Other What are your favorite inexpensive "everyday" kit wines?

[Dino466]

For a white - California Trinity from Wine Expert World Vineyard and red - I like the Cellar Craft Pinot Noir or Cheeky Monkey (it is a good 10 litre kit)

 

[Bartman]

We are birds of a feather. I like a bottle of dry red daily (shared with my wife). I am one of the forums minority supporter of the Paklab kits, as cheap as I can find them, which is harder and harder. $20 on Alibaba if you buy 500 kits. Amazon and Ebay have some but if its over $50 with shipping per kit its too much.

Basically find the cheapest red kit or concentrate you can, and doctor it up. Add zante currants or frozen grapes, oak, make sure the brix is high enough....

http://homewinery.com/cgi-bin/concen.cgi

I made the Ruby Red ($28/conc) with grape skins and it is quite good already.

here are the batch notes:
Nov 14, 2013 6 lb sugar
Nov 14, 2013 1 tbs peptic enzyme
Nov 14, 2013 1 tsp yeast nutrient
Nov 14, 2013 4-5 lb marquette skins
Nov 14, 2013 1 cup med toast oak

Alcoholic Fermentation Nov 14, 2013 red pastuer in marquette

Alcoholic Fermentation Nov 14, 2013 ec-1118

Rackings
Nov 23, 2013 Clearing Sprakloid SG .992

Made 24 bottles with a 2.5 bottle top off. Avg cost was $1.12/btl.

Wait a second...using the $28 price for the concentrate you reference, divided by 24 bottles, would result in a cost of $1.16666 per bottle. That's before any of the tweaks you added are accounted for. Which leads me to the question that I first thought of - what was the total cost for those 24 bottles, including the oak, yeast, skins, nutrient enzyme and sugar?

My first thought is that may add $10-$15 to the $28 concentrate cost (if total cost = $43, then it's $1.79166/bottle), bringing it up closer to or greater than the price (per bottle) of the cheaper 30-bottle kits (~$55/kit or ~$1.833/bottle). But maybe those additions are less than $15 - do you have a firm cost for those additions you make?

 

[bkisel]

Steve is right about the warehouse sale. All the LHBS here match the sale as well. I know my girlfriend mentioned the sale at her local LHBS ( she lives in a different province) and they matched it on their RJS kits. So maybe mention it at a few of yours and see, it never hurts to ask. The sale runs from Feb13-23

Thanks Kim & Steve even though you've burst my bubble.

I will mention the sale to the folks at my LHBS but I suspect it doesn't reach this far south. I'm pretty sure my LHBS and most others deal through a distributorship not directly with with RJS, WE, etc.

 

[cpfan]

Steve is right about the warehouse sale. All the LHBS here match the sale as well. I know my girlfriend mentioned the sale at her local LHBS ( she lives in a different province) and they matched it on their RJS kits. So maybe mention it at a few of yours and see, it never hurts to ask. The sale runs from Feb13-23

At least back in 2007 (when I last was an RJS retailer), retailers did not receive any special discounts in February to allow them to match the warehouse sale. My store was about 6 hours drive from the warehouse, closer stores may have received a deal. We also weren't told about the warehouse sale and what the deal prices were. So don't expect your retailer to know about it, and provide a deep discount. I remember telling a couple of customers to enjoy the drive to Vancouver.

Steve

 

[byathread]

If you're more poor than impatient then you should consider buying a good cheap kit, something you like, Pinot noir cab or GSM, Tweaking it with tannin and raisins. Now while that is aging the six months it needs, join a wine club. Look for the ones that have three bonus bottles for joining. You can then get 15 bottles of wine for 60+20 shipping. Cancel before recurring purchases happen. Now you have 15 wines for @$6 a bottle that you will milk for 6 months. Hopefully in that time you save enough to buy a premium kit. When the six month is up, you have 30 bottles of lightly aged wine to drink while the 30 premium age more. And hopefully in that time you can purchase another premium kit. Think of it as a snow ball effect. That's what I told myself until I realized I have 15 full carboys in the basement aging, a vadai barrel and 15 bottles of mezza Luna red to tide me over. Actually, don't take my advice, you'll be broke and impatient.

