I recently purchased the Scott Labs Finishing Kit and did some trials on last years wines, which are ready to bottle. Generally speaking, Im looking for smoothness with no bitterness. For me, a premium tasting wine has a start, a middle, and a finish that provides upfront fruit flavor (acid), with lingering roundness (body), and a pleasant mouthwatering finish (astringency). Aging can add to depth and complexity of flavor. In my own winemaking, I've achieved many of these goals through various winemaking techniques, oak products, and blending without the use of finishing tannins. However, I've also made plenty of premium kit wines that are manufactured to be 'bottle ready' within a few months. Some say that they can detect a 'kit flavor' in these wines. Im not sure that I would call it that, but I have noticed a consistent pattern with premium red kits, many of which come with oak cubes that are added as part of the instructions. Its the fine, silky, and mildly spicy flavor that you uniquely get from French oak. Its not the primary flavor, but its there in the background, fully integrated, and contributing to the finish.
I wanted to see what these products would do and I was surprised by the results. A few things to know first, if you're going to try this, is that you need to have micro pipettes to accurately measure the volumes. I've used macro pipettes for years to measure mL of smaller liquid volumes. However, the measurements needed for adding finishing tannins to wine samples are in uL, or 1,000ths of a mL. (Not being a chemistry guy, I didn't know this). So, I purchased a set of 3 micro pipettes from Amazon of varying volumes (1-10uL, 10-100uL, 100-1,000uL). This made the sample preparation easy.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered the Finishing Kit, which runs about $120, but was very pleased with the quality and the range of products that they provided. The products were well packaged in glass containers as you can see in the attached picture. However, another thing to know is that the kit does not come with instructions or even product description. You have to research on Scott Labs website to see what each product does and the recommended dosage. (Since I am a spread sheet guy, I made the attached spreadsheets). The math isn't too difficult, but it does take the strength of solution (ie dilution rate) into consideration. In the samples that are included with the kit, everything is diluted to 1% solution. The actual dosages are in ppm. My spreadsheet was for 5mL samples and I also wanted to know how much I would need to add to 10gal of finished wine. I also copied the product descriptions on Scott Labs website so that I had a reference during the trials.
Before sharing my results, I will qualify that so far I've only tested (4) of these products on (4) different blended wines. The products that I tried are Estate, Riche, Radiance, and Royal on Bordeaux and Super Tuscan Style wines that are 1-yr old. Going into the trial, I was expecting them to do the same thing to each wine, which was not the case at all. I did not end up with a favorite, but probably will be purchasing one that significantly improved one of my wines. Another one of my wines was better on its own, without any finishes added. The other two wines were both improved by two different finishes trialed, but not to an extent that I feel compelled to purchase a full dose. I can share which ones I liked, but just know that each sample added something different to each unique wine. So, I would be very hesitant to follow a recommendation on any of these without a trial to your specific wine. Im curious if anyone uses these products what others have found?
I wanted to see what these products would do and I was surprised by the results. A few things to know first, if you're going to try this, is that you need to have micro pipettes to accurately measure the volumes. I've used macro pipettes for years to measure mL of smaller liquid volumes. However, the measurements needed for adding finishing tannins to wine samples are in uL, or 1,000ths of a mL. (Not being a chemistry guy, I didn't know this). So, I purchased a set of 3 micro pipettes from Amazon of varying volumes (1-10uL, 10-100uL, 100-1,000uL). This made the sample preparation easy.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered the Finishing Kit, which runs about $120, but was very pleased with the quality and the range of products that they provided. The products were well packaged in glass containers as you can see in the attached picture. However, another thing to know is that the kit does not come with instructions or even product description. You have to research on Scott Labs website to see what each product does and the recommended dosage. (Since I am a spread sheet guy, I made the attached spreadsheets). The math isn't too difficult, but it does take the strength of solution (ie dilution rate) into consideration. In the samples that are included with the kit, everything is diluted to 1% solution. The actual dosages are in ppm. My spreadsheet was for 5mL samples and I also wanted to know how much I would need to add to 10gal of finished wine. I also copied the product descriptions on Scott Labs website so that I had a reference during the trials.
Before sharing my results, I will qualify that so far I've only tested (4) of these products on (4) different blended wines. The products that I tried are Estate, Riche, Radiance, and Royal on Bordeaux and Super Tuscan Style wines that are 1-yr old. Going into the trial, I was expecting them to do the same thing to each wine, which was not the case at all. I did not end up with a favorite, but probably will be purchasing one that significantly improved one of my wines. Another one of my wines was better on its own, without any finishes added. The other two wines were both improved by two different finishes trialed, but not to an extent that I feel compelled to purchase a full dose. I can share which ones I liked, but just know that each sample added something different to each unique wine. So, I would be very hesitant to follow a recommendation on any of these without a trial to your specific wine. Im curious if anyone uses these products what others have found?
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