Need Premium Kit Suggestions

[Jocelyn]

Hi all,
I'm in Canada and am looking to make a nice RED kit wine for Christmas presents this year and would like to get it started and bulk age it for a few months soonish.

For Christmas gifts I would like to make a nice well rounded premium red to give away as gifts, I want one that would be easily enjoyed by non wine drinkers (as most of our friends and family wont be able to tell the difference between the 5.00 a bottle christmas kit that's aged for 6 months and the 49 cent bottle of costco special I usually make

I'm going to buy another carboy just to bulk age this stuff in my other concern is at what stage do I bulk age? And do I have to top up if its going to be in there for about 5 or 6 months?

Thanks in advance!

 

[sour_grapes]

IMHO, there is no dry red wine that you could start now that would meet your criteria by Christmas.

As you want it to be ready soon, and you want it to be enjoyable by non-wine drinkers, I think that situation calls for an off-dry or semisweet wine. Sweetness masks many of the flaws associated with a young wine.

Another possibility is to do a full-on sweet wine, like a dessert wine or a port. Because these are in a different category than people's normal quaff, the margin for error is a lot larger.