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Hmm, not a lot of responses makes me a bit worried to try this. Guess I’ll see how dangerous I feel next week!

Curious if many people have tried this? I’m looking to try to increase extraction of color and flavor from a Syrah and will be working with a batch small enough where I can easily control temp to keep it where I want it for however long I want to. Questions that I’ve been mulling over: 1) How...

I have another packet of ML from last fall. They did say you have to pre-order any yeast or other items you want because it’s a “no transaction” pickup where everything must be pre-paid so they can get you in and out. I’m all set, just need those Syrah grapes!

So here I am a year later and still have about 8 of these left. I have to say that I am less impressed with it than I was last year but think that’s because I no longer think it’s improving. It’s still in my top 2-3 kits all time but if it were still available I’d pass for the RJS Super Tuscan.

Just got a call today from CFP Produce in Pittsburgh. The Chilean grapes will be ready May15th but they are limited to a certain number of pickups each hour and each day. I Was able to grab the first time slot. Planning to do a 3-5 day cold soak On my Syrah this time and split the batch in half...

CFP winemakers in the strip is your new friend. I think that South African grapes already came and the Chilean are due in mid-May. They took orders a few months back but they probably order extra so check out their website. Winemaking grapes, juice, equipment, and supplies

Any cold soak or just doing 24hrs with the enzymes? I think I’m going to try a 5 day cold soak at 50-55 when my Chilean grapes come in May.

I’ve got a bunch of corny kegs and thought I’d this too but you need to let the wine degass so you would have to mechanically degas first (e.g. whip) and I really don’t want to do that.

Came across this video of a commercial winemaker who doesn’t top up barrels for ~18 months. Says that a good seal can be maintained by keeping the bung at the 2 o’clock position and will result in a vacuum so no need to top up to displace air. He says that the process of topping up itself...

Never had any real nose on any kit that I have ever made. It’s one of my gripes with kits.

Just heard from CFP winemakers that As of now the Chilean grapes are still supposed to arrive on schedule in mid-May. Hope this holds true!

Wow, my first wine was I for 6 weeks and it was heavy. I can’t imagine what it would be like at 6 months! How long did that take to mellow out?

Nice. Will that be a field blend or 2 varietals?

I can’t speak for anyone else but my “motives” are to pass along my experiences to others. I remember when I started the kits and thought that were only so-so everyone kept saying “just wait”. So...I waited...and kept making more kits to stock up. Well, here I am 4 years later and there are all...

Are they “not adding as much water” or are the removing more to get the reduced volume? I know that some people feel that the water removal process is detrimental to the finished product so they would not find this comforting.

I partially agree. I think that all of the WE Eclipse kits taste pretty similar but not exactly the same. I wonder if that varietal percentage isn’t lower than 75%.

I commend you if you are able to beat out quality AG wines in a blind taste test, and mean no disrespect to kit makers...but all I can offer are my own experiences. I’ve now made 15-20 kits, from all of the major manufactures and from all of the concentration levels. I have bulk aged these...

But of course this is the new “get out of jail free” phrase for companies to justify reducing costs via reducing quality or something inherent expense. The fact that they even said this signals to me that an already flawed product (IMO) will become even worse. So so so glad I had already moved...

I have made 4 buckets from CFP winemakers over the last 2 years. The first two were just buckets and I found them really thin not all that pleasing to drink. The second 2 were buckets that I added to pressed skins from batches of all grape wines. These 2 are much better but still a bit thin...

I don’t think anything used by home winemakers actually tests TA, you just use the pH meter to do the acid test. So if you already have a pH meter I don’t think the process is really any different.