That's pretty much exactly where I'm at. I buy cheap but decent wine by the case for a discount from my local wine merchant (most recent case I bought of sale wines for $55, or 4.58/bottle). I can afford about $4/bottle at my rate of consumption and should be able to make much better wine than I can buy for that price. I've made (or have in the pipeline) 1 CC Showcase and 1 WE LE white (16L) and 3 of the lower end 10-12L kits. That is approximately the ratio of great-to-decent kits that will fit the bill for me in the next year or two. I will certainly spend the extra money on better kits when I can afford to. Luckily, I have many years of brewing beer and mead and have plenty of equipment/carboys. I also have the experience to feel comfortable tweaking lower end kits. I've been subbing yeasts and splitting batches into 2x3gal batches with a tweak like adding tannins, zante currants and other additives.

Mosti Mondiale's entire Vinifera Noble line - I have yet to try one of these kits and be disappointed. I add a few teaks here and there ...[/URL]

Sweet, I'll be looking into this.

For a white - California Trinity from Wine Expert World Vineyard and red - I like the Cellar Craft Pinot Noir or Cheeky Monkey (it is a good 10 litre kit)

Thanks. I do enjoy Pinots (just started RJS BC Pinot yesterday).

Wait, why target kits? How about Dragon's Blood or the like?

I know everybody loves this stuff. Isn't it sweet? I have trouble enjoying sweet drinks, but will look into it. I've made ciders and cysers before, but perhaps I should look into Apfelwein as well, as it appears quite popular on this forum as well.

Thanks to everybody for all the helpful responses.

Cheers!

 

[bakervinyard]

Believe it or not but my "house" red wine is VDV, Merlot. Everyone enjoys it and my mother in law adds a splash of water to it, go figure. Just started 12 gals with a grape pack addition from my Merlot grapes from this past fall. Bakervinyard

 

[vernsgal]

At least back in 2007 (when I last was an RJS retailer), retailers did not receive any special discounts in February to allow them to match the warehouse sale. My store was about 6 hours drive from the warehouse, closer stores may have received a deal. We also weren't told about the warehouse sale and what the deal prices were. So don't expect your retailer to know about it, and provide a deep discount. I remember telling a couple of customers to enjoy the drive to Vancouver.

Steve

I'm afraid that's what's going to be told to me when we move this spring

 

[kevinlfifer]

Bartman
Are you an accountant?

Not to pick nits over the price but your right. I don't usually add in the tsp of this or cup of that. The sugar is 1.89 for 4 lb bag, Oak maybe .75 and 1 tsp nutrient ? Enzyme ? together a buck.

I also dont add in capsules or cleaning agent ($5 for 6 lb)

The marquette skins were free. Simple fact is its a damn fine wine for well under $2/btl. Precisely 32.59/24=1.358/btl prior to decoration.

I really am a cheap SOB

 

[olusteebus]

Bartman
Are you an accountant?

Not to pick nits over the price but your right. I don't usually add in the tsp of this or cup of that. The sugar is 1.89 for 4 lb bag, Oak maybe .75 and 1 tsp nutrient ? Enzyme ? together a buck.

I also dont add in capsules or cleaning agent ($5 for 6 lb)

The marquette skins were free. Simple fact is its a damn fine wine for well under $2/btl. Precisely 32.59/24=1.358/btl prior to decoration.

I really am a cheap SOB

Yeah but that decoration can get darn expensive!

 

[cpfan]

I'm afraid that's what's going to be told to me when we move this spring

Where are you moving to?

Steve

 

[bkisel]

Bartman
...
I really am a cheap SOB

No, no, no you're not cheap... you're frugal. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

 

[Bartman]

Bartman
Are you an accountant?

Not to pick nits over the price but your right. I don't usually add in the tsp of this or cup of that. The sugar is 1.89 for 4 lb bag, Oak maybe .75 and 1 tsp nutrient ? Enzyme ? together a buck.

I also dont add in capsules or cleaning agent ($5 for 6 lb)

The marquette skins were free. Simple fact is its a damn fine wine for well under $2/btl. Precisely 32.59/24=1.358/btl prior to decoration.

I really am a cheap SOB

No, I'm not an accountant. It's worse - I'm a lawyer.
LOL
Anyway, your prices seem a bit on the low side for those items, but I don't use exactly the same quantities, I suppose: instead of oak chips/cubes, I prefer oak spirals. Depending on the type (French/American), they cost between $4 and $7 each, but one i usually enough for a 6 gallon batch, for my taste.
Yeast packets are about $1 with tax; one teaspoon of nutrient is on the low side - I usually add 1 teaspoon per gallon, but that's still a marginal difference. Getting the grape skins for free is the real score - they can cost you a few bucks (or more) to buy them online and have them shipped to you.

