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...