what are some good wine kits and wines

[chrisber]

can anyone suggest some good wine kits to get. what is the best company? grand cru????

looking for some good red wines and possibly some ice wine or white wines. can someone give me a suggestions on some brands and names.

 

[Wade E]

You are going to get mixed reviews on this subject. Grand Cru is a smaller kit that in my opinion will produce an Ok wine for some but thin to me. I only make the 16 liter or more kits with grape skins in them but I like a full bodied wine, If you are looking for a white wine the smaller kits do a pretty good job but for red wine kits they fall short. I do the RJ Spagnols Cellar Classic Winery series whoch include grape skins. Cellar Craft has these also and Winexpert also makes something similiar called the Selection Crushendo series. Mosti Mondiale makes all juice kits which also produce great results and you dont add water to them, those dont have grapeskins in them but some of them have raison packs.

 

[cpfan]

The top manufacturers (IMO) are RJ Spagnols, Winexpert, Vineco, and Cellar Craft. Each has differnt product lines. For example Grand Cru is made by RJ Spagnols.

Since I don't know where you live (please update the Control Panel), I don'tknow whether you have a nearby store (or stores) or have to use mail order.

Pick a type of wine that you like (eg Merlot) and talk to your retailer. Buy the best kit that you can afford but for your first kits avoid the grape skin kits.

Steve

 

[chrisber]

grape skins

what is the difference between kits with grape skins and just juice.


i bought a 10 l juice kit. .. . do the 16l kits have skins in them and are they better....


i need mail order. any suggestions.


what reds are good. merlot? shiraz?

 

[cpfan]

what is the difference between kits with grape skins and just juice.

First very few kits are all juice. Most are juice and concentrate. Some kits have a bag of grape skins that you add to the kit.

i bought a 10 l juice kit. .. . do the 16l kits have skins in them and are they better....

some and most. But a 16 litre kit from some companies may not be as good as a 10 litre kit from other companies. Also it depends on your taste buds. You may not like the taste of a specific 16 litre merlot kit compared to a specific 10 litre Merlot kit.

There are two things to consider taste and quality. For example, I do not particularly like Chardonnay. So I will prefer a lesser quality Riesling or Gewurztraminer to the best quality Chardonnay.

FYI, I mostly make 16 litre kits (like Ken Ridge Showcase, Cru Select, Selection), but also make some 10 litre kits (Ken Ridge Classic). I'm not too familiar with Cellar Craft product but here good things about their Showcase 16-litres and 12 litres (both with grape skins).

BTW, I don't make a lot of grape skin kits. Require a lot of aging and some extra work (although I have the tools/experience to handle it). I don't recommend rookes do grape skin kits. They are likely to have racking and patience problems.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

If you need mail order then try this place finevinewines.com they have most everything. I dont see any difference really with doing a grapeskin pack as you can just put the pack in the supplied fermentation bag and tie it off and then just pull out the bag and squeeze all the juice out when done. I do agree as some like a thinner wine then I. I made a Grand Cru Barolo which i thought was very weak and my friend loved, I made a whole bunch of grapeskin kits which everyone loved except him. I ended up giving him all my Barolo and he couldnt thank me enough. To each their own. you will have to make your own decision.

 

[Manimal]

One producer you might want to consider is Kamil Juices from Ontario, Canada. They offer online orders from their website www.kamiljuices.com. They do not sell kits, though... they only offer 100% European vinifera juice that is flash pasteurized but not concentrated or otherwise manipulated. In my opinion, their juices are far superior to the vast majority of kits on the market and are second only to fresh pressed unpasteurized juice or fresh grapes.