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I live in Canada near the north shore of Lake Erie, which has some fine vineyards. The trouble with acquiring quality grapevines here is the garden stores stock varietals that are pretty lame compared to the ones from the companies that provide vineyard-size orders. If I buy 10 quality vines...

I'm encouraged by your efforts. I figured that with only enough space for about 10 vines, it wouldn't be worthwhile. I'll follow your progress to see if it makes sense to grow my own grapes. I looked at buying vines and unless I buy 100 of them, the price is very high. How did you acquire your...

I rack a couple inches below the bung long-term in a 5-gallon carboy and bottle whatever is surplus. Most experienced winemakers top up a 6-gallon carboy with a similar wine but I usually don't have a bottle that I want to part with. I know it's the same thing but I can't bear the idea of using...

Much cheaper options: #1 Fill bottle with hottest tap water but keep label dry. After a couple minutes, most labels peel off without sticky residue if you pull label off slowly. I use needle nose pliers to put from edges. Save water by pouring hot water into another bottle with a label. #2 Spray...

I keep my wine in a corner of the basement that stays at 64-68 degrees for 10 months a year but on really hot days it can get up to 75-78. I make medium-priced kit wines and age them for two years or less. We consume 300-400 bottles a year so they don't last long. Any advice for me if I get into...

I made a batch of the Argentia Ridge Amarone 20 months ago and the product is just so-so. It's better now than a year ago but far from what I expected. I've had way better results with the bargain priced Cellar Master Cab Sauv and Gewurtztraminer (60 bottle kits) with a couple tweaks. Instead of...

I've been really happy with a Nebbiolo kit that came with dried grape skins and started researching what grape skins add to wine. I noticed an article about Welch's investigating table grape skins as a way to enhance cheaper reds. If I were to add grape skins from black table grapes I buy at the...

I'd guess that you're using grape juice that was never intended by Welch's to be made into wine. If it were wine quality juice, Welch's would sell it as juice for winemaking and charge a higher price. Welch's uses concord grapes for its juice. Concord (labrusca) grapes are used to make jam or...

How did it turn out?

I started making wine from Costco kits for just over two years and I agree that the best wine kits I've bought from Costco and elsewhere, and made according to the instructions provided, produce a drinkable everyday but unmemorable wine. One thing that vastly improved the quality, however, was...

If you wash your hands thoroughly and sanitize equipment as you should do anyway, there will be very little chance your wine or bottles will carry the Corona Virus. The fact that the winemaking process and racking the wine takes time (as long as no one is touching the equipment or bottles) any...

Over the past 2 years I've added less water to Costco Argentia wine kits. I use a 19 litre carboy instead of 23 litre carboy and the difference is amazing. You get 50 bottles (25 X 2) rather than 60 bottles but 10 fewer bottles is a small sacrifice for the quality improvement. So far, I've...