I have no doubt that it makes a good/damn fine wine, I only wonder if I tried to replicate it, whether I could make it for under $2 a bottle. I don't think I could do it using the 'recipe' you have, so the question becomes whether or not buying a kit is just as good/better/worse than what you are doing. There is something to be said for the all-in-one nature of the kits - no measuring exact quantities/volumes of different things or running out halfway thru.

But that's the beauty of it - when it's all said and done, you can sing Sinatra's "My Way" as you drink it!

 

[RCGoodin]

Ok ok so I'm probably gonna be kicked off this forum for saying this but...... If you're more poor than impatient then you should consider buying a good cheap kit, something you like, Pinot noir cab or GSM, Tweaking it with tannin and raisins. Now while that is aging the six months it needs, join a wine club. Look for the ones that have three bonus bottles for joining. You can then get 15 bottles of wine for 60+20 shipping. Cancel before recurring purchases happen. Now you have 15 wines for @$6 a bottle that you will milk for 6 months. Hopefully in that time you save enough to buy a premium kit. When the six month is up, you have 30 bottles of lightly aged wine to drink while the 30 premium age more. And hopefully in that time you can purchase another premium kit. Think of it as a snow ball effect. That's what I told myself until I realized I have 15 full carboys in the basement aging, a vadai barrel and 15 bottles of mezza Luna red to tide me over. Actually, don't take my advice, you'll be broke and impatient.

Coleman, I've purchased many of the big buckets from Amazon for $75 and enjoyed every one of them. Give then a shot. They deliver to your door and if you have Prime, it's free shipping. Maybe tax free too.

I'm cooking 4 buckets of white's right now. I plan to tweak them with extra tannins and citrus extracts, but I don't need too.

 

[byathread]

Coleman, I've purchased many of the big buckets from Amazon for $75 and enjoyed every one of them.

Hmmm, I've got a $65 GC for Amazon. What are these buckets you speak of? Any specific recommendations?

Cheers!

 

[RCGoodin]

Hmmm, I've got a $65 GC for Amazon. What are these buckets you speak of? Any specific recommendations?

Cheers!

I'd suggest many of them. They all work.

I've had a lot of compliments with the Amarone. Use Joe's, out of the box tweaks, and you've got a great wine, cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Reserve%20Du%20Chateau%206%20Week%20Wine%20Kit%20

 

[kevinlfifer]

Ah Ha! back to Paklab bucket instead of a kit.

Bartman,

My niece is a prosecutor, her and her hubby sold and bought homes Dec 17. BUT they gave possession in 7 and took possession in 30 + 4 day delay. They have been living with us for a month WITH a 2 and 4 yr old. (girls). If it were not for the massive supply of Red sedative I'd be nuts by now.

The up or down side is, I have converted her to a wine drinker in this time.

I do kits almost exclusively. Paklab, WE and CC. I bought this Ruby Red conc. on a whim and had planned to use it to boost kits. But the plan changed and I used it solo with the skins. I kinda thought I might end up with a topping or worse a cooking wine. It turned out really good, probably more do to luck than sense. It is good now, I hope in a year it improves on a relative basis.

 

[vernsgal]

Where are you moving to?

Steve

Okanagan.Shuswap lake. We built a house in a little city called Anglemont

 

[byathread]

Okanagan.Shuswap lake. We built a house in a little city called Anglemont

Another good (home) winery in the region!

I can't wait to see how my Okanagan Valley Pinot turns out.

Cheers.

 

[FTC Wines]

I just finished making 10 gals of Chianti, the concentrate came from Home Winery supply in Dundee Mi. $31 for 1/2 gal that makes 5gal. I add a pint of their Cab concentrate to it to boost its body & smooth it out (our choice). So it's $39 bucks throw in shipping another $28 bucks to ship 4 concentrates or $7 bucks each, so I have $46 in it, throw in yeast, acid, sugar, etc & it's my TWO BUCK CHUCK, but tastes a whole lot better!! Roy Had it with friends last night, nice Italian dinner, GREAT WINE, they raved about it.

 

[geek]

I'd suggest many of them. They all work.

I've had a lot of compliments with the Amarone. Use Joe's, out of the box tweaks, and you've got a great wine, cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Reserve%20Du%20Chateau%206%20Week%20Wine%20Kit%20

Did you buy this Amarone?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ELJK1E/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Not a bad price for $90 shipped, no water adding needed...actually looks so cheap that I wonder about the quality of that brand....

I've never made one of those and will be looking for an Amarone in a near future.

..