WineXpert WE Italian Brunello with skins

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Bplewniak

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I just put a order in for this kit. Does anyone have any feedback? The reviews I have read seem very positive.

$136.00 shipped to the house seemed like a good deal.
 
It is. You chose wisely.

There are a few threads ongoing right now for this kit. I did mine as an extended maceration. It's in clearing now, but shows tremendous promise.

@ceeaton has one that's a couple years old and it inspired me to grab one before they discontinue this kit.
 
Most who tried it at the NE wine meetup at Split Rock in June seemed to enjoy it. I'll let them chime in. Jim's wife liked it enough he ordered the kit, enough said there. I think it will get better with a few more years of age, at least that is what I'm hoping for. I still have 18 - 750 ml bottles and 7 - 375 ml tasters left. I also ordered another kit I want to try with extended maceration, if I can borrow one of @jgmann67's wide mouth fermenters. I'm really curious to see how that moves along the time line for aging.

That was the long answer, short answer is that it is in the top two for red wine kits I have made. It's between that one and the Forza. I like the Brunello better since there isn't any noticeable residual sugar left in it. My Forza gave up the goat before it hit .990 (not by much, but I think I can taste it).
 
Most who tried it at the NE wine meetup at Split Rock in June seemed to enjoy it. I'll let them chime in. Jim's wife liked it enough he ordered the kit, enough said there. I think it will get better with a few more years of age, at least that is what I'm hoping for. I still have 18 - 750 ml bottles and 7 - 375 ml tasters left. I also ordered another kit I want to try with extended maceration, if I can borrow one of @jgmann67's wide mouth fermenters. I'm really curious to see how that moves along the time line for aging.
Keep us updated on the aging lol. I really want to know where it goes, my GSM kit has hit a dead zone and is flavorless now so I'm just letting it sit, it's just going through that deadzone. It will come back to life.
 
Keep us updated on the aging lol. I really want to know where it goes, my GSM kit has hit a dead zone and is flavorless now so I'm just letting it sit, it's just going through that deadzone. It will come back to life.
Sometimes they do that. Wish I knew why. Give it time and it should become "undead".

Hopefully in the future you'll see reviews from some of the people I gave them to around here. My descriptions are usually not very helpful in my opinion, other than, yes I like that, or no I won't make that kit again.
 
Sometimes they do that. Wish I knew why. Give it time and it should become "undead".

Hopefully in the future you'll see reviews from some of the people I gave them to around here. My descriptions are usually not very helpful in my opinion, other than, yes I like that, or no I won't make that kit again.

Lol, yeah. It was very fruity initially. Its like 15.5% abv with pretty good tannins and acidity so I'm sure it will snap out of whatever going on. It's got great color I'll give it that. Skins make a big difference in kit wines. I'm buying some Malbec from a guy when they come in, of course I have to harvest the grapes which is fine. I wanted to make more than just my criolla but my vines are new.
 
Lol, yeah. It was very fruity initially. Its like 15.5% abv with pretty good tannins and acidity so I'm sure it will snap out of whatever going on. It's got great color I'll give it that. Skins make a big difference in kit wines. I'm buying some Malbec from a guy when they come in, of course I have to harvest the grapes which is fine. I wanted to make more than just my criolla but my vines are new.
It does seem to happen with the higher ABV wines for some reason. Maybe someone with more wine experience can let us in on the secret of why.

I thought about some vines until yesterday when I went into my back yard, and where I had planned on some rows of vines I now have tomato plants growing, or at least they were. Wilting from being drowned by 13+ inches of rain over 5 days. I'd need a back hoe and a few tons of sand to improve my drainage (clay/loam mix, great when it's not too dry or not too wet).
 
Trus
It does seem to happen with the higher ABV wines for some reason. Maybe someone with more wine experience can let us in on the secret of why.

I thought about some vines until yesterday when I went into my back yard, and where I had planned on some rows of vines I now have tomato plants growing, or at least they were. Wilting from being drowned by 13+ inches of rain over 5 days. I'd need a back hoe and a few tons of sand to improve my drainage (clay/loam mix, great when it's not too dry or not too wet).
Trust me plant some grapes lol. My soil is sand, all the way down and my well draws from 350 feet so I'm watering via drip system from my well and the grapes are in well draining sand.
 
Trus

Trust me plant some grapes lol. My soil is sand, all the way down and my well draws from 350 feet so I'm watering via drip system from my well and the grapes are in well draining sand.
Sand is fine, at least it drains. All this rain just made my tomato plant roots be deprived of oxygen. Don't want to plant grapes and loose them to too much water. If this global warming thing keeps up, I expect we'll have more wet summers vs. dry ones in the NE US.
 
Sand is fine, at least it drains. All this rain just made my tomato plant roots be deprived of oxygen. Don't want to plant grapes and loose them to too much water. If this global warming thing keeps up, I expect we'll have more wet summers vs. dry ones in the NE US.
i dont believe in global warming, lol but yeah it is what it is. Im really happy that i can plant almost any grape i want.
 
i dont believe in global warming, lol but yeah it is what it is. Im really happy that i can plant almost any grape i want.
I do believe in climate change, but my definition doesn't necessarily include that it is always warmer now than before. I see larger fluctuations from the mean, whether up or down, and I think that is more the fingerprint of what they term "global warming". It's more screwing up the global climate. Maybe it's just a natural change that would have happened anyway, but then, maybe not.

If I remember correctly, nothing like we just had with the large dip to the South of the jet stream and the resulting heavy rains have been seen on the East Coast since they've been writing down records, though in the early 1900's they didn't have satellites and such to see such a dip in the jet stream, therefore it may have happened, just didn't show up in the data they wrote down.
 
I do believe in climate change, but my definition doesn't necessarily include that it is always warmer now than before. I see larger fluctuations from the mean, whether up or down, and I think that is more the fingerprint of what they term "global warming". It's more screwing up the global climate. Maybe it's just a natural change that would have happened anyway, but then, maybe not.

If I remember correctly, nothing like we just had with the large dip to the South of the jet stream and the resulting heavy rains have been seen on the East Coast since they've been writing down records, though in the early 1900's they didn't have satellites and such to see such a dip in the jet stream, therefore it may have happened, just didn't show up in the data they wrote down.
lol
 
Keep us updated on the aging lol. I really want to know where it goes, my GSM kit has hit a dead zone and is flavorless now so I'm just letting it sit, it's just going through that deadzone. It will come back to life.
Just opened one of the 375 ml bottles. It's tasting pretty good, though I'll admit I just finished a glass of Pinot Noir that doesn't have the body that this one does, nor the color. I can tell this one has much more oak than the previous wine. Still a nice dark cherry fruit background, but more oak in the nose than fruit. It's in the high 50's here in my basement, so I should probably warm a sample up a few degrees before commenting on the nose, but then again, I'm too lazy to take it upstairs in the relative warmth of the house (mid 60's at best). Still a really flavorful wine, nice mouthfeel, no harshness, very little if any "kit flavor". At 33 months, 19 days and 6.5 hours old it's doing pretty well, and improving if my memory of the last tasting isn't deceiving me.

I think I'll have another glass. So much for getting eight hours of sleep tonight...
 
Our Brunello is also 2 1/2 years old, don’t know the days or hours though! It’s trully one of our favorite wines, bold, smooth, oak and tannins. Great color and legs too. Just took the last case out of “secret” storage and put it on the wine rack to enjoy at Christmas Italian Feast. Roy
 

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