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...