I recently picked up a NB wine making kit in hopes of making something my wife will like. It came with the Weekday Wine Cabernet, which she does not seem to be a big fan of. Can anyone recommend a kit that would be similar to Apothic Dark for my next attempt after I finish off 28 more bottles?
Thanks for any advice you might have!
That is a blend of a bunch of different red wines so you can blend some kits and use a dry fermenting yeast. What don’t you like about yhe Cabernet? By recently what do you mean. From experience unaged red wine always tastes like crap
You might be on to something with the age. It’s been bottled for about 5 days. When should it start to come into its own? One month? Two? Again, this is my fist batch so I’m very open to learning.
I looked quickly at the directions and i don know what they give you in the kit to br able yo make a drinkable product in 4 weeks. If you want to have a quick turnaround fruit wine would be the way to go. I make red wine from juice and grapes and age a year could probably drink it in 6-9 months. Wine always gets better aging. The trick is to make enough to age at least some. Taste a bottle if its not right yet give a couple months more. Also treat the bottles gently and decant. Let a red aerate a bit. The beer kit directions leave a lot to be desired I’ll bet the wine kits directions do as well
I have less experience making wines than beer. Brewcat and others have more experience. I looked at the reviews, instructions etc on the NB wife you purchased and a review of apothic dark wine A Review of Apothic Dark Wine: Is This a Good Bottle? - Vino Del Vida
In the NB reviews they mentioned that the kit did not have a high enough level of tannins and the review of apothic mentioned it medium in tannins. I suspect that the lower level of tannins in the NB kit may be what your wife does not like. An educated guess (not the wine:))
Wine tasting is sooooo subjective. Open a bottle of apothic and your wine and do as Brewcat suggested letting it breathe etc. Do a blind taste test. Pour three glasses, two of one type and one of the other. Ask her which of the two glasses taste the same. If she can’t tell the difference then end of problem all three taste the same. If she can tell the difference, ask what she likes and dislikes between the two. If it is tannins she may notice that one wine has more of a puckering feel in your mouth. A high tannin level gives a mouth puckering feel sort of like a tea steeped too long with no sugar or milk feeling. The wine wont have that much pucker to it but it may have some. Ask about sweetness etc. This should help you and us pick out the next kit to try.
I once did a taste test of an aged Australian cab bottle aged vs stainless steel aged. Used three glasses as described above. One person loved the first glass out of bottle and absolutely hated the second glass! Only one person was able to identify difference between bottle aged and stainless steel aged but could not decide which one was better. That’s how taste test go with untrained tasters.
That’s a great idea. I’ll let this batch age for a while then try a blind taste test. Neither of us are experienced enough wine drinkers to taste a glass of something and say what we like or dislike, but a direct comparison should make that much easier to distinguish.
I’ll read up on tannins as well, and their effect on the taste. I appreciate you guys taking the time to help me learn more about wine in general. I’m starting to get more confident that I’ll one day actually be able to create something she’ll like.
