simple question?

[david1]

I believe this should be a simple question. Whats the deal with the wine kits? I know there is different grades of kits and types but they obviously produce wine faster than fruit. is this because they use clarifiers to speed things up? We are going to purchase a kit. we have made 3 batches all fruit. just wondering how the kits work.

 

[Malkore]

I've made one kit wine so far (and alot of mead with fruit, and a batch of apfelwein).

clarifiers don't speed up the aging process. the kit I made was a Chianti. its been in the bottle a month and is drinkable, but not quite to its peak.
its also only 12% abv.

ABV always matters in terms of aging, and I know different fruits need to age differently too. To a degree i suspect grape wine just ages better than other fruits, coupled with the kit being a lab created concentrate of 'high quality' vs. all the variables with straight fruit.

Also if you're adding plain sugar to the fruit wines, that sugar can produce some funny off flavors (usually cidery) that need time to age out as well.

the WineExpert kits are really easy to follow.

 

[cpfan]

Actually it's not a simple question. The clarifiers speed up the clearing of the wine, but don't really speed up the entire process (IMO anyway).

Even though I haven't made that many Winexpert kits, I will use their brand names (because they seem to be the best known - although many, including Malkore, don't seem to know the product lines - I wonder how many Chiantis WE makes).

The following time frames are for ME. Not everyone will agree, but hey that's life.

If I were to make an Island Mist kit, it would be bottled in 6-8 weeks, and we would be drinking it soon thereafter.

If I were to make a Vintners Reserve kit, it would be bottled in 8-10 weeks, and we would be drinking it a month or so later.

If I were to make a Vintners Reserve World Vineyards kit, it would be bottled in about 10 weeks, and we would be drinking it a month or two later.

Selection Original - about the same as VR World Vineyards.

Selection Estate or Limited Edition - bottle after 12-16 weeks - wait at least a couple of months to start drinking (and probably more)

Selection Crushendo - bottle after 16+ weeks - wait till it's at least a year old before thinking about drinking, and probably longer before making serious inroads.

So that ranges from ready to drink in 2 months to over a year.

When is your fruit wine ready to drink?

Steve

 

[david1]

fruit wine

The apple wine we make is usually ready in 5 to six mos. depending on the time of year it is started scince ferment temps vary slightly.

 

[Malkore]

Mine was a Vinter's Reserve Chianti by WineXpert, so it is one of the low/mid-range priced kits they put out. It was in the bottle after 5 weeks, and 1 month in the bottle its getting close.