WineXpert My first wine batch, picking the right kit?

[cerberus]

Hello

Long time forum lurker finally around to making my own batch of wine. I have gotten all the equipment I need (carboys, bucket for primary, siphons, metering and testing tools, etc.) now I need to pick my kit.

Figured my first batch I want it to be a kit since the pH and acid levels (tartaric, etc.) are all taken care of ahead of time (according to my readings).

I've read that higher end kits will yield better wines, so I have narrowed this down to using a kit from Winexpert, specifically the Eclipse Napa Valley Stag's Leap Merlot with Skins as it is available at my local wine making / beer brewing shop.

I've read great reviews about it, and I like a dry red (if I had to compare this to a store wine it would be Yellow Label's reds or Yellow Tail's reds) so hopefully this kit won't disappoint.

I have watched dozens of hours of wine making kits on YouTube and I my notes book is thick. But I wanted to run this by the wine making community, any tips for a beginner? Specifically for this kit?

For this kit, I was going to use filtered water / spring water (not distilled since most minerals are removed, and not tap since it has all kind of chemicals added to it).

 

[David219]

If you've been reading a lot, you probably have a reasonably good foundation of knowledge. On my early kits, I felt as though following the directions closely was critical in achieving a predictable result. My early attempts at kits were OK, but there was a common flaw...they were not de-gassed well. If I were to give one piece of advice, I would say to degas well (a drill-mounted stirring device is very helpful), and don't be in a rush to get it bottled. Time will improve the end product greatly and will assist in allowing gas to naturally escape. Read up on bulk aging threads for more info.

A piece of equipment that has greatly enhanced my winemaking enjoyment has been the Allinone vacuum pump. Transferring between carboys and bottling is so much easier, and it also does wonders to degas.

Good luck with your first attempt! If you're anything like many of the rest of us here, it won't be your last!


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[sour_grapes]

Well, when I made my first kits, the thing I found most challenging was filling the muslin sack with the grape pack. Here is a thread that nicely describes the process:
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/how-do-you-fill-your-grape-pack-bag-40697/

Oh, and welcome to WMT!

 

[oldwino54]

I agree with David, degassing and bulk aging are huge. I started out my first 31 kits on well water and my last two I used spring water. Don't know the results of that yet. Stags leap,good choice!!!

 

[bkisel]

Welcome to the forum!

Ditto what has been said above but personally I would start with lower end kits, ~10L. This is so that even with a bit of aging you're still drinking a decent wine earlier and building up a stock, you can then move onto higher end kits, juice buckets, fruit wines and grape wines as the wine "spirit" moves you.

 

[Boatboy24]

Welcome!

You've chosen what I believe is a great kit (mine is bulk aging now and waiting for barrel space to open up, so it's too early to give you my personal opinion), based on comments I've read here. sour_grapes' link is very helpful and using the tips in that thread has made dealing with grape packs so much easier. The only other advice I can give you is that once the wine is clear and you've racked it off that sediment, give it at least another 3 months in the carboy before you bottle. 6 or more would be great, but it's hard being patient with your early batches. Two reasons for this: 1) kits improve greatly with a year of age on them, and 2) extra time in the carboy will give the wine a chance to degas more completely.

Good luck with it, and keep us posted on your progress.

 

[richmke]

IMHO, I think you should start with an inexpensive quick drinking kit like an Island Mist. The only change I would make is: When you are adding f-pack, start with 1/3 of the f-pack. Then taste as you slowly add more. Stop when it reaches your desired sweetness level (about 1/2 of an f-pack for me).

The IM kits will take you through all the steps, except skins and oak. You will also quickly know how well you follow instructions. Learn from your mistakes with cheap kits.

Finally, you will learn how you like to do the many different steps. Something as easy as: Hot water & Bentonite. The instructions say to add hot water to the pail, sprinkle Bentonite, stir for 30 seconds. How hot? What do you stir with? Risk scratching your pail? I now do it in a small pot (I use an immersion blender to mix), and pour it into some juice already in the pail (avoids overheating the pail).

Cut your teeth on a $70 kit that gives you an early reward. Once the steps are second nature, you can be confident with a $150 kit, can deal with the added complexity (oak shavings clogging your racking cane), and hopefully a little more patience in waiting for the wine to mature.

 

[Buehler91]

My Stags Leap Merlot was (To me) completely undrinkable at 6months.

It has been bulk aging in a carboy now for 10 months and now tastes fantastic.
Still has a little way to go yet though, I think I'll bottle it at 1 yr.

 

[calvin]

I agree with others here. Do a inexpensive kit first. When starting with this hobby it is hard to be patient. I would suggest a vintners reserve or island mist kit. Do a few of those before you cough up the cash for a high end kit. when starting out it is hard not to enjoy the fruits of your labor right away. No sense in drinking your eclipse merlot when it is only a few months old. I know 30 bottles sounds like a lot but they go fast!

