Other Tweeking Cheap Kits

[joeswine]

MELBEC continued it seems like most people who attempt to do this one have great results, follow the flow

 

[joeswine]

almost completed...215,025 views

 

[Mismost]

OK Joe...the bad

Did a cellarcraft Chardonnay...reduced the volume and used the zest of two grapefruits. That was a bigger kit and I don't think the volume should have been reduced. The wine is pretty full bodied, almost thick. WAY too much grapefruit zest. Even after a year and half this wine still has an unpleasant wang to it from the grapefruit. I've learned to decant and add about 1/4 bottle of water...that gets the wine about where it would have been if made to six gallons. Still a lot of citrus. Closing note, the store owner told me this was an older kit and gave me a great price....but I don't think the kit was bad. Nor were your tweaks. This kit is one that should not have been reduce and I learned zest is very powerful stuff.

A Winexpert Pinot Grigo...I added a half pint of citrus extract made from Myers lemons and Clemintine zest. You would think I would learn...ZEST IS VERY POWERFUL STUFF, but noooo! Still new, bottled in Oct....over ice half and half with Sprite it is a really good wine cooler.

the good

Almost every other kit I have done. The Fontana Malbec is simply very good. Folks rave on that on one. Fourth batch with added canned cherries, plums, and blackberries is bulk aging with a honeycomb cherry stick right now...may be the best one yet.

The mist kits to 5 gallons, half the Fpack in the primary, SG bumbed up....all lip smackers.

The Fontana and Winexpert Pinot Nior with added tannins, reduced volume, and blackberry Fpack are very nice. One lady said the Pinot was too full bodied but tasted great. The fontana is over a year old, the Winexpert is much newer....Fontana is better, but that could just be the time factor.

Have a Fontana Sangiovese/Canaiolo Chianti Style in secondary, reduced to 5.5 gallon, it still look full bodied, extra tannins in primary. Life caught up with me and I didn't add anything else. Racked to secondary after 14 days and don't think I will add anything else it tasted really good at first racking.

Next two kits are the bigger Winexpert Selection kits with skins. Plan on extending primary to at least 14 days, perhaps 30...then again I may just follow directions!

The cheap kits are allowing my bigger Eclipse kits to rest mostly untouched while drinking these tweaked kits early. That was the plan I stole from some else on this forum and it seems to be working well. I do really enjoy the tweaking. To the point is is painful to not tweak, not to mention boring!

 

[joeswine]

Yes a little zest goes a long way, one needs to be careful most of the cheap White's do ok with ninor tweaks, sometime we can get carried away with tweaks ,But that's how we learn.

 

[joeswine]

who else is out there to share there experiences with tweaking my style the good and the bad??????

 

[joeswine]

who else is out there to share there experiences with tweaking my style ,,the good and the not so good?

 

[benchmstr]

What cheap wine kit brand is in vogue now?
The Fontana is getting harder to find and I’m looking for an Amazon prime deal!

I wanna do a Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec, and have a few tweaks in mind!

The bench

 

[joeswine]

Take your time ,cru makes a cheap wine kit , I just got my results from Misto wine contest very few gold's received a silver for my Super Tucson and coffee port,2 bronzes for a Spanish Rojo, and cab with coriniian grapes, this contest is heavy grape or grape juice entrees kits are handle in separate categories.

 

[Doug’s wines]

Hey @joeswine , finally coming back around. Going on a month and a half since starting my Pinot. Initially it came out of secondary very tart so I added another batch of med toast oak for 2 weeks while clearing. I racked it again and topped off to 5 gallons using some Pinot I had on hand. Tasted it last week and it was a blast of cherry on the nose and still fairly tart.

Tasted again yesterday and it has mellowed a litttle with some vanilla showing through probably from the oak, and a light tanin structure hitting the cheeks. Starting to like it. I've never tried the basic Fontana kit so unfortuantly I don't have the comparison, but expect that the tannin, cherry and oak have made a pretty large impact.

I still want to figure out how to tweak toward earthy to get a less fruit forward Pinot, but do like they way this is turning out. Trying to decide how long to keep this in bulk.

Next up I have the Fontana Cab. I have on hand currants and blackberries. Trying to decide which to use or to go with both. Thoughts?

 

[joeswine]

Good to hear from you, with the cab,the blackberry is verynice using currents is better for Italian reds. Stay in touch, I'll start posting more often in a week.

 

[Doug’s wines]

Thanks Joe. Blackberry it is. Appreciate the feedback!

 

[joeswine]

LETS START THIS YEAR WITH A PLAN,,IM GOING TO MAKE FOR BAROL (TOM'S) WIFE A BLUEBERRY PINO NOIR,BLACKBERRY MERLOT AND A GRAPEFRUIT ZEST CHARDONNAY,,LETS REVIEW...THE PAST..FOLLOW THE FLOW..

 

[Doug’s wines]

I bottled half my cherry Pinot this morning. Tasting a glass right now. The big burst of cherry on the nose is gone, but it's still has nice bright cherry flavors. It's definitely light mouthfeel, fruit forward and might be slightly off the tannin mark, but frankly it's as good as several store bought bottles I've tried. I've got the other half of it on 1 cup of med toast French oak planned for a month in bulk. It definitely needs more tannin and a little more vanilla, earth, or spice would be nice but not bad for a $42 delivered kit.

Also Amazon now has all the Fontana kits back at 42 prime. I just ordered the Malbec and about to start the Cab once I get my WE LE out of my primary.

 

[joeswine]

Good to hear your results, I'm making another 3 kiit trioligy for Carol,blueb blue pino nior, black berry Merlot, and a Chardenay..
Keep thinking (outside the box)

Ok

 

[Doug’s wines]

Well I finally freed up my primary and had both the Malbec and cab on hand.... decisions, decisions. Decided to do the Malbec. Here the recipe I’m using:

Malbec kit made to ~5.25 gallons (I want to rack to a 5 gallon carboy, so I decided to go a little heavy on volume)
1 tbsp wine tannin
1 cup zante currants
1 cup med toast French oak
Simple syrup to SG 1.000
Ec1118 yeast

Pitched the yeast this morning. Looking forward to new wine smells tomorrow morning.

 

[joeswine]

I HAVE A BLOCK FULL OF CHEAP WINE KITS TO MAKE FOR CAROL TOM'S WINE ,LETS FLOW ,BLIYE BERRY PINO NOIR....

 

[joeswine]

ok lets try that again...I have a block of wine kits to make for CAROL ,TOM'S wife starting with a BLUEBERRY PINO NOIR..FOLLOW THE FLOW...MAY BE..

 

[joeswine]

JUST A COPLE TO GO .......................................CHEAP WINE KIT'S

 

[Doug’s wines]

Question for all of you. How long are you bulk aging these kits before bottling and how soon are you drinking them?

 

[joeswine]

hi Doug's wine the answer is it's up to you ,these are meant to to be consumed young ageing a couple of months is ok longer if you want to there's no clear cut answer, most people I make these kits for drink them as I give them back to them ( 6 to 8 weeks) easy drinking with no thinking wines. Just an every day wine..