A few questions!

[CabEnthusiast]

I am doing a cheap Syrah kit as an experiment to see how good I can make it for those wondering its a winelovers kit done intentionally to get the cheapest kit i could, Decided to add a grape skin pack to it all together only in it for $70, What I am wondering is what would you guys recommend oaking it with, Chips? A spiral? My local shop has Medium and Heavy toast American and French Oak Chips and Spirals.
Can get like 8 ounces of chips for $6.00 and a 2 pack of spirals which is good for 5 or 6 gallons per spiral is $12.00.

Would you guys go with RC-212? I have all the lalvin yeasts available at my local shop as well as pretty much all the white labs wine yeasts.

 

[NorCal]

RC212 is a good one, I’m a fan of the spirals. Good luck!

 

[CabEnthusiast]

RC212 is a good one, I’m a fan of the spirals. Good luck!

How heavy are spirals compared to chips? Easier to over oak? I tried a spiral once but the batch I used it in picked up a infection so don't have experience with flavor impact.

 

[NorCal]

I’ve used chips once and I felt I got harsher, woody tannins. I like the medium toast spirals; the medium plus is a bit much for me, but good for the bigger wines. I used 30 spirals this last season, yea I’m a fan.

 

[CabEnthusiast]

I’ve used chips once and I felt I got harsher, woody tannins. I like the medium toast spirals; the medium plus is a bit much for me, but good for the bigger wines. I used 30 spirals this last season, yea I’m a fan.

Cool, I'll give one a try and see how it goes, I'm hoping that with age I'll get something great. I'm intending to age for as long as I can tolerate at least 6 months but might go a year if I can stand it. And hope that turns it into something decent. I've done 2 $170 kits, so I wanted to do this test to see if with ingredients and a cheap kit I can pull of similar or even a better wine at $100 cheaper.

 

[kuziwk]

I am doing a cheap Syrah kit as an experiment to see how good I can make it for those wondering its a winelovers kit done intentionally to get the cheapest kit i could, Decided to add a grape skin pack to it all together only in it for $70, What I am wondering is what would you guys recommend oaking it with, Chips? A spiral? My local shop has Medium and Heavy toast American and French Oak Chips and Spirals.
Can get like 8 ounces of chips for $6.00 and a 2 pack of spirals which is good for 5 or 6 gallons per spiral is $12.00.

Would you guys go with RC-212? I have all the lalvin yeasts available at my local shop as well as pretty much all the white labs wine yeasts.

I have never tried the spirals but they are great if you are worried about over oaking as you can easily pull them out. In my experience oak fades with time once in the wine. Personally I think the easiest and best approach is chips during primary and cubes when aging. I pretty much always add 30-50G of cubes of my choice to most of my wines unless the wine was not intended to be oaked or I deem it not needing it. Many of the cheaper wine kits don't include cubes, so I end up buying them and putting them in anyways.

 

[CabEnthusiast]

I have never tried the spirals but they are great if you are worried about over oaking as you can easily pull them out. In my experience oak fades with time once in the wine. Personally I think the easiest and best approach is chips during primary and cubes when aging. I pretty much always add 30-50G of cubes of my choice to most of my wines unless the wine was not intended to be oaked or I deem it not needing it. Many of the cheaper wine kits don't include cubes, so I end up buying them and putting them in anyways.

The kit comes in tommorrow because it got lost in shipping so they sent me a new one, American or French Oak for a syrah? Im thinking of doing french oak.

 

[jumby]

The kit comes in tommorrow because it got lost in shipping so they sent me a new one, American or French Oak for a syrah? Im thinking of doing french oak.

I use Spiral French Oak Medium Plus Toast in mine for bulk aging. In fact that's what I use in all my reds.

 

[kuziwk]

The kit comes in tommorrow because it got lost in shipping so they sent me a new one, American or French Oak for a syrah? Im thinking of doing french oak.

For Syrah I would go with American, but it depends on how much you like oak. I find American oak tends to have more flavor which works well with heavier grapes, it can also balance the jammy/fruit forward flavor of warmer climate grapes such as Australian Shiraz.

 

[CabEnthusiast]

For Syrah I would go with American, but it depends on how much you like oak. I find American oak tends to have more flavor which works well with heavier grapes, it can also balance the jammy/fruit forward flavor of warmer climate grapes such as Australian Shiraz.

Yeah, the kit says the concentrate/juice is from Australia. Matter of fact it's a dually labeled Shiraz but I prefer syrah as the name.