Other Wine Kits in the UK

[Raize]

Hello forum. I'm from the UK and completely new to making wine, although I have been brewing beer all-grain for quite some time. I want to get into winemaking to hopefully reduce the wine budget and maybe even get a better quality of wine to drink [which would probably not be hard, considering that 7GBP is just about the upper-limit for what I'm willing to pay for a bottle of wine]

Here in the UK the 16L 'premium' kits like WinExpert Selection are priced at around 70GBP while the 18L 'ultra-premium' kits like Cellarcraft Showcase and WinExpert Eclipse are priced at around 125GBP. I'm aware that the difference between the prices is MUCH smaller across the pond, with the same 18L kits only costing about 20% more than the 16L kits.

I've read all the traditional advice that you get what you pay for with kits but I'm just wondering if that still applies when the price increase is 80% rather than 20% to go from premium to ultra-premium.

Getting good value for money is important to me. Should I just do 16L kits? Are the 18L kits really 80% better to drink?

 

[Rocky]

Hello, Raize, and welcome to the forum!

That does seem a rather large premium to pay for the 18 liter kits. You mentioned the WinExpert Selection 16 liter kits being about 70 GBP. WinExpert offers its Eclipse series of wines which are 18 liter and are normally priced competitively with CellarCraft Showcase and RJ Spagnols En Primeur kits. WinExpert also offers its Selection International with grape skins and that series is priced somewhat lower than the Eclipse series, at least over here in the Colonies. I have found this offering to be very good. I assume you are referring to red wines and not white. My experience has been that the WinExpert Selection 16 liter white wines are excellent and, for me, every bit the better alternative to the premium white wine kits.

Another alternative you have is to "tweak" the 16 liter red wine kits with additional crushed grapes, raisins, tannin, oak etc. There is a thread here on this forum that speaks to tweaking cheap (read that as "less expensive") kits. One of our members, joeswine, goes through a detailed process of how he does this and his results seem very good.

Good luck!

 

[bkisel]

Welcome to the forum!

After making a few kits why not expand into making fruit/country wines? You can make some decent fruit wines where the bottle (if bought) and cork will cost you more than the wine itself.

 

[britwinemaker]

Hello Raize, another Brit here!

My advice would be to start off trying the WineXpert Vintners Reserve white wines (around £50 for 10 litres of juice) or for reds, try the WineXpert World Vineyard series (around £55 for 10 litres of juice). The Chilean Merlot is very passable after 9 months - my friends even doubted I brewed it myself!

The Selection International series (16 litres of juice) go for between £75 - £85 per kit and I've had some very good results, but the reds in particular need at least 12 months aging before drinking. The Selection International with skins (16 litres of juice plus a 1.6 litre grape skin pack) cost £110 and I'm in the process of brewing them at the moment so can't really comment on the results, but lots of people here say very good things about them after 12 - 18 months of aging.

You should be able to find the Eclipse kits for £120 and the reds with skins (16 litres of juice plus a 2 litre grape skin pack) are said to be great after 24 months in the bottle. I've made the 4 red kits that are available in the UK over the last couple of months and the brewing process is enjoyable and straightforward.

What I would say is avoid any kit by any manufacturer that doesn't contain at least 10 litres of juice and no matter how tempting, never buy a kit where you have to add sugar. I started off with the cheaper kits and it very nearly put me off home wine-making for good!

There are plenty of threads on here regarding the many different wine kits that are available and it can take quite some time finding them. Do feel free to ask for opinions on any specific kit(s) you are considering buying as you will get plenty of answers from those who have already made them.

 

[Raize]

Thanks for your replies.

Actually, I do make country wines, I just didn't mentally include that in 'winemaking' for some reason. I suppose the process is largely the same. The country whites generally are brilliant and the reds can be OK, but can't reasonably be compared to a red wine made with grapes. So at the moment, all my beers and fruit whites are homemade but I still buy reds and occassionally a 'proper' white wine. Therefore my interest in red wine kits.

To be honest I also did make a 1 gallon red wine kit [Beaverdale Shiraz] but it didn't turn out too well - it was thin, extremely dry, and noone liked it. I'd rather pretend that I never made it.

