"Boutique" wineries using wine kits?

[Bmd2k1]

wondering if we have any small/boutique wineries on here that are only making vino via kits?

Would be interested in hearing about your experiences with this type of venture!

Cheers!

 

[Old Corker]

There’s a place here in Austin that does that. Actually two franchises in different areas of the Austin area. They only do kits although the word kit is never used. We did it for a few years and enjoyed ourselves. You go there do a tasting, decide what you want to make, mix the must and come back 6-8 weeks later and bottle it. They do all the in between work. Once I researched what they were doing I started doing it myself. I think the wine I make now using techniques mostly learned here is much better.

 

[Bmd2k1]

There’s a place here in Austin that does that. Actually two franchises in different areas of the Austin area. They only do kits although the word kit is never used. We did it for a few years and enjoyed ourselves. You go there do a tasting, decide what you want to make, mix the must and come back 6-8 weeks later and bottle it. They do all the in between work. Once I researched what they were doing I started doing it myself. I think the wine I make now using techniques mostly learned here is much better.

Thanks!

Wasn't really talking about a make ur own place....rather a winery who's vinos sold all come from kits.

Cheers ✌

 

[cmason1957]

There is a winery in Mid-Missouri that only makes kit wines. They are decent, but nothing to store home about. They are near the largest college in Missouri.

 

[Jovimaple]

One of my favorite wineries does at least some, if not all, of their fruit (non-grape) wines from concentrate. They grow some of their own grapes and buy others. No kits, though.

 

[Rice_Guy]

wondering if we have any small/boutique wineries on here that are only making vino via kits?
Would be interested in hearing about your experiences with this type of venture!

Running kits at a winery that holds them seems to be part of the Canadian home brew model.
I know one in Port Washington that mainly runs kits which then are baby sat and the “owner” gets to bottle with their custom label.

 

[VinesnBines]

I went to a winery that was using Walker's juice. The wines were good but the reds were pretty light in color; no skin contacts.

 

[wood1954]

I’ve been to a winery that uses kits as well as grapes from California

 

[wineview]

There is a winery in Mid-Missouri that only makes kit wines. They are decent, but nothing to store home about. They are near the largest college in Missouri.

College? MD 20/20?

 

[CDrew]

If you've ever been to the winery on the Big Island of Hawaii near Volcano National Park, all of their wine is made from concentrates and makes extremely average to poor wine. Though, the other tourists I saw there were buying in quantity!

I saw only 4-5 vines out front (not enough to makes any quantity of wine) and asked, and they freely admitted their wine if from concentrated grape juice, likely the same stuff that goes into kits.

 

[cmason1957]

College? MD 20/20?

No, not quite. I have been there a few times, relatives live near the college. The wine is decent, the winemaker knows what he is doing with it. The kits are the winery series kits you can buy from places like labelpeelers. And they are aged a decent amount prior to bottling. All are given fanciful names, instead of peach Apricot Chardonnay to avoid labeling issues with TTB.

 

[Hokapsig]

when we couldn't get grapes/juice during the pandemic, we had to resort to using some kits as a base, but jazzed the wines up to put our own stamp on them. These wines have now gained a following from how we modified them.

 

[ratflinger]

There’s a place here in Austin that does that. Actually two franchises in different areas of the Austin area. They only do kits although the word kit is never used. We did it for a few years and enjoyed ourselves. You go there do a tasting, decide what you want to make, mix the must and come back 6-8 weeks later and bottle it. They do all the in between work. Once I researched what they were doing I started doing it myself. I think the wine I make now using techniques mostly learned here is much better.

Exactly my experience, except at a Water to Wine in San Antonio. Looked around, noted what they had, went home, got on the web, and now here I am so many years latter with an enjoyable hobby.

 

[Noontime]

The larger wine kit manufacturers actually make larger kits for commercial/retail use (or, at least they used to a few years ago). Contact their sales teams to get more info.

 

[Bprinc]

Pretty much every winery in my state uses kits or some kind of concentrate juice.

 

[She’sgonnakillme]

I know they buy a lot of these kits..

Matt at LP says he sells them by the pallets to commercial wineries.

https://labelpeelers.com/winery-series-kits/

 

[VinesnBines]

One of the dirty secrets of commercial wineries. Others being that they buy most of their grapes, use custom crush and use Mega Purple. There are many others - too many to list.