting antsy about not being able to drink my product for a couple of years. I saw it mentioned that some kit wines are meant to be consumed earlier vs later so I am hoping i can get some recommendations on that so that I can satisfy my short term cravings while allowing my long term items to age. I already plan on making some dragon blood (not a kit, i know) so that I can sample something sooner vs later. Any other recipes or kits for the short term for a relative newbie?

Thanks!!

 

[mhopkins]

DB and its variations are good early drinkers, as you already know. In my experience white wines are drinkable much earlier than reds. For example I did a RJS South African Sauv Blanc that was quite enjoyable at 8 months. I've only been doing this 2 years, so I am interested to see what others post in response to your question. Cheers, Mark

 

[Johnd]

I am pretty new to the hobby but I already have a couple 6 gallon carboys sitting around aging (1 white that i am aging for 6months prior to bottling and a red aging to 10-12 months prior to bottling). After reading more posts than I care to admit I am getting antsy about not being able to drink my product for a couple of years. I saw it mentioned that some kit wines are meant to be consumed earlier vs later so I am hoping i can get some recommendations on that so that I can satisfy my short term cravings while allowing my long term items to age. I already plan on making some dragon blood (not a kit, i know) so that I can sample something sooner vs later. Any other recipes or kits for the short term for a relative newbie?

Thanks!!

The Dragons Blood you mentioned is a good early drinker, as well as the Skeeter Pee. As far as grape wines, the lower priced kits that have 10 liters of concentrate +/- will typically be ready to drink earlier, so you could look at some of those, the lower end WineExpert kits, RJS kits, etc....

 

[salcoco]

you don't have to wait the entire two years to sample the wine. try one every six months and educate your self on how it improves. purchase some lower cost kits that can be available in less than six months. WineExpert has a Mezza Luna White and a Messa Luna red that can be bottled and enjoyed in six months. Label Peeler has a sale on this series of kits buy one get one.

 

[GoOutside&Play]

Yeah I definately planned on trying my wines every 3 to 6 months just to see how they develop. My work has been that of a high level analyst so projects like this will get heavily analyzed and logged, it's my nature. I will probably kick off a dragons blood in a couple of weeks then do some of the mezz luna as as you suggested in order to have drinkable sooner vs later. I tend to go all in to my hobbies so I will probably have 6 or 7 car boys full of stuff soon. Should be an interesting set of experiments...

 

[FunkedOut]

These kits that are ready to be enjoyed younger...
Are they really good at a young age?
Or are they simply not going to improve with more age?

Let me try to quantify by question.
Imagine a premium kit rates an 8 out of 10 at two years, but only rates a 4 or 5 at six months.
Does a lower end kit rate above a 4 or 5 at six months?

 

[winemaker81]

In my experience, kit wines all improve with age, although the overall longevity varies. It may be that the early drinkers do not have the longevity that the later drinkers have -- but this is not likely a problem. After all, you're drinking it so shelf life beyond a couple of years does not matter. With one exception I have not kept kit wines longer than five years, and the last bottle of each was fine.

In 2011 I made a couple of "fun wine" kits, apple-Riesling and pomegranate-Zinfandel. These wines come in at about 7% alcohol, so I chaptalized them up to 10.5%. My sister & niece drank the last 2 bottles of the apple-Riesling last spring -- both were in great shape. I was pleasingly surprised.

On the other side, I've had whites made from fresh juice (French-American hybrids) start to decline after 3 years. Firm rules do not apply.