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Question on the FWK chard: it comes with about 45g of oak chips (sacrificial tannins). Has anyone added oak to it? And if so, what oak and what were your results? I ask because I added oak to the Sonoma Dry Creek from WE and was very happy with the results. Thinking Light or Medium Toast...

Kicked off the FWK Chardonnay and Northern Rhone this morning. The Rhone was a little hotter than I anticipated - OG came in around 1.108 or so, so I added just a bit more water till it got closer to 1.100. This is the second time I'm working with carbon... can be messy if you're not careful...

I have trust issues. =)

A quick follow up - my chardonnay and Northern Rhone kits showed up yesterday - stellar delivery times as always from Label Peelers. But, the interesting thing is this: both kits showed up in one cooler box. That's the first time that's ever happened. I'm not upset about that at all, just an...

I've been very pleased with the quality of my wines from FWK. Granted, I was doing two packs of grape skins from the beginning: and I like to add French Medium (Plus) oak to my wines. But, the wines have been very satisfying. We rate them better than any PA, VA and NY wines we've had so far...

Bottled the Pinot Noir on Sunday and sampled the Meritage and Zin over the weekend. While still young, they were both delicious. I'm not going to plow through either of them - planning to let them age another year before digging in. But, they were better than my efforts with fresh grapes on...

I think it was in around 1.090 +/-. I'll look the next time I'm in the cellar. I hit the two-week mark on Sunday and racked the wine to a clean carboy. It was gray from the suspended carbon in the wine. A couple hours after hitting it with the clarifiers, it looked like it should (and there...

A little update on the Grenache Rose... The FWK comes with carbon and bentonite. That surprised me a little, but NBD. I dropped the yeast on Sunday morning, first thing and the wine is chugging away. Added the yeast nutrient this morning and gave it a stir. It smells great - like strawberry...

I usually make a Rose as a summer wine for my wife and daughters. It’s also good with salads and salmon - meals we have more often in the warmer months. I’ve done the WE kits - sangio and French Pinot kits. And, we buy commercial rose wines too. So I think I have a good basis for comparison...

Good morning oenophiles. The FWK sale ends today. I'm thinking about grabbing a Grenache Rose. My wife's summer wine is typically a dry rose with nice strawberry and raspberry flavors. The description seems to be on the money. But, I wonder if anyone did this one and how it turned out.

After 2 weeks, I racked my Sonoma blend wines from primary and secondary. They finished around 0.995, which is just the norm for me with FWK wines. They’ll sit in secondary while the lees settle, then we’ll rack and add oak (both the stuff Matteo provides and an extra spiral or M+ toast French...

I used to do EMs for my WineExpert kits in a BigMouth Bubbler. I haven’t done an EM on the FW Kits yet. Do you do yours in a sealed bucket with an airlock or do you move it to something with less surface to air contact?

Started the Sonoma blend wines on Sunday morning. Last night (4.5 days later in a 68° basement) my SG is down to 1.010 and the skins are barely staying afloat. That’s just too damned fast. Snapped the lids down and air locked the wines. Going to let it sit till next Sunday at least.

My first big haul of used wine bottles was from a white-linen restaurant on one of their wine dinner nights. Must've gone home with 5 or 6 cases of bottles (750ml Bordeaux style). Other suggestions: Check craigslist and FB marketplace. I scored about 19 cases from a guy who was getting out...

If he did, I missed it.

My thought - if they gave me a kit with three skin packs, I'd use all three. The more the merrier.

Agreed. I crushed four lugs of grapes in about an hour or so using a milk crate to break the skins and separate the grapes from the stems/leaves. Worked exceptionally well.

Reconstituted the juice and prepped the must on Saturday. Dropped the yeast in my Sonoma blends on Sunday morning. The SG was a solid 1.110 for both batches and the juice smelled pretty phenomenal. Fermentation is active... the foam from punching is like dropping a scoop of vanilla ice cream...

My pre-ordered Sonoma blend kits showed up yesterday. Will stop on the way home tonight and get some distilled water and prep the kits for a morning ferment. I haven't even opened the boxes yet. Been a rough month or so and I have had very little time to play in the cellar. Looking forward...

I believe I have a Forte Barbera made with two skin packs (will check my order history to verify that it's a Forte). Would be interesting to compare them. It will got in the bottle before the end of summer.