Scott -
Generally, people get (and give) pretty good advice in this
group. I have to disagree a bit, though, with the recommendation to
use an alternate yeast on a kit. Tim Vandergrift (Tech. Svcs Mgr for
Winexpert, and a very knowledgeable guy) has described in other posts
some of the issues involved with this. The short version is "kits are
different." A specific yeast that works well on freshly-crushed
Syrah, for example, may just not work nearly as well on a Syrah kit.
Part of the reason is that the concentration of the juice in the kit-
making process changes some of the flavors and creates some chemicals
in the juice that the yeast need to be able to digest. Some yeasts
handle them just fine (e.g., Premier Cuvee). Others do not. Hence,
replacing a kit yeast with another yeast, even if that yeast variety
is recommended for the particular grape, is a chancy business. Tim
has described how his firm tests new kits with many different yeast
varieties (dozens, or more) in order to find the best ones. There
really is a lot of science, as well as wine-making smarts, that go
into kit development. Except in really extraordinary circumstances,
following the kit-maker's directions is likely to give you the best
result you can get, based on the ingredients you are starting from.

From your posts in other threads, it sounds as though you are
trying to produce a seriously tannic Cabernet Sauvignon. That's
probably going to be the hardest style or variety to do well from a
kit, as tannins just don't survive the kit-making process very well.
I think this conclusion is supported by the results (recently issued)
of the latest amateur winemaking competition held each year by
Winemaking magazine. In virtually every category, kits won far more
medals than wines made directly from grapes. The exceptions were
Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel, where more medals were awarded to
wines made from grapes. In terms of the Gold and Silver medals,
Cabernet ran about 2:1 in favor of grapes as compared to kits. To
me, the results indicate that, in general, kit-wine quality has
improved a lot, to the point where kits compare favorably to wines
make directly from grapes, but that there are still a few styles /
varieties that just don't work as well with kit technology (yet).

If you do want to pursue a really high-end Cab. from a kit, there
were four that received enough medals to stand out from the
competition (IMHO, and in no particular order):

Cellar Craft Limited Release Cabernet Quartet (this was a one-time
kit; don't know if there are any left in circulation)
RJ Spagnols Cellar Classic Winery Series Cabernet Sauvignon
RJ Spagnols En Primeur Calfornia Coastal Cabernet Sauvignon
Winexpert Selection Estate Series Lodi Ranch 11 Cabernet Sauvignon

I have not made any of these kits, and there are very likely other
kits out there that might satisfy you. But these kits did well enough
that they seem to me to be promising candidates. You should also plan
on aging these wines for at least a year (or two) before you make any
final judgments on quality.

Best of luck --


Doug