WineXpert Vinters Reserve - Sangiovese Italien

[Windchill]

Greetings Everyone!

First post here but have been reading for a little over a month now.

Bought my wife the Vinters Deluxe Wine Making Equipment Kit and a Vinters Reserve (Vignoble Du Monde) Collection Sangiovese Italien Wine Kit for her birthday at the end of November. I also bought her a booked called The Joy Of Home Winemaking by Terry Garey.

I'm glad I bought the book because it deals mostly with fruit wines and gave me some basics to look for as I was using the kit. I still cant stop from flipping pages and deciding what to do next. I also found WineMakingTalk real useful for some research too. So Gratz community!

Its the little things like understanding how to back sweeten that paid off for a wine making noob like me.


Wine Kit Summary
The instructions were very clear after reading my winemaking book on terminology and equipment so I had no problem with that.

Took about 30 days to get it bottled from my start date. Living in Michigan made some cooler temperatures in the basement so I think fermentation dragged out a day or two but in general the dates for the instructions were right on the money. Basement is 62F - 65F I'd say.

Bottle two solid cases and an assortment of other 1L bottles and 1/2 gallon jug I had laying around. Yield was as expected.

I back sweetened it to what I'd say is a semi-sweet level and overall at this point I'd say the wine has a smooth flavor without too much bite. Hints of the oak chips from the kit with a slight sweetness. For my first wine ever I'm very happy with it.

Note: The wine kit came with all chemicals bags nicely labeled and sealed. Yeast, Oak Chips, Instructions and Juice.

Wine Log Specifics

06 Dec 2011
- Santized equipment and started following directions
- Added juice and oak chips
- SG 1.078
- Added Premier Cuvee yeast (Did not stir)
- Filled to 6 Gallons

11 Dec 2011 - SG 1.022

12 Dec 2011 - SG 1.016

13 Dec 2011
- SG 1.009
- Racked Wine

21 Dec 2011 - SG .988 (Was busy and dropped Off REAL fast)

22 Dec 2011
- Added Stabilizer

23 Dec 2012
- Back sweetened 2.5 Cups sugar + 2 Cups Water
- Seemed amazingly dry before sweetening
- SG Unknown - Missed writing it in the notebook
- Sweetened to taste
- Mixed (Degassed)

6 Jan 2012
- Bottled

 

[Flem]

Welcome to the forum, Windchill.

 

[robie]

Welcome to the forum. Hope you enjoy your new hobby as much as most of us do.

 

[Giovannino]

Well done. Enjoy.

 

[Rocky]

Windchill, that was my first kit and I only have 3 bottles of it left that I have kept for just about 1 year now. I drank some and used a lot of it for topping off other reds. It is a nice wine, a little on the "thin" side but with good flavor and nose.

I like to play around with wines that do not turn out to my total satisfaction. To improve the body on this wine, I take about a tablespoon full of blackberry jam, nuke it to a liquid and add it to a bottle of the wine and let it blend into the wine. It gives the wine a lot more mouth and a nice background flavor or berries.

 

[Windchill]

Windchill, that was my first kit and I only have 3 bottles of it left that I have kept for just about 1 year now. I drank some and used a lot of it for topping off other reds. It is a nice wine, a little on the "thin" side but with good flavor and nose.

I like to play around with wines that do not turn out to my total satisfaction. To improve the body on this wine, I take about a tablespoon full of blackberry jam, nuke it to a liquid and add it to a bottle of the wine and let it blend into the wine. It gives the wine a lot more mouth and a nice background flavor or berries.

Thanks for the information. I've got a 1L screw cap bottle sitting aging now. Maybe I'll try the jam trick and let it age that way. Sounds great though!