 

[tanddc]

I would agree with the others as well. If you are wanting to make a hobby out of this, it is fun to learn on the less expensive 10L kits and they still taste fairly decent early. No matter how much research you do, you will always find something unexpected. You are also going to want to test the fruits of you labor, if for no other reason than to verify it actually tastes like wine. Coastal red is a nice quick drinking wine and is nice and neutral for topping off other wines.

Follow directions to the tee except for degassing. If you want to bottle early (and there in nothing wrong with that) you will need to degas for more than the instructions say. You don't want to bottle gassy wine (unless you like gassy wine).

Most important of all is, no matter what happens HAVE FUN!

Tim

 

[DoctorCAD]

Here's my tip...

Quit watching youtube videos. Any dorkwad with a $5 camera can post videos and you're going to trust a $125 wine kit to that?????

If you really want to start with a high-end kit, follow the printed directions to the letter, do not deviate. The manufacturer prints those directions so that you will get a really good end result, sure, there are things that you can do to increase the chances of a great wine, but until you understand why you are doing something outside the printed directions, stick to the direstions.

The only thing that I would recommend changing is the time between final stabilizing and bottling, extend that out at least to 90 days and re-rack before bottling. This helps the sediment fall out in a carboy and not in your individual bottles.

Good luck, and ask us about anything you don't fully understand.

P.S. Its really hard to wreck a kit wine, but its eaqually hard to improve a kit wine (until you understand what is happening).

 

[sour_grapes]

I will say that it took me about 4 kits to really figure out what I was doing. As mentioned above, it took a couple of tries to get the hang of filling the muslin bag with the grapes. Also took a while to figure out to put any oak chips into the bag, too, to enable easy racking later. Also, took a while to figure out that my carboys were larger than 6 gallons.

So my first kits were a little rough going, but got easier and better as I got those issues sorted out. I did a mid-grade kit (CC Sterling) with grape pack, then a lower-grade kit without (Mezza Luna) as a quicker drinker, then higher-end kits from there on out (mostly CC Showcase). This approach worked fairly well for me, but I may have decided to start with a lower end kit if I had it to do over again.

 

[Boatboy24]

My Stags Leap Merlot was (To me) completely undrinkable at 6months.

Out of curiosity, what was wrong with it?

Mine is incredibly fruit forward now - moreso than any kit I've done.

 

[richmke]

Another benefit of doing a lot of inexpensive kits now: It gives you a reason to buy an All-in-one pump.

"Look at all this wine I have to rack and bottle".

 

[Brian55]

Out of curiosity, what was wrong with it?

Mine is incredibly fruit forward now - moreso than any kit I've done.

Mine was drinkable at 6 months, but it wasn't what I'd consider good. The Eclipse kits I've made seem to start getting good after 12+ and keep getting better from there. The oldest Eclipse kit I have will hit the two year mark in January, so I"m thinking I have quite some time before I find the point at which they peak.

 

[buffalofrenchy]

I've read that higher end kits will yield better wines, so I have narrowed this down to using a kit from Winexpert, specifically the Eclipse Napa Valley Stag's Leap Merlot with Skins as it is available at my local wine making / beer brewing shop.

I've read great reviews about it, and I like a dry red (if I had to compare this to a store wine it would be Yellow Label's reds or Yellow Tail's reds) so hopefully this kit won't disappoint.

I sure hope the Eclipse series are better than Yellow Tail which only cost $7 a bottle.

 

[Brian55]

I sure hope the Eclipse series are better than Yellow Tail which only cost $7 a bottle.

They are. The most recent blind tasting we had with an Eclipse was with a Merlot at 20 months old. It scored in the middle of a three bottle tasting, between a $12 Chateau Ste Michelle merlot, and a $16 Benzinger merlot. Although the Benzinger was quite noticeably better than the other two.

 

[tonyt]

DoctorCAD i agree with you 100%.

 

[Buehler91]

Out of curiosity, what was wrong with it?

Mine is incredibly fruit forward now - moreso than any kit I've done.

To me it was extremely tannic and tasted heavily of bananas.

It has become much more smooth over the last several months and the banana taste is almost completely gone.

I can now see that it is going to be very good when mature

 

[jsiddall]

To me it was extremely tannic and tasted heavily of bananas.

It has become much more smooth over the last several months and the banana taste is almost completely gone.

I can now see that it is going to be very good when mature

I have had the strange banana taste with all the big red kits I have made. Most are now about a year and they have a ways to go yet. I hear 18 months is a magic age. We'll see.