Is anyone aware of Reserve du Chateau? I believe it is a wine kit
brand name. Any info Dealers, Distributors, Importers, etc.
appreciated. I live in N.BC. and the local hardware store can bring
this in for me. I want to compare it with popular brands. If someone
has made this wine please share your opinions. They come with 30
caps/labels/corks and are 28 day kits. Thank you.

"Kevin" > wrote:
> Is anyone aware of Reserve du Chateau? I believe it is a wine kit
> brand name. Any info Dealers, Distributors, Importers, etc.
> appreciated. I live in N.BC. and the local hardware store can bring
> this in for me. I want to compare it with popular brands. If someone
> has made this wine please share your opinions. They come with 30
> caps/labels/corks and are 28 day kits. Thank you.

Kevin,

"Reserve du Chateau" is a widely used appellation (see
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...=Google+Search).
It simply means "[private] reserve of the castle [i.e. winery]", and is
supposed to be a designation of exceptionally fine quality. If you find it
on a bottle of Mouton Rothschild, it probably is an indication of quality.
If you find it on a bottle of Ripple, it probably is a good attempt at
humor.

I would expect that any wine kit with such an ostentatious name is probably
relatively poor quality, especially when the name is tacked onto a 28-day
kit. I couldn't locate anything on the internet that would identify the
source of this product, or any distributor or retail outlets listing it.
Perhaps your hardware store can provide you with the information, or at
least a telephone number you can call to find out more about the product.

BrewKing, Vintners Reserve, and Selection are generally considered to be
good quality kits, and are available through most (local, mail-order, and
internet) homebrew stores. If I were going to purchase a kit, I would select
one of these, rather than an unknown. Even if "Reserve du Chateau" is
considerably cheaper, you usually get what you pay for --- or less.

I think all kits come with "caps/labels/corks". You don't need caps, labels
can be made on your computer, and cheap corks are about 15 cents each in
small order quantities. So they aren't really giving you a gift.

As to "28-day kits", this is misleading. Wine can be made in 28 days, but is
neither drinkable, nor ready to bottle at that stage. I believe the kits
accomplish this by recommending higher fermentation temperatures, premature
racking, over-use of fining agents, and pre-bottling stabilization with
sorbate. All of these shortcuts will result in an inferior wine. In general,
it takes at least a month post-fermentation before a wine is ready for the
first racking, and at least six months of further aging before it is ready
for bottling. Trying to accelerate the winemaking process, like coitus,
works, but you are missing the best part.

In my opinion, you would be far better off obtaining fresh fruit or juice,
and working from a decent recipe. The next choice would be frozen fruit or
juice, and the next would be concentrates. It will be a little more work,
probably the same or less money, and a lot more rewarding. Even if you do
decide on a kit (because everything you need is purportedly supplied), you
would be better off by following a less hurried wine-making procedure with
the ingredients provided.

"Kevin" > wrote in message
om...
> Is anyone aware of Reserve du Chateau? I believe it is a wine kit
> brand name. Any info Dealers, Distributors, Importers, etc.
> appreciated. I live in N.BC. and the local hardware store can bring
> this in for me. I want to compare it with popular brands. If someone
> has made this wine please share your opinions. They come with 30
> caps/labels/corks and are 28 day kits. Thank you.
I think I saw this label on kits in the Calgary Co-op grocery. They are
low-cost, low-end kits that make acceptable wines.
The key thing to look for in any kit is the use of invert sugars. All kits
short of premium kits add some, so the farther down the ingredients list the
term appears, the better.
Invert sugar is used to supplement the natural sugars in grapes (or their
juice). If the grape/juice content is minimal, invert sugars are added to
increase the sweetness, and the potential alcohol. It does nothing for the
wine's flavour or body.
I've made some 28-day kits, which are advertised as 23 litres, at 19 litres
(5 U.S. gal) with reasonable results. Some say the change in volume upsets
the balance of the kit's chemistry, but I haven't found this to be
significant, indeed, it seems to improve the body (understandably) and the
"feel" in the mouth. Other people I have talked to report similar results.
Of course, these are anecdotal reports, and not acceptable to the medical
community. Double blind testing in a sterile lab over an extended period
(think years) would be needed to produce reliable results. <G> The wine
industry, of course, would not exist in its present form if it were not for
anecdotal and opinionated commentary about the products on the market.
For your needs, it would be worth the cost of one kit to determine if the
resulting product is to your liking. I would recommend a bergamais (red) or
a reisling (white) for a starter. If you like blush wines, try a zinfandel.
If you have some experience making wines, you doubtless have your own
preferences, but these are types which give good results, and are drinkable
while young (say, as you are bottling!).
Rerading you letter, I suspect you are in a community that is too small for
a U-Brew, and is sufficiently distant from such a facility to make it
unattractive. Or, maybe you just want to do it all yourself (like most of
us who live in jurisdictions that don't allow brew-on-premise
establishments). It's more fun, anyway, and cheaper, too!

Barrie in Calgary