While my real wine ages - for ages and ages, I cooked up a couple
cheap kits in 19 l carboys instead of the recommended 23 l. My
rationale was to improve the body and flavour of a basic kit and still
have something to drink this summer (at a little less than a year
old).

Is my rationale rational? I'm now wondering if I'll need to age these
4-week wonders more than I thought to get a nice result.

Cheers, Jim

Decent wine kits are balanced to make the quantity of wine they are designed
for. If you leave out some of the water, you are concentrating not only the
body but the acid and everything else that makes the wine what it is. It
may be good and you may like it, but it will not be what it was designed
for.

Now if your kits were really cheap and really not balanced to begin with,
who knows what you will end up with.

Ray

"glad heart" > wrote in message
om...
> While my real wine ages - for ages and ages, I cooked up a couple
> cheap kits in 19 l carboys instead of the recommended 23 l. My
> rationale was to improve the body and flavour of a basic kit and still
> have something to drink this summer (at a little less than a year
> old).
>
> Is my rationale rational? I'm now wondering if I'll need to age these
> 4-week wonders more than I thought to get a nice result.
>
> Cheers, Jim

Well said Ray

--
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In South Yorkshire, England
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"Ray" > wrote in message
m...
> Decent wine kits are balanced to make the quantity of wine they are
designed
> for. If you leave out some of the water, you are concentrating not only
the
> body but the acid and everything else that makes the wine what it is. It
> may be good and you may like it, but it will not be what it was designed
> for.
>
> Now if your kits were really cheap and really not balanced to begin with,
> who knows what you will end up with.
>
> Ray
>
> "glad heart" > wrote in message
> om...
> > While my real wine ages - for ages and ages, I cooked up a couple
> > cheap kits in 19 l carboys instead of the recommended 23 l. My
> > rationale was to improve the body and flavour of a basic kit and still
> > have something to drink this summer (at a little less than a year
> > old).
> >
> > Is my rationale rational? I'm now wondering if I'll need to age these
> > 4-week wonders more than I thought to get a nice result.
> >
> > Cheers, Jim
>
>

I have tried this with several reds and whites. All were BK Vinters
Reserve. The reds (Chianti and Valpolicella) turned out great,
full-flavored with a strong acid profile. The whites (Sauvignon Blanc
and Reisling) were out of balance, a bit too tart for my taste - even
after 1 year of aging. The reds were drinkable after 6 months (3
months aging, 3 months in the bottle), but are still getting better
after 1 year. I wouldn't recommend the 4-week process on this wine.
You may want to adjust the additions (sulfite, sorbate, ...etc) for
the smaller volume and lower pH level.

One advantage to this approach is that you can top up with water
without being concerned about over-dilution. I will definitely do
this with the reds again. I just bottled another reduced-volume
Chianti that was fermented on frozen merlot skins (from this past
season) and it seems to be my best kit-wine to date.

Good Luck,
David

(glad heart) wrote in message . com>...
> While my real wine ages - for ages and ages, I cooked up a couple
> cheap kits in 19 l carboys instead of the recommended 23 l. My
> rationale was to improve the body and flavour of a basic kit and still
> have something to drink this summer (at a little less than a year
> old).
>
> Is my rationale rational? I'm now wondering if I'll need to age these
> 4-week wonders more than I thought to get a nice result.
>
> Cheers, Jim

Jim,

I second Ray's comments, from personal experience. Just buy a better
line of kit.

Luck, Mike MTM