Finer Wine Kit Finer Wine Kits

[David Violante]

Just received an email from Label Peelers / Finer Wines... as of 5 mins ago (1:40pm Eastern):

Limited Stock
On Sale Now
Shipping Monday!

Zinfandel Kit
Sangiovese Kit
Merlot Kit

 

[BLUE]

Not sure where you saw that. On LP website it says "out of stock" for all of them. You can add one to your "wish list", but you cannot order one.

Just received an email from LP. They now have Zinfandel, Sangiovese and Merlot kits in stock, shipping Monday!

 

[Gilmango]

My experience so far (Cab and Merlot):

Fedex took 8 days to Seattle but contents were still below 60 degrees, no issues. The juice bag is lighter than other kits but with the styrofoam cooler the packaging is much bigger. Does that really save shipping costs?

Instructions. Unlike other kits, you get a 20 page spiral bound book. A little wordy. Heavy emphasis on sanitation, "Don't make wine in your kitchen or bathroom". Ha! If it weren't for those rooms I wouldn't be an aspiring home winemaker! Includes a nice bio on the kit creator and his vision for a better process.

Instructions call for rehydrating the yeast for a day, which I've never done before. Worked well. RC-212 took off almost instantly, hit 1.000 in 5 days.

Skins are very dry, soak up a lot of wine. After squeezing by hand they still contain a lot of juice. I started with 6 gallons in the primaries, ended up with 5-1/2 in the carboys.

So far, so good. Let us know how your journey goes.

Very cool to hear from someone who got in on the first shipment. The booklet is available in PDF form here for anyone who wants to read it before their kit arrives (or hasn't bought a kit yet): https://indd.adobe.com/view/929e37e4-36a7-4ac5-af96-cd2cfd61bcbe

The most interesting thing in the book is that he says that all kits, regardless of price or varietal, come from pasteurized juice, concentrate, even skins in order to be shelf stable and that leads them to taste "cooked and dead" with an "unmistakable flavor in all pasteurized juice kits" which he and fellow wine contest judges could always pick out. (See page 17, bottom of the only full paragraph). Hence his kits is unpasteurized and ships cold and needs to be kept cold, if this works he has solved "kit taste".

The other thing which stood out to me was that the booklet does not talk at all of bulk aging (nor extended maceration), like most kits it has you bottling within 8 weeks, using the usual fining agents and stabilizers, I think even sorbate is packed together with sulfite but I could be wrong there. But in terms of drinking the wines he is clear that the more skins you use the longer to leave the bottles alone. He suggests that all bottles will improve with age, but to wait at least 6-12 weeks if you used no skin packs, 4-6 months if you used a single skin pack, and 6-12 months if you used a double skin pack. (see #9 on page 15).

I still have not gotten any notice about the shipping of my Super Tuscan kit, but in no rush. Perhaps certain varietals are ready and shipping sooner than others?

I plan to do a shorter extended maceration (EM) on the double skin packs, for about 4 weeks. Not yet sure if I will bulk age (probably), or use all of the finings and stabilizers (maybe not, may just use sulfite), and what I'll do with the yeast and yeast starter (I like the idea of yeast starters but I'm also trying to create something I can closely and fairly compare to the RJS Super Tuscan which is in EM right now, and used BM4X4 yeast with Go Ferm simply rehydrated with no starter, then Ferm K at 65% of O.G.).

Very good information about how the double skin packs of dry skins soak up a decent amount of wine, I may just move to a 5 gallon carboy and keep the excess wine for topping off.

 

[my wine]

I received my kit about an hour ago. I opened it, tossed a couple of ice packs in and closed it up to start this weekend. I will likely use a different yeast than what's shipped (EC1118 I assume, haven't looked) and plan on bulk aging for 6 to 9 months before bottling since I got the double skin packs. Gilmango, thanks for the highlights! I pulled the book out they shipped with the kit. Will read it tonight.

