Other History of wine kits

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winemaker81

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A line of discussion in the FWK thread spurred me to look into the history of wine kits. I was co-owner of a LHBS (The Winery in Rome NY) '89-'91, and we sold a few cans of grape concentrates which were low quality. My partner and I drove to the NY Finger Lakes to purchase grapes and juice, which we re-sold (plus made our own). We had very little customer interest in concentrates -- 99% made wine from grapes, juice, and fruit. [I later moved south, after we closed our store.]

My first kit in the 1996 was Wine-Art, which was started by Stanley Anderson in 1959. These kits were available while we ran the LHBS, but I have no memory of seeing them in the vendor catalogs.

In the early 2000's, the Raleigh LHBS owner said Wine-Art was purchased by Wine-Kitz. Finding history on Wine-Art is tough -- so far, this is all I found:

https://www.midwestsupplies.com/blogs/bottled-knowledge/the-secret-history-of-wine-kits
If I couldn't find Wine-Art, I searched for Stanley Anderson, who wrote The Art of Making Wine with Raymond Hull -- this was the second winemaking book I purchased. There are many references to Anderson's books, but no mentions of Wine-Art other than he started it.

However, I found the Wine Kitz site -- I made 3 of their kits in 2002-2003, and their site states that it was the original Wine-Art store, and the current owner bought it in 2003. I recall the LHBS owner said Wine-Art had been acquired by a larger firm. However, it appears he was given incorrect information -- Anderson (born 1921) was ~80 and he sold the original store, and the new owner renamed it. There were apparently other Wine-Art stores, but I found no information other than brief mentions.

http://www.winekitzilano.com/index.php/about-us
I'm interested if anyone finds additional information on Wine-Art, and I'm also interested in the history of other wine kit vendors.
 
I recall that my father made "wine" from a kit about 50 years ago. I don't recall any details, but he had a kit which had a purplish powder (mostly sugar) that you added water to. The fermenting vessel was a cheesy plastic thing that was supposed to look like a barrel. IIRC, he thought the result was dreadful.
 
I made my first wine kit in the second part of the 1970s. Like @sour_grapes dad, I wasn't that impressed to say the least but it certainly did the trick....

 
My first experience with Wine-Art was '96, so I have no idea what kits were like before that. I hazard the guess that powdered kits were not Wine-Art, but? More to research.
 
I recall that my father made "wine" from a kit about 50 years ago. I don't recall any details, but he had a kit which had a purplish powder (mostly sugar) that you added water to. The fermenting vessel was a cheesy plastic thing that was supposed to look like a barrel. IIRC, he thought the result was dreadful.

Thread drift, but just thought of this: My father served in Korea (heavy action, highly decorated....). I found a letter from him to my grandparents where he described making raisin jack (Raisin Jack-USMC Style Recipe - Food.com). So maybe the concept of a bad wine kit was not so foreign to him! :)
 
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