Update
Sorry for taking so long for making an update, but there really wasn't much to say as I was waiting on the the wine.
According to the kit and the date I made it, it was supposed to be "drink ready" January 11th.
I waited until last night (the 22nd) to crack open a bottle and have a little blind tasting. Below are my results and thoughts about the batch and process:
So firstly, for the blind tasting, I put it up against a bottle of Trader Joe's Charles Shaw Shiraz.
(*DISCLAIMER: from this point on, im going to be using descriptive words according to MY perception of the smells and taste. if I get the wine speak wrong, its because I I do not drink wine and know very little about what im doing...and this was my first batch. LOL ;-) )
With that said, here we go:
The opening of the bottles:
When removing the quark from the Charles Shaw Shiraz, there was a certain and definite loud POP as the quark broke loose from the bottle. this set up the expectation of the same when I opened mine. Sadly, while mine made a sound, it was small and faint and not near the POP the commercial wine made. Not sure if that is good/bad or indifferent in meaning...but it was disappointing and worrisome.
As far as looks go, they were very close in color. Granted, I did not have wine glasses on hand, so I cant give a detailed account on cloudiness/clarity of the wine because I just poured them up into red solo cups for the tasting. Also, the wine was served up at room temp. no chilling at all.
THE SMELL TEST:
Keep in mind, this was a blind test, so we had no idea if we were smelling or tasting the commercial wine, or my wine.
The first wine we smelled, we both agreed (my mother and me) had a much more "in your face" aroma. To me, I thought it has a slightly sweet smell to it. So I am going to assume and say that the smell of the grape was more forward in this wine.
the second wine had a very similar smell, but the smell on this one was more subdued and you had to sniff a little harder to get a really good smell. it didn't seem to have a sweet smell at all...but if you were to take away the sweet smell that seemed to cut through on the first wine, and take away the fact that the first wine was a little more in your face...the actual smell was very very similar. this was encouraging because at the very least, it meant that my wine had not gone the way of vinegar! LOL
Keep in mind I do not drink. my mother drinks wine but not often or a lot and she prefers whites.
Both of us had the exact same thoughts/opinions and here it is:
we could tell almost zero difference in the taste of these 2 wines. they could have both come from the exact same bottle as far as we were concerned. Now, on one hand....that was disappointing because according to the sales guy, this kit should have blown a Charles Shaw wine out of the water. And it certainly did not do that. but I feel it certainly held its own. They were the same IMO. So, for it to be my very first batch of wine, I am willing to call that a success because I was prepared and willing to open every bottle and pour it down the drain! ;-) While I will not say im *PROUD* of my first wine, I am certainly not ashamed and I am perfectly happy to share it with friends and family and say "that's my wine. I made it." giving the disclaimer that its my first batch that is. ;-)
a side note for me to correct in future batches:
when the Charles Shaw wine was poured up, it didn't have any bubbles. Mine did produce some bubbles when poured up. not a lot, but more then it should have been in my opinion. I am going to assume it needed a bit more degassing??? <---COMMENTS PLEASE!
The other thing that I am slightly disappointed by is, I did have a couple very tiny but visible with the eye, partials in my wine. this is frustrating because I filtered it using the allinone and the whole home filter set up. I almost think these partials are small strands of fiber from the filter!!! Not sure what to do about that or what to do differently to correct that in future batches? <--- THOUGHTS and COMMENTS PLEASE!
I think my next batch will be a apple/cinnamon mascato!
SUGGESTIONS ON THE BEST KIT TO USE FOR THIS????
Thanks in advance for feedback!
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