 

[Lukaswine]

My experience so far (Cab and Merlot):

Fedex took 8 days to Seattle but contents were still below 60 degrees, no issues. The juice bag is lighter than other kits but with the styrofoam cooler the packaging is much bigger. Does that really save shipping costs?

Instructions. Unlike other kits, you get a 20 page spiral bound book. A little wordy. Heavy emphasis on sanitation, "Don't make wine in your kitchen or bathroom". Ha! If it weren't for those rooms I wouldn't be an aspiring home winemaker! Includes a nice bio on the kit creator and his vision for a better process.

Instructions call for rehydrating the yeast for a day, which I've never done before. Worked well. RC-212 took off almost instantly, hit 1.000 in 5 days.

Skins are very dry, soak up a lot of wine. After squeezing by hand they still contain a lot of juice. I started with 6 gallons in the primaries, ended up with 5-1/2 in the carboys.

So far, so good. Let us know how your journey goes.

thank you for the information. Just got word new kits are available to purchase.

 

[jgmann67]

Picked up the Merlot today. Can’t wait till it starts showing up at the door.

 

[JnLnNOVA]

I was holding off bc I still have some other kits waiting - couldn’t wait any longer lol! Got a merlot and zin wx2 skins. Looking forward to comparing the Finer Wines Lodi Zin juice with the Winexpert Lodi Zin I will do at the same time.

 

[Boatboy24]

Still waiting for my shipping notice, but getting excited!

 

[Old Corker]

Got my Sangiovese FWK yesterday. It was still pretty cool although I did not take a temperature reading because I was going to go ahead and start it. That and I broke my thermometer a couple of weeks ago. The kit came with RC212 yeast and an added sheet to the instructions that addressed some of the questions asked here. They said you can leave it on skins for a couple of 14 days and bulk aging is fine as long as sanitation is addressed. I mixed the must per instructions and added water to the 23 liter mark. SG before adding skins was 1.095 (great!). The double skin packs is as lot of skins. I probably could have fit them all in one bag put used both as suggested. Started the yeast around 6:00pm and it wasn't doing much this morning so I will wait until I get home this evening to pitch. The concentrated juice looked great. Very darkly colored and thick.

 

[bstnh1]

Ordered the Merlot with one skin pack over the weekend. Excited to give one of these a go!!

 

[David Violante]

I started my Zinfandel kit two days ago and have had similar experiences as SLM and Gilmango. Old Corker’s description is right on about the juice too. Mine started off with a pH of 3.5, and SG of 1.100. I used GoFerm and the RC212 it came with. There’s also an update sheet to further explain the directions in the booklet. It really took off and I had to cool it down a little. The starting temp was 68 and after day 1 in a 72F room it was at 82. Scott labs specs say it’s good between 60-86. I used Fermaid K and O at the 1/3 break. After two days, this morning it’s now at 1.015 and has a 2” foam cap when stirred. And it’s down to 77F. I plan on racking it later today. Smells and tastes great!

Any thoughts about doing a small second run with the skins?

 

[jgmann67]

My Cab arrived this morning. Two days from A to B. Waiting for my Merlot to ship.

looking forward to a night in the wine room. Gotta rack a rose and a Bordeaux blend,clean the fermenter and kick off the cab.

 

[jgmann67]

I got a notice that my Merlot Finer Wine Kit will arrive tomorrow. So, I cleaned up the wine room, racked the two wines I had in primary and called it a night.

I did check out the contents of my cooler and read through the instructions. Everything looks good and the instructions make sense.

Turns out Matteo grew up somewhere near where I did, in northeast NJ.

 

[bstnh1]

Got email that my Finer Merlot kit will be here Thursday.

 

[Keiyh]

Any thoughts on this product? Looked like a good deal to me so I went to pre-order one of each. Got 2 out of 3 since the Super Tuscan was already sold out.
Wine Making - Wine Kits - Finer Wine Kits - Label Peelers

Received my Zinfandel kit yesterday with the double skins. Was shipped cold and delivered via Fed Ex. Had to move some stuff around in the extra fridge as it does take up an entire shelf. Will start the kit one day this week and report back.
Anyone else start one of the Finer Wine kits yet?

