I used Lalvin EC 1118 that I got from FVW. Right now, I'm quite pleased with the progress, even if I don't have much testing to refer to. (My secret shame - my wine log/journal hasn't been updated for over a year; after a 2-3 years of making 5-7 kit wines/year, I had referred back to it exactly twice and only then because my wine/carboy tags got wet and blurred the SG readings.)
To back up a little bit, I picked up and crushed/de-stemmed the grapes at FVW on Friday about 2:30 pm, but 15 minutes later at home, my wife was starting to feel ill, so that threw a wrench in my plan. I couldn't get out on Sat. to FVW to pick anything up, and used the yeast I had on hand. Nothing much was happening until Sunday afternoon/evening (that's when I was my most anxious), and I thought maybe the yeast was bad and the whole thing was going to be a big nasty rotten mess. By Monday a.m., things were rolling along, the fermenting yeast smell was permeating the house, and the cap was clearly taking shape at the top.
Now, after working the must over numerous times (punching down at least twice a day), and tasting the gradually fermenting juice, I am much more excited about the whole process and the intermediate result to date.
Thanks for the tip on getting a big enough sample of juice for SG measurement; I'm not sure there was enough juice in the two 6-gal. pails on Friday to do that - it was almost all skins, which led to part of my uncertainty. I might have gotten enough to fill the wine thief, but I doubt it. ABV has never been a big issue with me - it's somewhat interesting to compare, but I'm not trying to precisely measure my alcohol intake - I just stop drinking when the floor gets too close and the ceiling too far.
Seriously, however, I didn't know the finished alcohol level could be too high from the grapes alone; I thought that required sugar be added to jack it up past 12-13-14%
I now have a greater appreciation for the adjustments and balancing that are done to the kits, so that's another side benefit of using the fresh stuff.