Midwest Coastal White Wine Kit

Saw on Midwests page today that you can buy one get one free for their Coastal White Wine Kit and was looking for some feedback. I realize it is a cheaper kit, so I am basically asking if it is worth it. I have not made any wines, so this would be the first one. I am not a huge wine drinker, but the wife is and a lot of our friends drink wine, so a fair amount of bottles would most likely be gifted. We would keep a lot of it, but with two kits I would be looking at 12 gallons of wine, which seems like a lot to me.

So, are these kits worth it? Produce a decent wine that I would not be embarrassed to gift a few bottles of?
Anything you can do to help the kits out, add a little flavor/complexity or to improve it?

Sorry if these kits have already been covered. I did a search and didnt see anything, but I didnt devote and evening to researching it.

Thanks for the input, and here is a link to the kit, incase your interested.

https://www.midwestsupplies.com/coastal-white-white-burgundy-style-vintner-s-reserve.html

These kits produce a dry wine so make sure your wife and friends like dry wine

Wife does like dry, me not so much but thats what the beer is for. As for the friends, most of them are far from picky, especially when it comes to free drinks.

Buy one get one seems like a good deal, but only if they turn out something decent.

Go for it. BOGO is a good deal.

I just made my first batch of wine with this Kit and was planning on moving to a red next then going with grapes by the end of the year but I spotted that BOGO deal and ordered 2 more kits myself. I think I'll make one batch normal and lightly oak the second batch.

I started my wine in August of 2012 and bottled it end of December 2012 using the extended time schedule in the article I've posted below and plan to age it in bottles for at least 2 months. The difference between the kits 7-21-28 and the extended 5-20-40-90 schedule had a huge impact on taste, clarity and aroma. (mine was more like around 120 days just because the busy holiday schedule) I noticed around the 30 day mark the wine was still far to young to drink (tangy is the best way I can describe it) and hadn't cleared enough to put in bottles as it would have probably settled more in the bottle and added sediment.

Extremely happy with the extended schedule as I've found the same with my beer brewing, patience results in a better product and cures most presumed problems that newer brewers are concerned with.

http://www.winemakermag.com/component/content/article/26/850

Thanks for that rundown. Glad to hear it is a kit capable of producing something decent. That extended time schedule is probably what I will follow as well. I am definitely not looking to hammer out a wine in 30 days. That is what the beer and hard lemonade is for. I just want a decent kit I can use to get started. If an extended time frame will help out the kit, that does not bother me one bit. If you dont mind me asking, what are your plans for oak in the second batch? I was just at the lhbs today, and they finally re stocked their wine shelves, so it would be a good time for me to pick up anything I need cause it seems to go fast.

You're welcome. I think you can get very good to even great results out of kits. They have taken some the prework out of the equation by giving you a good quality juice to start your fermentation with. Ultimately I want to do that prework myself but that's just me' some will always use kits to make their wine and never regret it.

For the oaking, I'll most likely use some oak spirals from my LHBS. I'll still need to research since I've not done it, but I do know that since its a white it won't take much.

I just got this special in my inbox today and was thinking of buying two (I love bargains!), but am not a dry wine lover and enjoy sweeter ones but with a bit higher alcohol content. It says on the Midwest FAQ's page that you can sweeten wine kits with off the shelf fruit juices. But it just says to add some in, taste and basically add until you like the flavor but it doesn't say what step you do this.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!