woo-hoo! That is good news, John.



John wrote:
"Barb" wrote in message
...
I've found Coinnoisseur to be marginally better than Beaverdale for red
wines, and there's not much in price. I agree that you're probably never
going to get anything wonderful, but you can get good, everyday "glugging"
wine. I have done a Coinnoisseur Borolo which was very nice, and I've now
laid down 5 gals of the stuff.

I don't generally like Young's cheaper brand at all - they usually come
out a bit insipid and taste "homemade"....

Aren't a lot of them made by the same people here anyway?

I find it needs *at least* 2 months, and is not worth drinking before. I
also find it is better being left open for an hour before drinking, and/or
later in the bottle (I tend to re-use screw-top 1.5l bottles!).

Barb UK


"Dave Allison" wrote in message
...
My 2 cents: White wine kits usually turn out good. Red wine kits - you
need the top end ones. I also did a Crushendo type (actually 3) and they
were great at bottling and better 6-12 months and still getting better.
IMHO, the advice above is good. I am considering not making red wine kits
anymore as the price of really good wine in retail is hard to match. I'd
like to try grapes and juice some day, but not until I retire. smile.

just my opinion. DAve

racketear wrote:
On Dec 3, 8:02 pm, "Rodders" wrote:
"John" wrote in
message

...

Hi,
I've made wine from a few kits in the past, but seem to have struck a
problem this weekend when making a Red kit from Beaverdale. Never
made
a
red wine before, so when a family member arrived on my doorstep with a
30
bottle kit from Beaverdale to make a Barolo, I felt quite excited as
to
how things might turn out.
All my other kits had been Beaverdale, but whites, so I was fairly
confident about things and everyone who had tried the wines were
suitably
impressed. Everything went as planned and I bottled-up this weekend.
Last
night I tried a bottle and was quite suprised at the 'watery' taste.
Colour was good, but there didn't seem to be much taste at all. My
wife
tried some and agreed with me - I finished the bottle and went to bed
wondering what had happened.
You have only left it a couple of days. You will need to wait at least
a
couple of months for flavour to come through. I also have a 30 bottle
Beaversdale Barolo on the go which I will be bottling at the weekend,
but
dont plan to taste it till at least March 2008.

Rodders


There is wisdom in waiting after bottling to avoid the bottleshock
etc, but the 2 red kit wines that I have made both tasted pretty good
straight out of the fermenter. Both were intended to be fairly light
bodied though. One was a 30p a bottle kit which was very, very much a
make do thing. It tasted pretty low grade - though smooth - from
start to finish. The other was a £2 a bottle pinot noir kit. The
latter was beautiful straight out of the fermenter, but in my opinion
peaked after 6 months. I think as per the previous posters' opinions,
reds which haven't fermented on skins aren't going to have the
character you want them too. My first single gallon red from grapes -
this year is showing terrific colour and character.

A friend of mine has made a 'Crushendo' red wine kit this year which
comes with a sachet of grapeskins which you ferment on as well as the
juice/concentrate. It's pretty expensive for a kit (I think about
£3.50 a bottle) but it sounds like it is the mutts nuts...



Just thought I'd post an update... Opened another bottle last night and it
tasted much much better. I had passed a bottle out to a friend to try (the
guy who bought the kit) and he reported how damm good it was... Oh well,
sounds like I paniced to early.. Next time, I'll give it time to settle in
the bottle....

Thanks for all your responses - much appreciated