Eclipse Bourbon Barrel Zinfandel Cabernet Wine Kit

[Jon Hunwick]

Made a few batches Tuesday as soon as they came in.

The smell of the Bourbon Oak is fantastic! It really bursts right out of the packet. The grapeskins are included, and I believe they're mostly Zinfandel-based. (At least from what I can guess from the smell)

I more than recommend going for maximum exposure with the bourbon after adding it it during stabilizing. Eight or nine weeks should do it!

 

[Boatboy24]

Mine arrives on Tuesday - I'll probably start it next weekend.

 

[geek]

sounds interesting......

 

[sour_grapes]

I have a contrarian question: why not just add a little, you know, actual bourbon to a regular kit along with the oak?

 

[Boatboy24]

I have a contrarian question: why not just add a little, you know, actual bourbon to a regular kit along with the oak?

Because that just wouldn't sound as cool.

 

[codeman]

I have a contrarian question: why not just add a little, you know, actual bourbon to a regular kit along with the oak?

Well you know all those closeted underaged vintners making wine under their parents nose. How are they going to get bourbon?

 

[geek]

Do they actually add bourbon to the juice bag? [emoji51]

 

[Johnd]

Do they actually add bourbon to the juice bag? [emoji51]

They’re certainly not aging the juice in a bourbon barrel prior to shipping, doesn’t really leave many options, other than bourbon or chips / dust / cubes from used bourbon barrels, or both...... My guess would be one of the oak additives is made from the bourbon barrels.

 

[LouisCKpasteur]

You get two packets of bourbon barrel oak with the kit. One goes in right from the git go, the other during stabilization. I reckon there's going to be no shortage of bourbon oak if they choose to make this kit a permanent fixture like Forza - https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-warehouse-barrels-collapses-again/758301002/

When I read about bourbon retention ponds I thought I might be pondering heaven.

 

[geek]

They’re certainly not aging the juice in a bourbon barrel prior to shipping, doesn’t really leave many options, other than bourbon or chips / dust / cubes from used bourbon barrels, or both...... My guess would be one of the oak additives is made from the bourbon barrels.

Yep, I thought about that too.

 

[jumby]

Just received my 2 kits. Surprisingly there are no "Oak cubes" included in this kit for bulk aging. It comes with 2 bags of Bourbon Barrel oak chips and 1 bag of Oak med & heavy granular blend. According to the instructions all go in during the initial fermentation. It looks like I'll be tweaking this kit a little and tossing in a French Oak medium plus spiral during bulk aging.

 

[jumby]

Here's a pic of the included oak.View attachment 49807

 

[kyle5434]

Just received my 2 kits. Surprisingly there are no "Oak cubes" included in this kit for bulk aging. It comes with 2 bags of Bourbon Barrel oak chips and 1 bag of Oak med & heavy granular blend. According to the instructions all go in during the initial fermentation. It looks like I'll be tweaking this kit a little and tossing in a French Oak medium plus spiral during bulk aging.

These are the instructions listed on the Southern Homebrew site:

"In order to obtain optimal bourbon character in the finished wine, the Eclipse Bourbon Barrel limited release follows a unique oaking process that deviates slightly from our standard instructions.

The kit includes three packets of oak chips: - 2 packets of Bourbon Oak chips - 1 packet of Med-Heavy oak chips

Step 1.6 PRIMARY FERMENTATION: - Add 1 packet of Bourbon Oak chips & the Med-Heavy oak packet.

Step 3.3 CLEARING: - Add the 2nd packet of Bourbon Oak chips. Normally only oak cubes are added during Step 3. - As such, all packets of the Bourbon Oak chips will be labelled with the following notice: Please save one packet of 007206 Bourbon Oak Chips 60g to add at Step 3.3 (Day 15 - Clearing) in your instructions.

Adding the Bourbon Oak chips to the wine during Primary Fermentation and then again during Clearing enhances the wine, giving it more pronounced bourbon character."

 

[jumby]

I just double checked and that's "NOT" the instructions that were included with either of my kits. The instructions I received appear to be the standard instructions for all Eclipse kits with skins.

There are the instructions listed on the Southern Homebrew site:

"In order to obtain optimal bourbon character in the finished wine, the Eclipse Bourbon Barrel limited release follows a unique oaking process that deviates slightly from our standard instructions.

The kit includes three packets of oak chips: - 2 packets of Bourbon Oak chips - 1 packet of Med-Heavy oak chips

Step 1.6 PRIMARY FERMENTATION: - Add 1 packet of Bourbon Oak chips & the Med-Heavy oak packet.

Step 3.3 CLEARING: - Add the 2nd packet of Bourbon Oak chips. Normally only oak cubes are added during Step 3. - As such, all packets of the Bourbon Oak chips will be labelled with the following notice: Please save one packet of 007206 Bourbon Oak Chips 60g to add at Step 3.3 (Day 15 - Clearing) in your instructions.

Adding the Bourbon Oak chips to the wine during Primary Fermentation and then again during Clearing enhances the wine, giving it more pronounced bourbon character."

 

[jumby]

Winexpert Official, can you shed some light on the conflicting instructions? It looks like the wrong instructions were included with both my kits.

Hi there,

Let's put all these rumours to rest - the Eclipse Bourbon Barrel Zinfandel Cabernet absolutely DOES come with grape skins!

 

[Johnd]

@Winexpert Official - see the post above

 

[LouisCKpasteur]

The deviant instructions can be discerned only on the two bourbon oak packets themselves, where both are marked to hold one of them for the clearing stage.

 

[jumby]

Both sets of the Bourbon Oak packages in both kits have the identical numbers on all 4 packs. So holding back a specific package makes no sense. There's no mention to hold 1 back anywhere in my instructions.

 

[LouisCKpasteur]

Well, I still have one....my reads on the back - Please save one packet of 007206 Bourbon Oak Chips 60g to add at Sep 3.3 (Day 15 -Clearing). The other said this too - though it's in the fermenter now (and at 52 hours a particular vigorous fermentation).

 

[jumby]

The entire back of my instructions are in another language and I have no clue what it says. That's my point, the wrong instructions were included in both of my kits. I don't doubt what you are saying. Quite the contrary, I plan on proceeding with both of my kits according to your instructions. This is the 3rd kit in the last year I received from Winexpert with the wrong instructions. The 1st being a Island Mist hard lemonade kit, the 2nd being Forza and now both of these kits. Luckily for me I have enough experience under my belt to pick on Winexperts mistakes. For the price you pay for these kits you would think Winexpert would have better quality control procedures in place.