Other Wine Kit Reviews - Looking for Writers!

[A2]

I'm looking for wine kit reviewers! If you made a wine using a kit and would be interested in publishing your review to our front page please let me know!

 

[richmke]

Outline for a review?

 

[Boatboy24]

I would love to see an area for reviews/ratings. Something simple where we could go and rate a kit from 1-5, or 1-10 and maybe add a few comments. Something like you'd see on Amazon or other retail sites. Early on, I found the lack of this kind of information a little frustrating. Even the larger retailers don't seem to have too much. Having a consolidated source here would be very helpful. Would something like that be hard to do?

 

[bkisel]

I would love to see an area for reviews/ratings. Something simple where we could go and rate a kit from 1-5, or 1-10 and maybe add a few comments. Something like you'd see on Amazon or other retail sites. Early on, I found the lack of this kind of information a little frustrating. Even the larger retailers don't seem to have too much. Having a consolidated source here would be very helpful. Would something like that be hard to do?

I really like Jim's idea of a rating system with the ability to add comments. I think there would be more participation from writing challenged folks like myself.

I also like the idea as presented in the OP but in that case I'd be a taker and not a giver.

 

[Brian55]

I'm not sure it would be all that useful, considering the amount of variables involved in something so seemingly simple as making kits. You'll have people who have no idea what they're doing, screwing things up, going off on a rant and rating a really nice premium kit quite low. And on the opposite end, you'll have experienced winemakers adding a whole slew of tweaks to a cheap kit and giving a high rating to a kit that might otherwise be barely drinkable. Then you have people that follow the directions to a tee, some that deviate slightly and some that deviate drastically, some that bottle age, some that bulk age, some barrel age, some don't age at all. Which brings us to the biggest factor. How long has it been aged overall? How would any of that get reflected in a numerical rating system?

As if there weren't enough problems presented above. Consider that the quality of the juice in any particular kit absolutely has to change year to year. By the time someone is either ranting or raving about a particular kit, if you're able to find the same kit at your LHBS, the juice is in that kit is likely to be from a harvest at least two years after the kit being reviewed and possibly even sourced from a different vineyard.

 

[GaDawg]

Brian55 all of that is true, but if we have enough folks participate the best kits will get the most votes. With that said it may be useful to divide the kits into categories prime, middle, and bargain for example.

 

[richmke]

How about each kit gets a "poll". One Poll per kit. Poll would be 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest.

I would want the poll to be on an Absolute basis, where IM kits are not expected to score high and Eclipse are. That way, I can tell how much better (or not) Eclipse vs. Selection Estate.

In the thread, people could add their comments as a post.

Maybe a separate thread for each kit for "tweaks". That way, you can separate the kit "as is" from comments on tweaked kits.

 

[joeswine]

kit reviewers

okay ,I'm in made a ton of spagnol's and winexpert to start with,although what was stated above was all correct to some extent, how do you review???what are your benchmarks ?

 

[corinth]

/wine-kit-reviews-looking-writers-

I agree with most of what everybody has said. I think if we get to grandiose and detailed, we may feel it is an impossible task and say" whateeeevverrr!"

I think asking people on this forum(who care to participate) to come up with , lets say five things that could /should be included and then, these same people could determine some numerical value(1-5 or 1-10).

Polls could be used to funnel down which subjective facts to use which would be transformed into some type of numerical data. It would take a lot of work, a lot of effort on those who want to participate and the refinement of the process would improve or be re-evaluated every 6 months and those improvements would improve on the process.

i imagine the software could be tweaked in some areas to aid in the process.

If we think we will be overwhelmed, then it will never get done and finally,those who decide to participate should be given some credit and those who really are involved, however that is defined, should be awarded something for their "over-the-top-involvement"

I will shut up now!
Corinth

 

[knockabout]

What a great idea! morewinemaking.com has reviews of all their kits listed on their site, it is a simple 5 star rating system plus people can add comments. It has helped guide me in the past. Clearly taste is subjective. If this is done I promie to review all the kits I have done -girl scout honor!

 

[geek]

Good ideas....

 

[Dhaynes]

I'm a big fan of reviews. No system is perfect and it's true that one or two people who have a bad experience or who don't know what they are talking about can skew the results somewhat. However, if you read what people write as well as just looking at the numbers, the ones who did something wrong and wrecked their wine and the exuberant newbies are usually pretty easy to spot and discount. I have found the ones on Midwest Supplies site to be extremely helpful. We always consult them before buying a kit regardless of who we order it from

We don't have any other kit wine makers near us to trade with so we have no way of judging a kit we haven't made yet ourselves except the reviews of other winemakers. There are already a lot of informal reviews in this group. People are always asking for suggestions and others respond. It would be nice if all of this excellent information was preserved and organized in a way that made it easy to find.

One other nice to have would be a section of tweaks people have done to a particular kit and what they thought of the results.


Sent from my iPad using Wine Making

 

[jsiddall]

Assuming people are allowed to report their results here is an example "template" I would like to see filled out with each:

1. Date kit was manufactured (or date code)
2. Age at time of review (since the date the kit was started)
3. Additional oak/type (barrel aged, cubes in secondary etc.)
4. Other tweaks (ex: raisins in primary, extra tannin etc.)
5. Tasting notes
6. Comparable commercial wine or approximate commercial price range
7. Comparison to other kits (ex: preferred over the XYZ kit made previously)

Obviously all of the above are subjective but having answers to those questions would make any reviews significantly more valuable.

 

[joeswine]

writing

shorter version: kit manufacture=
wine style or type=
aroma=1 to 5
body and structure=1 to 5
taste= 1 to 5
tweaks if any=notes

this is just a base to work off of similar to a UC of Davis scoring sheet. Short but manageable. 5 is the top end.

 

[richmke]

I think a Poll for "overall" is useful as a quick snapshot.

 

[cpfan]

IMO, any review of a kit should include a description of the additives, ie which yeast, oak quantity and type, any other 'oddities' (elderberries, elderflowers). For example, the RJS Cru Select Okanagan Meritage ([FONT=Arial, sans-serif]RQ March 2009) contained EC-1118, Elderberries (40g), oak pieces (60g), Hungarian oak chips (50g), Genuwine grape skins (250g)[/FONT]

Steve

 

[tonyt]

I would absolutely read and post in a kit review area. Also i find bad reviews more helpful and honest than good reviews.

 

[GaDawg]

Steve, to make it simple maybe we should only add a description of additives that did not come with the kit?