I have been making wine from kits for a little over a year. I have tried almost a dozen commercial grape juice concentrate kits.
The best so far, without a doubt, was a Heron Bay Chilean CabSav/Merlot kit. I have made up two of these, one is almost gone and I still have a dozen bottles left of the second.
I like it, my wife likes it and a work colleague to whom I gave a bottle commented that he could not believe that I could make wine that good at home.
So what could be the problem?
Heron Bay are no more so I can no longer get this kit. Is anyone out there familiar with the kit and aware of something else that is similar?
FWIW, I made up the kit to the instructions except that I chucked in 50g of toasted French oak and some sugar to boost the starting gravity and I racked and degassed it with a vacuum rig of my own devising. I do that with pretty much all kits that I make up.
The best so far, without a doubt, was a Heron Bay Chilean CabSav/Merlot kit. I have made up two of these, one is almost gone and I still have a dozen bottles left of the second.
I like it, my wife likes it and a work colleague to whom I gave a bottle commented that he could not believe that I could make wine that good at home.
So what could be the problem?
Heron Bay are no more so I can no longer get this kit. Is anyone out there familiar with the kit and aware of something else that is similar?
FWIW, I made up the kit to the instructions except that I chucked in 50g of toasted French oak and some sugar to boost the starting gravity and I racked and degassed it with a vacuum rig of my own devising. I do that with pretty much all kits that I make up.
