WineXpert Availability of WE LE Oregon Pinot Noir

[Jericurl]

I wish I would have gotten one when I had the chance.
Crap.

 

[wildvines]

After a bit of delay I left my Pinot clearing for a longer period of time I racked off lees and it is now bulk aging. It tasted fantastic. Can't wait till the year mark


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[DoctorCAD]

I racked mine Sunday. It really looks fantastic and smells wonderful.

 

[francois_du_nord]

This was the kit that sucked me into the wine side of the hobby. Ran into it a few months ago at the LHBS while looking for some acid blend for my first ever mead which wasn't exactly fermenting according to plan.

I have now put two lower grade kits into the fermenters, and have one about ready to rack off the lees. I'm hoping to get the Pinot started by Aug 1 at the latest. 3 more kits in the inventory to follow that one. Yes, I've got the bug bad.

Thanks for the positive comments, it's got me salivating at the thought of getting mine started.

Best, Fran

 

[UglyJohn]

I am pretty sure I know who you are talking about, probably located in New Smyrna Beach, FL. I contacted them regarding shipping status in January for my LE South African Shiraz/Cab as I was going to be out of town a few days and didn't want the kit to sit on my door step during the polar vortex. I got an incredibly rude response from them and will never use them again regardless of price. A few bucks is not worth dealing with those sort of people.

I live near Jacksonville, and New Smyrna is about 2 hours away. I was going there for a weekend, and was going to swing by the retail store to pick up 3 kits, a bunch of bottles, corks, chemicals, etc. I had priced everything out from their web site, and was very happy with what they advertised.

When I got there, they told me that their on-line prices were only on-line, and the in-store prices were different. I'm not talking a couple bucks here - for an Eclipse kit, the price jumped from about $115 on-line, to $154 in the store.

I asked them if they were really telling me it would be cheaper to go home, order those kits, and have them shipped than to pick them up with me right then. Yup. Sure enough with shipping it would have been $20 per kit - so still $20 cheaper than in the store. And, they refused to budge from their boneheaded policy. I put my $400+ worth of stuff back on the shelves, and hit the road. They will never get another dime from me.

There is a nice little superstore for wine making supplies located in Winter Garden that I now use. They have the same prices on kits, and honor the same price on-line and in the store. Nice folks, too, although I have not had any experience with their shipping poilicies. They have been great about calling when my LE kits came in, and had no problem with me calling in to add to my order. They were also great about ordering an Eclipse kit that they did not normally stock for me, and called me as soon as it came in. Very friendly when I called a couple times checking to see if they had an idea of when it would be in also. IIRC, it was only a couple weeks for it to arrive. So now, I just wait until I need enough stuff to make the drive worthwhile, and head on down there. It's about 2 1/2 hours driving for me, so still not too bad.

I just started my LE Oregon Pinot Noir (that I got from the superstore for cheaps!) 2 nights ago. This is my first pinot, but I've read a few things about battonage on them. What are ya'lls thought on doing that with this kit?

How is this wine a few months in? I have medium hungarian oak cubes - would this wine benefit from these, or should I just stick with the chips in the kit?

John

 

[richmke]

FYI Northern Brewer has the LE 2013 Oregon Pinot Noir for $139.99. It is available at their Milwaukee location. It is not listed on their online store. If you call, they might ship it to you.

 

[francois_du_nord]

I just started my LE Pinot yesterday. I went off campus with a small addition of 3-4 G of FT Rouge tannins. Mine had the Bourgovin RC-212 as yeast, I'm not sure if that was in all of them or not, I seem to recall some folks talking about a different strain.

Then after all was put together, I was playing with my wine spreadsheet, and what did I spy, but my LHS had a 15% off on a couple of kits, one I've been waiting on for a while, so I came home after work with a couple more projects and a new 6 gallon carboy, and fired up a VR Sangiovese tonight.

I'll keep y'all posted

Best, Fran

 

[heatherd]

I bottled the LE pinot recently, without tweaks it is really nice already. I didn't add extra oak to this, beyond what came in the kit, because I wanted to keep the fruitier style of Willamette Valley pinots. I like it very much, will be great in a year.

I made a British Colombia pinot with more oak. Both are good but I like the Oregon one better.

Heather


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[NoSnob]

I live near Jacksonville, and New Smyrna is about 2 hours away. I was going there for a weekend, and was going to swing by the retail store to pick up 3 kits, a bunch of bottles, corks, chemicals, etc. I had priced everything out from their web site, and was very happy with what they advertised.

When I got there, they told me that their on-line prices were only on-line, and the in-store prices were different. I'm not talking a couple bucks here - for an Eclipse kit, the price jumped from about $115 on-line, to $154 in the store.

