WineXpert WE LE Petit Ruby Cab

[J Chris J]

Bentonite: I empty the packet into my motar & pestle, grind it fine and add slowly to hot water being stirred with a hand mixer. A helper is required.

 

[Doug’s wines]

So reading the latest post to this thread got me thinking.... wonder how it’s tasting. I went down to the winery and pulled a small taste. I started this kit on 1/10. Put it in bulk on Feb 13. Used all kit ingredients as per instructions and didn’t tweak this one at all. Plan to rack next weekend.

So taste... gotta admit I was underwhelmed. A bit flat fruit wise with dark fruits light on the taste, some mild
tobacco, a little light on tannins but oak smoke showing through a bit. Generally an uninspiring and mildly bitter to sour wine at this point, but granted it’s still early.. Had high hopes for this one, but in the early stages not blowing me away. Tried several others of similar age and this one was my least favorite

Anyone else try theirs recently?

 

[pillswoj]

Mine came out of the barrel Sunday (2 months 2nd wine run through the Barrel), I also found it sour and slightly bitter, I am sure it will improve with some bulk aging and time in bottle. I have over the last few years been less then impressed with the WE LE reds that do not include skins, they are expensive for a non skins kit and have been meh even after extended aging. I doubt I will do the non skins LEs next year.

 

[Trick]

Mine came out of the barrel Sunday (2 months 2nd wine run through the Barrel), I also found it sour and slightly bitter, I am sure it will improve with some bulk aging and time in bottle. I have over the last few years been less then impressed with the WE LE reds that do not include skins, they are expensive for a non skins kit and have been meh even after extended aging. I doubt I will do the non skins LEs next year.

For high to medium reds, ($70+), I only play skin kits. Even for the cheap kits, I often add skin packs, since taste of the reds is majorly from the skin. I believe the extraction of taste during kit manufacturing cannot be complete without the participation of alcohol. Otherwise, the commercial wine making would not use traditional maceration method to make reds.
I started making wine from WE kits and now almost completely turn into RJS. One of the major reasons is that there are much more choice for RJS reds with skin than WE. The reds of its product lines of EN Primere and Cru International are almost all with skin. The price is also very competitive especially when they are on sale.

 

[kyle5434]

I just degassed mine after 3 months of bulk aging, and clarified in preparation of bottling in a week or so. I'm still fairly new at all this, but it tasted like it was headed in a pretty good direction. The caveat is that I did add a bag of dried skins from a damaged Cru International Chilean Malbec kit to the secondary. I also added 3+ cups of tart cherry juice at the start (on a whim).

 

[szap]

I have been making WE kits for several years. Until recently the kits started with 1 gallon of warm water and a packet of bentonite that dissolved easily. The last few kits WE has changed the easily dissolved bentonite to one that turns into something that looks like wet newspaper that does not dissolve and forms sticky clumps. On top of that instead of 1 gallon of hot water it now calls for two cups. Two cups in the bottom of a 7 gallon fermenting bucket is not enough to stir much less dissolve anything. Curious to know why the change but it is a pain.

 

[Trick]

I have been making WE kits for several years. Until recently the kits started with 1 gallon of warm water and a packet of bentonite that dissolved easily. The last few kits WE has changed the easily dissolved bentonite to one that turns into something that looks like wet newspaper that does not dissolve and forms sticky clumps. On top of that instead of 1 gallon of hot water it now calls for two cups. Two cups in the bottom of a 7 gallon fermenting bucket is not enough to stir much less dissolve anything. Curious to know why the change but it is a pain.

The any way to avoid clumping is to stir hard to create a swirl and slowly drop the powder into the swirl. That works nicely with an electrical mixer.

 

[GaDawg]

I always use a submergible blinder

 

[cmason1957]

I always ignore the exact amount that the directions say to add, put about a gallon, more or less, of room temp water into the bottom of the bucket. sprinkle the bentonite evenly around the bucket, let it sit for a few minutes, then stir the heck out of it.

 

[sour_grapes]

Similar to Craig and Trick: I put 1/2 gallon water in the bottom of the bucket, then whisk the water while pouring a thin stream of bentonite in. Like if you are cooking and need to add flour to a liquid. I agree there are different levels of "fineness" of bentonite, but this process has worked for me to provide clumping in both fine and coarse bentonite.

 

[szap]

For those talking about different stirring and blending methods, I am curious how recently they have made an WE Kit? The directions have changed significantly and the new bentonite is night and day different from the kits that were out as recently as a year ago

 

[sour_grapes]

I've used my method on both older WE kits (where the bentonite looks like a fine powder) and on LD Carlson, where the bentonite looks more like kitty litter (as shown below). Doubtless, it is easier with the fine stuff.

 

[GaDawg]

What difference could it possibly make if you mix the bentonite with 2 cups or 2 quarts of water as long as it is well mix?

 

[kyle5434]

I just started a WE Selection Valroza (Valpolicella) last night - put a couple of inches of water in the bucket, began stirring, slowly poured in the bentonite, and stirred a while longer. I don't even unfold the directions any more. I've got a system that works fine for me.

 

[Trick]

Sorry to turn this nice kit thread into a mud discussion.

For the kits, the bentonite is typically not that difficult to dissipate since we can use a good volume of water. Typically, a light stirring can work nicely. The headache is the granular clay I bought from store for my fruit wine as fining agent when I have to dissolve it into small quantity of water to make a slurry to activate it before addition. I cannot use too much water for that since it will dilute my wine. In that scenario, a mixer is a life saver.

 

[Johnd]

I made a WE kit last week, as always, boiled 1/2 gallon water in a pot and turned off the heat. Added the bentonite slowly while stirring, have never had a problem with any kind of bentonite dissolving. Dump into the fermenter, add juice, water and yeast, done..........

 

[Jasienic]

I made a WE kit last week, as always, boiled 1/2 gallon water in a pot and turned off the heat. Added the bentonite slowly while stirring, have never had a problem with any kind of bentonite dissolving. Dump into the fermenter, add juice, water and yeast, done..........

I am using the same method, and have no problems at all. Except, I use about 1 liter of boiling water and hand-held mixer.

 

[HOOLIE]

Thanks . . . I will put that one on my "buy" list. I love a good Cab.

By all means, try it. On my 7th batch of Lodi cab and it's great after a year or two

 

[codeman]

So does this kit come with skins? I see people mention adding skins to secondary. Others say the punch down daily (which usually means skins)

 

[tjgaul]

It does not come with a skin pack. However, it is a big kit and I liked the flavor of the juice prior to fermenting. Mine is only a few months old so the jury is out on how well it will ultimately turn out. I have fairly high hopes at this point.