I’ve been brewing beer for several years, but made my first wine today from a juice kit (Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvèdre blend with skins).
It was a lot easier than I had feared - now to tend it until bottling - and wait 1 year!
I was thinking of getting another batch going with a quicker ready time. There is a grape and fresh juice peddler in town. I like reds - any suggestion?
[quote=“harpdog”]I’ve been brewing beer for several years, but made my first wine today from a juice kit (Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvèdre blend with skins).
It was a lot easier than I had feared - now to tend it until bottling - and wait 1 year!
I was thinking of getting another batch going with a quicker ready time. There is a grape and fresh juice peddler in town. I like reds - any suggestion?[/quote]
Is this the new World Vineyard GSM kit you are referring to or something else?
Yes, that’s the one
I’m far from an expert and just started making some wine kits on the side last year. From what I’ve been able to tell from watching interviews with the Wine Expert guys (available from NB on YouTube) and poking around the interwebs is that the higher end kits like what you’ve made need to sit a long time to reach their peak. The cheaper kits are the ones that’ll be ready quicker, they’ll never reach the peak that the high end kits will but they’ll be ready to drink earlier.
What a friend and I have done is make a pile of the high end kits (8 of them) to tuck away and bottle age for 2-5 years and then done a bunch of the blends to have something to drink in the nearer term (Mezza Luna, Luna Rossa, etc). In my limited experience with the few kits I made last year time really does make a big difference. Even the 1 white I did, a piesporter, improved dramatically between 9 months and a year.
Wine makes my lambics feel like quick turn beers. :lol:
Just FYI…a World Vineyard kit absolutely does NOT need a full year of aging. Not designed for it. It is designed to begin drinking after about 2 or 3 months max. You can wait if you want as the shelf life would be somewhere in the range of 2 or 3 years.
But IMO this wine will not significantly improve enough over that time to warrant any extra aging.
If you want something worth waiting for, drink what you have now and lay down an Eclipse red for longer aging. Their Cabernet is a sure thing since it is their flagship wine, But I have heard great reviews on every varietal from the series.
That’s good to hear, have 5 different Eclipse kits going with the intent to age for a long time.
That’s good to hear, have 5 different Eclipse kits going with the intent to age for a long time.[/quote]
Not sure if you have tasted any yet, but they are absolutely the real deal. IMO best wine kit ever made up to this point.
If you have a lot and plan on continuing with it, don’t be shy about popping a few of those bad boys open early.
Even at 3 or 4 months they would be better than anything else. Worth the wait for sure as they should age extremely well, but they were actually designed with the idea in mind that some of their customers were not willing to wait that long but still wanted to pay top dollar for quality.
I need to get back on the wine train. I jumped on last year when NB did a buy one get one free promotion for kit wine and got two $110-120 kits. Each has turned out ok and I still have a nice stash downstairs. Haven’t tried the red in a while, maybe I might need to make a trip to the basement.
It’s fun to consider making a few different levels of quality. I sort of like the idea of disciplining myself while something ages, but I think I will research some of those that are meant to be consumed “young”.
I am in no way a wine gourmet, I just know that some commercial wines I like, and some I don’t.
I am expecting that most of the middle shelf to upper shelf kits will be very nice.
Thanks for the replies! I will re-read the directions about aging. (And I’m SURE I’ll open at least one early!)
[quote=“harpdog”]It’s fun to consider making a few different levels of quality. I sort of like the idea of disciplining myself while something ages, but I think I will research some of those that are meant to be consumed “young”.
I am in no way a wine gourmet, I just know that some commercial wines I like, and some I don’t.
I am expecting that most of the middle shelf to upper shelf kits will be very nice.
Thanks for the replies! I will re-read the directions about aging. (And I’m SURE I’ll open at least one early!)[/quote]
As far as I know Winex would not include aging direction in their kits. They do however have a chart of recommendations in their brochures. Since their kit redesigns all the wines will show better young, but the range is still very similar.
There is some variation with specific varietals, but the basic aging concept has been this:
Vintners/World Vineyard
Whites - 1 month min / consume within 1 years
Reds - 2/3 month min / consume within 2 years
Selection
Whites - 2-3 months min / within 2 years
Reds - 6 months min / within 3-4 years
Eclipse/ LE
Whites - 2-3 months / within 2-3 years
Reds - 6-8 month min / within 5+
My Eclipse and LE kits aren’t even bottled yet. Planning to bottle off some smaller 375 mL bottles for tasting as the batches age, both to get some early tastes and get an idea when specific wines are ready to drink.
