# the cost of storebought and home made wine



## shanek17 (Jun 2, 2012)

Like many of us home brewers the cost of wine can be of interest.

I was interested to know how much it costs to buy storebought wine compared to homemade, and if there is a big difference in price. 

So for examples I took a hypothetical 23 liter carboy and imagined it was filled to the top with homemade wine, and then thought, how much would it cost to fill this carboy with your average storebought wine. 

So let's pretend the store wine costs 20$ per 750ml bottle. And I know that there are 23000 ml in a 23 liter carboy. And that roughly 30 bottles can fit in this carboy.

23000ml divided by 750ml bottles = 30.6667 x 20$ = 613.333$

So according to my calculation it would cost 613$ to fill that carboy with storebought wine! And my first wine kit cost 35$ plus some supplies. So maybe around 100-150$


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## cpfan (Jun 2, 2012)

shane...

If I recall correctly you live in Canada. BC? Wine prices vary a LOT by location. US prices generally much lower than Canadian. If you are going to make posts like this perhaps you can indicate your Location in the Control Panel.

Also which wine did you choose at $20? There's lots of decent wines (even in BC) around $10-12/bottle.

Steve


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## Runningwolf (Jun 2, 2012)

Steve I agree with you. I would say the average a person is going to pay in the states is 10.00. Yes there are many wines people buy for a lot more and then there is two niche chuck you can buy for three dollars. I can buy juice at an average of about ten dollars a gallon up to about 18 dollars for the big reds and late harvest. But anyway you figure you nearly make your investment back in savings on the first carboy. 

Another thought though is I wouldn't have 99% of the wine I have now if I was buying it commercially.


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## TonyP (Jun 2, 2012)

Sorry but I must differ on your numbers, at least in the US. You say, "So according to my calculation it would cost 613$ to fill that carboy with storebought wine! And my first wine kit cost 35$ plus some supplies. So maybe around 100-150$". In the US, a $35 wine kit is rock bottom and it makes flavored wine, not very good. My guess is comparable wine would be approx. $7 for a 2-litre bottle. If you opt for $100 kit I believe you could make a $15 bottle of wine. The wine kit plus bottles, corks, and labels would cost around $5 per bottle. To get to a $20 bottle I suspect you'd need a $130 kit. I've never done it, but assume the way to get cost down is to buy ingredients individually rather than as a kit.

I believe the big difference in cost between purchased and home made wine comes in labor, which is zero for home made.


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## shanek17 (Jun 3, 2012)

TonyP said:


> Sorry but I must differ on your numbers, at least in the US. You say, "So according to my calculation it would cost 613$ to fill that carboy with storebought wine! And my first wine kit cost 35$ plus some supplies. So maybe around 100-150$". In the US, a $35 wine kit is rock bottom and it makes flavored wine, not very good. My guess is comparable wine would be approx. $7 for a 2-litre bottle. If you opt for $100 kit I believe you could make a $15 bottle of wine. The wine kit plus bottles, corks, and labels would cost around $5 per bottle. To get to a $20 bottle I suspect you'd need a $130 kit. I've never done it, but assume the way to get cost down is to buy ingredients individually rather than as a kit.
> 
> I believe the big difference in cost between purchased and home made wine comes in labor, which is zero for home made.



Tony mentioned above that a 100$ kit would be closer in quality to a 15$ storebought wine. that may be true, im still learning about wine qualities. But even if you went ahead for an expensive wine kit it should still save some money. for 15$ bottles of wine to fill the carboy that would cost 460$. So even if you bought an expensive 100$ wine kit thats 360 $ less than buying them from the store. 

Actually tony, my cheap wine kit came with corks and labels and those shrink wraps, so i just needed to get the bottles. I was pretty happy that a cheap wine kit came with those things. Im guessing from your reply that not all kits come with these items?


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## shanek17 (Jun 3, 2012)

Yes I live in Canada and in Ontario. I realize there are differences based on which wines you choose for examples. the examples i used I thought were pretty similar , I haven't bought bottled wine in years but I remember the cheapest bottles were 15 - 20$. I thought that comparing my cheap wine kit to a cheap 20$ bottle would be pretty close for similar quality. 

You guys can get 3$ bottles of wine? iv never seen any wine at our stores lower than 10$. Or maybe i need to go down to the local store and have another look! 
the equation I used can be moved around to suit you comparisons. Its a good template to get a rough idea of how much you can save with buying wine kits. Or even making your wine from scratch. Im guessing wine from scratch could be even better for saving money, and allows you to be more creative. my equation was more so for getting a discussion going on the matter and hearing your thoughts.


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