Other Understanding Kits

[wineforfun]

Help me understand the kits. I have only made one, since I just wanted to see what they were all about. I have ageing a OVZ from RJS. I believe it was 18L of juice. I was at one of our LHBS and picked up a Wine Expert brochure and it was showing all of their kits and how many liters of juice are in each of them. I noticed the cheaper kits, ie: Island Mist, etc. had only about 1/2 to 2/3 as much juice as the high end kits.
I am assuming that is why they are so cheap, is due to the lesser amount of juice. I am also assuming this makes for "thin" tasting wine compared to the ones with more liters of actual juice.
Just looking for some clarity from the kit experts.
Thank you.

 

[Sammyk]

We make a LOT of the mist type kits and bump up the sugar to get an OG of around 1.085 and a ABV between 11 and 12% Averages $2.00 a bottle for the mist type kits. Some mist type kits are better than others. No way would I consider them "thin" wines. Our family and friends all love the mist type wines.

We don't make grape wine except from our own Muscadines. So other than port kits and the mist type kits we don't have much experience.

What it boils down to is what you like in the way of wine and the sweet or dryness.

 

[sour_grapes]

This is from an article by Tim V in WineMakerMag:

http://winemakermag.com/90-big-kits-wine-kits

The question I get asked more often than anything else is, “which is the best kit?” It would be self-serving of me to automatically point to the most expensive one, and it also wouldn’t necessarily be true (just lucrative). The best kit is the one that expresses the most aroma, flavor and character when you want to drink it. The very best kits with the most stuffing — flavor, aroma, tannin, bouquet, body, etc . —take a long time to come around, in some cases as much as a couple of years.

....

On the flip side, if you buy a six dollar bottle of wine and crack it over burgers and dill-pickle chips that night, it’s going to taste just fine as-is, no waiting. Woes betide you if you put a case of Château Plonko down for your newborn’s 21st birthday. (After all, you’ll want to celebrate kicking the little rotter out of the house, yes?) It will probably be sufficient only for etching concrete and serving to in-laws. Something similar applies to wine made from kits — a value-priced kit will be ready to drink much sooner, having fewer demons to subdue, but won’t reward your patience quite as generously as another higher positioned kit.

This dichotomous epiphenomenon (cheap=fast drinking, expensive=more aging) has an amusingly tedious, er, TDS explanation . . .

The article goes on to explain that your understanding is about right. Give it a read for more details.

 

[Dugger]

The " juice" in kits is comprised of grape juice and grape juice concentrate. The concentrate is necessary to preserve the " juice" while it sits on the shelf and also reduces the kit volume for shipping and handling. Higher end kits will have more juice and less concentrate while the reverse holds true for lower end kits. As well, the juice and concentrate of the higher end kits will be of higher quality than the smaller kits. This higher quality juice is what gives you the bigger body (thickness) taste compared to the lower end kits.
Both the quantity and quality of the juice is reflected in the kit prices.

 

[wineforfun]

Paul,
Great link/article, thanks.

I kind of figured my thinking was right but being fairly new to this, wanted to check it out. As with anything in life, you get what you pay for, so I assumed it held true with the kits. I have thought about trying a lower end one but didn't see much difference in them compared to making a variation of dragon blood, other than some flavors that would be specific to the kits.

 

[Bartman]

I agree with most everything said above, with the addition that Tim V.'s pun at the end of the quoted passage is the crux of the wine kit's quality: TDS = total dissolved solids, that's what gives a hearty red wine its heartiness. A white wine, IMO, does not need as much heft as a rich Cab. Sauv., which you can only get from fresh grapes/skins or a kit with high TDS count/volume. Without the TDS, a kit wine may taste really good but not have the mouthfeel that you expect to go with that strong flavor.

The best analogy I have come up with is the difference between orange juices: fresh-squeezed would be the best, followed by store-bought not-from-concentrate, followed by the frozen concentrate that you three cans of water to. They taste similar but do not have the same texture in your mouth.

Cheaper/smaller concentrate volume kits (which I often buy) just can't pack as high of TDS as the higher-end kits that have more juice and can hold more solids in solution.

 

[GaDawg]

IMO nothing wrong with cheep kits, or expensive kits. Sometimes I want a big bold red and sometimes I want summer afternoon on the back porch wine

 

[Elmer]

IMO nothing wrong with cheep kits, or expensive kits. Sometimes I want a big bold red and sometimes I want summer afternoon on the back porch wine

Back porch wine = Skeeter Pee & Dragon Blood!!!

I have made nothing but cheap kits, and have always thought they were drinkable, but thin and watery.
I just ordered my super high end kits and can not wait until next year to be able to compare them!

 

[sour_grapes]

Bartman: Love the OJ analogy.