The kit I've got my eye on now is a Selection International Luna Rossa, which from the description should be exactly the opposite of the Shiraz that noone liked.

 

[Dandare500]

The Eclipse Sauvignon Blanc and Stag's Leap Merlot which I have made are excellent. I have also made ten Cellar Craft Showcase reds but not tasted them yet.
For a mid range wine the Kenridge Showcase are all pretty good and reflect in price compared to the Classic.

I think the main problem we have in the UK is that nobody mentions aging unless you look further afield such as sites like this.

Maybe your shiraz from Beaverdale was too young? Although Beaverdale is just a basic £5 shop bought taste in my eyes.

 

[Raize]

My Beaverdale shiraz was probably about 6 months old when I drank it. I suppose I have had equally bad bottles of wine from the shop, but it's still disappointing and the fact remains that noone liked it.

Will be starting a WE SI Luna Rossa tomorrow. I sure hope it's worth it, otherwise I may find my winemaking budget zeroed.

 

[Raize]

And so it begins.
SG was 1.110 for some reason even though I made it to the correct 23L. I did make sure to stir everything thoroughly.

Questions:
1. Should I ferment at the recommended 22-24C or would a lower temperature be better?
2. Should I top up with some cold boiled water due to this very high SG?

 

[britwinemaker]

Leave it as it is. If I recall correctly, the Luna Rossa will not ferment below 998 and should end up giving you a 14 - 15%ABV wine. Aim for 22C but not below that. I've found that the primary fermentation on all WineXpert kits will produce enough heat to raise themselves 2C above the ambient room temperature. I've had to move them to a cooler place when they hit 26C due to those greedy yeast cells!

 

[Raize]

Racked to secondary today at SG 1.002

Do I need to do something about the amount of headspace? I don't have glass carboys, only these beer barrels. I could either top it up with some water or add some solid objects to increase the volume without diluting it.

The current volume of wine is 23 litres and I believe that the barrel holds a maximum of 26.5 litres.

 

[SPR]

Hi Raize

I'm from Nottingham and have been making Winexpert selection kits for just under a year. Mainly reds Luna Rosa etc etc. Also made lots of white selection kits as you can drink after about 3 months for us new wine makers

When I started I also made 3 Eclipse kits stags melot the Cabernet and the Nebbiolo Are they better than the standard selection kits ? Most definitely and they are well worth the money. I have started drinking the stags Merlot which is 6 months old (yes I know better after a year before you all pipe in but us newbie's need our liqueur!) and it's very very good. So good in fact for the sake of around £45 difference I think I am going to concentrate on Eclipse and just make occasional selection kits. The whites however are very good.

The Luna Rosa is very nice and its 6 months old as well and very full bodied and I will make it again. But, it's not anywhere near the Eclipse Merlot. I am no expert but you get grape skins with the Eclipse range and just seeing the fermentation and what comes out of them must do nothing than make it full bodied etc.

I started 2 more of the Stags Leap Merlot a few weeks ago and will order some more. For the effort made making the kits I think it's well worth it if your ok with the price

Best wishes

 

[sour_grapes]

Raize: Yes, you need to do something about that headspace. Don't add 3 liters of water -- this will dilute it toooo much. As you say, you could add some solid objects. You could also add 3 liters of a similar wine.

 

[wookey]

Raize: The headspace is bad, but only if you are planning to bulk age. If you are going to follow the instruction leave it and don't worry. Even in standard 23L carboys it is usually about a litre of headspace and the instruction explicitly says that it is normal and no problem. If, however, you want to bulk age for more than 2 weeks, I would get a smaller carboy rather than dilute the wine with this amount of water or non varietal wine.

 

[Raize]

I'm planning on bottle aging the wine as I'm aware that plastic is not a good container for wine, even if I do solve the headspace issue.
Any suggestions on what solid objects I could use to displace the wine? I've thought of:

Glass marbles - far too expensive for the quantity I need.
Water filled coke bottles - but these are not meant to be re-used, especially with alcohol, due to chemical leeching and bacterial risk.
Smooth stones from the beach - bacterial risk even if boiled thoroughly before adding?

The objects need to be 2 inches or less in diameter as the opening at the top of the barrel is only just 2 inches wide.