Hello,
I have made many kits from Winexpert and have been extremely satisfied with their products. I recently made a Chilean Malbec and unlike all my other kits that start fermenting (bubbling) within 24 hours, this one did not. I waited another day and this kit still had not started so I emailed the support group from the Winexpert website asking for recommendations. In the mean time, I warmed a heating pad and placed it on the table that the fermentor was sitting on and covered it with a sheet. I re-warmed the pad a few times throughout the evening as well. The temperature of the must was 70F like all others. The next morning the bubbling started. I also received an email from a Linda at Winexpert asking me to measure the SG. I replied thanking her for her response and told her that I thought things were fine since the bubbling had started. Well by that evening the bubbling was ferocious. I have never seen anything this active. The temperature of the must also shot up to 78 - 79F, higher than any other kits I have made. Within 4 days it was done bubbling. After the normal 7 days I measured the SG and it was good, around .994 so I racked this into the glass carboy. After the required time before stabalizing I saw what appeared to be a growth inside, on the glass in the small head space at the top of the carboy. This appeared within about a day. I make daily notes for every wine I make and did not notice anything odd the day before. The liquid was also extremely opaque resembling purple milk, rather than beginning to settle. I removed the air lock and smelled it and it was extremely offensive smelling. I emailed Winexpert again about this and heard nothing back. I sent a couple more emails and heard nothing. After about a week I decided it was a total mess and poured it out. A day later I decided to send an email directly to their site rather than reply to Linda’s previous correspondence and she got back asking me to better describe the smell and to provide some photos. I described the smell with more detail and explained that since I had, had this sitting around for a week and heard nothing that I poured it out so photos would not be possible. This is the last I have heard from them despite several more emails to them asking for a response, but nothing. I have read on other forums that they back their products; satisfaction guaranteed and others have received a credit toward their next purchase when they had a kit fail. But as you can see, I am being totally ignored by them. Does anyone else have any experience with this company and their claim to b guarantee their products? I don’t know what else I can do to reach out to them. I cannot call from my place of work due to them being located in Canada. I am very disappointed with the lack of response from them once their kit was bad. Thank you.
Tyler