I asked them if they were really telling me it would be cheaper to go home, order those kits, and have them shipped than to pick them up with me right then. Yup. Sure enough with shipping it would have been $20 per kit - so still $20 cheaper than in the store. And, they refused to budge from their boneheaded policy. I put my $400+ worth of stuff back on the shelves, and hit the road. They will never get another dime from me.

There is a nice little superstore for wine making supplies located in Winter Garden that I now use. They have the same prices on kits, and honor the same price on-line and in the store. Nice folks, too, although I have not had any experience with their shipping poilicies. They have been great about calling when my LE kits came in, and had no problem with me calling in to add to my order. They were also great about ordering an Eclipse kit that they did not normally stock for me, and called me as soon as it came in. Very friendly when I called a couple times checking to see if they had an idea of when it would be in also. IIRC, it was only a couple weeks for it to arrive. So now, I just wait until I need enough stuff to make the drive worthwhile, and head on down there. It's about 2 1/2 hours driving for me, so still not too bad.

I just started my LE Oregon Pinot Noir (that I got from the superstore for cheaps!) 2 nights ago. This is my first pinot, but I've read a few things about battonage on them. What are ya'lls thought on doing that with this kit?

How is this wine a few months in? I have medium hungarian oak cubes - would this wine benefit from these, or should I just stick with the chips in the kit?

John

The Florida sales tax, alone, on a premium kit like you cite runs about $9.00. Internet sales are exempt from sales tax. So you can save almost $30 per kit buying online and shipped versus buying in-store. Their policies are not always customer-oriented, that's for sure. I think their business model is that internet sales can be transacted with a minimum of customer interface (i.e., customer service) and the expenses they do not incur are passed on to the customers. I don't expect much from them in the way of customer service. In my experience they deliver kits in reasonable time frame for an excellent price. Now should they screw up my order I may not be so pleasant about them.

Either way, I think you'll find the WE LE Oregon Pinot Noir to be an excellent kit. I bottled it today and had topped up with several bottles of Pinot Noir I had made from California juice buckets. The WE is lightly fruity, very smooth and good to drink right now (which is rare for a kit). It also seemed to have less of the KT we are accustomed to in a green kit wine. I made mine pretty much by the book so I can't help you on the tweaks. Hope you enjoy!
NS

 

[ibglowin]

FL charges sales tax on grape juice?

 

[NoSnob]

FL charges sales tax on grape juice?

Well I have been thinking for some time that was the case. I just checked with two Florida LHBSs and neither charges sales tax for in-store wine kit sales.

I buy my kits over the net and pay no sales tax. My feeble defense is that I thought internet sales of wine kits were exempt from Florida sales tax while in-store sales were not.

Mea culpa. Thanks for helping me correct my mistake.

NS

 

[GaDawg]

Their policies are not always customer-oriented, that's for sure. I think their business model is that internet sales can be transacted with a minimum of customer interface (i.e., customer service) and the expenses they do not incur are passed on to the customers.
NS

Does anyone see a problem with a retail business that does not want to provide customer service?

 

[ibglowin]

Any business that does not put customer service as job #1 will be out of business PDQ.

 

[joshs]

Any updates on this kit? I am hopefully starting mine very soon, just waiting to transfer a Pinot Grigio to free up a carboy.

-Josh

 

[sour_grapes]

Any updates on this kit? I am hopefully starting mine very soon, just waiting to transfer a Pinot Grigio to free up a carboy.

-Josh

Well, I just bottled mine (6 mos. after pitching yeast). At bottling time, it was pretty dang nice. Still a little green, but very drinkable. As advertised, it is in the style of a lighter Burgundian Pinot Noir, as is typical of Oregon. I made no tweaks to the kit.

 

[Jericurl]

Getting ready to bottle mine this weekend.

Pretty happy with the taste so far, can't wait to see how she ages. I made as is, no tweaks to the kit.

I don't want to use the labels that came with it, so I'm busy designing another one.

 

[sour_grapes]

Jeri, when did you pitch yeast on this one (approximately)?

 

[Jericurl]

Paul,

Let me dink around and find my notes. I have no idea where they are, but I'll let you know.


eta:
Yeast pitched on Sunday, 06/22/14

 

[sour_grapes]

PYeast pitched on Sunday, 06/22/14

Thanks for looking that up, sorry to put you to the trouble.

I was almost exactly 2 mos. ahead of you: pitched yeast on 4/14/14, bottled on 10/14/14. Mine was quite tasty at bottling, too (as mentioned above).

 

[Jericurl]

30.5 bottles.

Extremely happy with the taste on this one.

(the little bottles in the front are..ahem...cough tonic...)