WineXpert REALLY OLD kit found... Time for an experiment? Suggestions for pig lipstick?

[phat]

Oh dear,

Well, I went through and cleaned out the back of my old cold room. Lo and behold I found something I didn't know I had...

A Chai Maison Sauvignon Blanc kit - However, it doesn't say wine expert anywhere on it, and says Product of Canada.. Looks like it's a 7 litre kit designed to make white in "21 days"... looks to be 7 litres of goo in the bag.

Now, having said that, the bag is in fine shape, and nothing appears
out of order - but If I had to guess, this kit is probably 8 or 9 years old....

Soooo.. aside from the obvious (throw away the yeast and get a fresh one) Any suggestions? I'm pondering throwing it in a bucket to see what happens..

Here's the thing - I don't drink a lot of white. my wife likes it more than I. now having said that when I do, I do like a nice high end new zealand sauvignon blanc with lots of grapefruit on the nose. I'm pretty sure there's no way to put that much lipstick on this little piggy.. but having said that, at this point, this kit is basically... well, "free" (I may have actually be given it). Those of you with some experience.. what would you do with this little beast?

And I'm very open to experimentation to make it a bit "better", since if it doesn't work, I've lost nothing

Any suggestions? What would you do to it to make a drinkable dry white with some character beyond liquid invert sugar? Can lipstick be put on this pig? - frankenwine?

 

[Minnesotamaker]

I made one old kit. It fermented OK, but it was oxidized. I don't think those wine bags are designed to protect the juice from oxygen over long periods of time.

You might want to try making a Madreira wine with it which uses some warm temps and oxidation.

 

[phat]

I made one old kit. It fermented OK, but it was oxidized. I don't think those wine bags are designed to protect the juice from oxygen over long periods of time.

You might want to try making a Madreira wine with it which uses some warm temps and oxidation.

Well, my LHBS guy taught me how to decipher the date code, which apparently hasn't changed since the brew king days..

This kit was made in *1997* that bit of grape concentrate and invert sugar has been sitting in that bag for 15 years!!!! (Oh my god.. I was *UNDER 30* when this kit was made!!!) (I am now relatively certain someone gave me this kit..) I sure wish I had found a nice few bottles of cab sitting in the back of the room that were that old.. (although I doubt my corks would last 15 years) but no luck...

I grabbed a fresh 1118 and figured what the heck, maybe a quick nasty drinker with some fruit added... but "oxidized" doesn't begin to describe the contents of the bag - it was the colour of a dark porter beer, and smelled intensely of raisins.. 8-p... So, while I was kind of thinking maybe a maderia or port, hmmm.. if I'm gonna do one of those (with that much waiting for it to be good.. ) I'm not starting with this.... I *like* good port and don't want to make bad port

It just took a swirly ride down drain. My little carboy is better spent I think with 6 kilos of blueberries than this..