 

[Khristyjeff]

Received my Zinfandel kit yesterday with the double skins. Was shipped cold and delivered via Fed Ex. Had to move some stuff around in the extra fridge as it does take up an entire shelf. Will start the kit one day this week and report back.
Anyone else start one of the Finer Wine kits yet?

I have one of the 1st batch Cab Sauv with double skins that could be bottled now but I'm aging in carboy for a few months or more. It tastes a bit tart at this point but should mellow and be very good with time. I also am expecting delivery today of a Pinot Noir Finer Wine Ki, so I'm pretty excited.

 

[heatherd]

Very cool to hear from someone who got in on the first shipment. The booklet is available in PDF form here for anyone who wants to read it before their kit arrives (or hasn't bought a kit yet): https://indd.adobe.com/view/929e37e4-36a7-4ac5-af96-cd2cfd61bcbe

The most interesting thing in the book is that he says that all kits, regardless of price or varietal, come from pasteurized juice, concentrate, even skins in order to be shelf stable and that leads them to taste "cooked and dead" with an "unmistakable flavor in all pasteurized juice kits" which he and fellow wine contest judges could always pick out. (See page 17, bottom of the only full paragraph). Hence his kits is unpasteurized and ships cold and needs to be kept cold, if this works he has solved "kit taste".

The other thing which stood out to me was that the booklet does not talk at all of bulk aging (nor extended maceration), like most kits it has you bottling within 8 weeks, using the usual fining agents and stabilizers, I think even sorbate is packed together with sulfite but I could be wrong there. But in terms of drinking the wines he is clear that the more skins you use the longer to leave the bottles alone. He suggests that all bottles will improve with age, but to wait at least 6-12 weeks if you used no skin packs, 4-6 months if you used a single skin pack, and 6-12 months if you used a double skin pack. (see #9 on page 15).

I still have not gotten any notice about the shipping of my Super Tuscan kit, but in no rush. Perhaps certain varietals are ready and shipping sooner than others?

I plan to do a shorter extended maceration (EM) on the double skin packs, for about 4 weeks. Not yet sure if I will bulk age (probably), or use all of the finings and stabilizers (maybe not, may just use sulfite), and what I'll do with the yeast and yeast starter (I like the idea of yeast starters but I'm also trying to create something I can closely and fairly compare to the RJS Super Tuscan which is in EM right now, and used BM4X4 yeast with Go Ferm simply rehydrated with no starter, then Ferm K at 65% of O.G.).

Very good information about how the double skin packs of dry skins soak up a decent amount of wine, I may just move to a 5 gallon carboy and keep the excess wine for topping off.

The possibility of no "kit taste" is what has me excited about these kits. My two are on their way now - I am looking forward to getting them started. Can't beat a kit for $105 + shipping for the double skin ones.

 

[jgmann67]

I asked the MLF question. Basically, Matt said that you could do one, but doesn’t believe it’s necessary because “the acidity is already balanced in these kits.”

 

[David Violante]

My Zin is at 0.992 and still going... just for fun I tried a second run with the skin packs from the kit. I used a gallon of water, sugar to get an SG to 1.090, acid blend to pH 3.5, some grape tannin, and some Fermaid K & O. It’s down to 1.030 today. For the $5 invested, it’s a good experience... I’ll post an update of how it turns out. Looks like some other kits are available now too.

 

[heatherd]

My Zin is at 0.992 and still going... just for fun I tried a second run with the skin packs from the kit. I used a gallon of water, sugar to get an SG to 1.090, acid blend to pH 3.5, some grape tannin, and some Fermaid K & O. It’s down to 1.030 today. For the $5 invested, it’s a good experience... I’ll post an update of how it turns out. Looks like some other kits are available now too.

Looks like 5 of the 6 are in stock now.

My two have arrived, very excited to start them!