I am the person who bought the Sommelier Select.. The price is just under $50
Canadian (about US$37.50 for 2 kits of Merlot, and obviously at that price I am
not expecting much. I mean for under 19 bucks (for each kit) US I got 7kg of
concentrate (ie 23 litres of wine as the result) , 30 corks, 30 decent labels,
30 capsules, the usual yeast, sorbate and clearing agents (in this case Silaca
Gel (that's a new one on me) and Gelatin. Standard instructions in French and
English, and while it calls it a 28 day kit, the instructions go to day 42, so
must be a strange way of counting 28 days! The instructions are different that
any other kit I have purchased, as I know some "Store Brands" I bought in the
past were really Spagnol products rebranded (ie same instruction sheets were
attached.)

Now I have never heard of Sommelier Select, but it is packed for Sommelier
Select Ltd/Ltee of 2479 Haines Rd, Mississauga, Ont L4Y 1Y7. I can find no web
site (or even phone #) for them. Mississauga is part of the greater Toronto
area, and the Sams Club I bought it at is also part of the Greater Toronto area
(GTA). Sam's are pretty new up here, and they said they would buy products for
the local stores of interest to whatever ethnic groups live nearby. I happen to
live in an area with a large Italian population. There are at least 4 wineries
and numberous home wine making stores, juice/must distribution places etc all
within 10km of my house, so they are correct--a lot of people here like to make
their own wine whether from grapes, juice, kits or whatever.

The writeup on the side of the kit is pure hyperbole, but I will quote a little
of it he
---
Sommelier Select is a family operated business since 1966. The direct
ownership of wineries enable us to harvest premium grapes, process the must
under meticulous care and produce optimum concentrates....juices and
concetrates have been carefully selected, stabilized and filtered etc and they
even go as far to say they have searched world's greates vineyareds to bring
this product to you etc. The corks even have their name emblazoned on them.
_____

Right now my first kit is in secondary fermentation, so.....time will tell, but
I don't see much difference so far in paying 25 bucks Canadian for this kit, vs
the usual 50 bucks for kits of similar quality, and they don't usually throw in
labels, corks etc. I make top end kits too, but I thought what the heck, why
not try this just to see how good or bad it could be.



>Would someone be willing to post the manufacturers and names of a few of
>these kits, please?
>My local Costco does not carry any wine kits, nor do any of the other three
>closest to my home, and I was told by an employee at their customer service
>desk that they could be ordered if only I could help them identify what to
>order, as searches for 'wine kit' and other likely searches didn't reveal
>any products.
>
>I've captured some information from this thread, but would like some
>confirmation on whether these are brand names, product names, or product
>lines: