This is my 6th WinExpert kit to date and all have been great - including this one - but I have a question on the taste. Been in the bottles aging for only about a month after 11 weeks of work. I followed the directions to the tee.
For sanity, I clean-wash everything with a solution of CBrite, rinse, and finalize with SanStar.
One thing I noticed about the kit is straight out of the box it had a slightly different scent of smell. The kit I ordered came from an online co which shipped via Fedex to my door. Conditions werent probably the best as the kit arrived and was pretty warm from the shipment - maybe 90 degrees or so. I left it sir for a day to get at room temperature. Brew day; a small juice sample tasted of complex grapes but also with a slightly different smell in the juice. I wish I could describe the smell straight out the box, only I thought it smelled a tiny bit like a yeast. At the time I figured it may have been natural yeast from the grapes so i didnt worry about it.
Firmentation went fine. My firmentation closet sat at about 74 degrees - summertime. Wine sampling throughout the process yielded very good results. A month later and a few days before bottling I took a sample, and noted the tasting was amazingly laced with mild bacon fats. Not over-powering or anything, I actually loved the different flavoring. Not really knowing good or bad, I bottled the next week.
My bottling friend took one bottle home with him. 2 weeks later he said the wine tasted different-but-good. He couldnt pin the flavor until I mentioned my previous sample tasted like Bacon Fat. It clicked for him and he aggreed on the flavor, then said the wine was actually "pretty good". Hes had a lot of store-bought wines but never much from home-brew. He said this wine tasted differently from many other cabs hes had. I advised the wine should have been kept for months before tasting
I'm anxious this weekend to try the first bottle under right conditions, but wonder if the mild flavor of bacon fat is to be expected from this kit?
