Island Mist Strawberry white merlot

I was thinking about getting into wine... I have several friends that love fruit wines and Strawberry especially. Just wondering if anyone knew something about this kit, Island Mist Strawberry White Merlot. Maybe suggest another kit with relatively low cost and relatively easy?

Its too low of an ABV to really be a wine. Wine is 11%ABV and higher. These kits are in the 8%ABV if I remember correctly. Its not a bad kit its just not really wine.

I've never had a sample of that particular kit, but I've tried alot of others. My best friend loves those kits, so I've tried a number of them.

If you like wine coolers, you'll love those kits. Very fruity, and low ABV, so they don't take long at all to make. My friend makes the mango something, and I gave her the kiwi something as a wedding present. These are fine as a wine cooler type beverage, and she loves them. I drank a few of them this past summer at her pool parties, and they tasted great. I'm more of a "dinner wine" kind of person, though, and wouldn't make one for myself.

If you like wine cooler type drinks, or your friends do, an Island Mist kit would be perfect for you.

Mango Citrus Symphony would probably be the one. Have made that, the strawberry white merlot, and the peach apricot Chardonnay. All came out well if you like wines like that (think Arbor Mist, hence the naame). Low abv, sweet, fruit flavored grape based beverages.

They're deifnitely easy, they've got good taste for what they are, and are nice to share. And great chilled on a hot summer night. Don't expect long aging out of them though.

etp777 said:

Don't expect long aging out of them though.

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The instructions for these say no aging required ready to enjoy.

CATFISHER74 said:

The instructions for these say no aging required ready to enjoy.

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correct. But I think he's saying that due to the low alcohol content, you can't age them much even if you wanted to. They are in the 7-8% range, I believe, and won't be at their best for very long at all. My friend has made three kits (that I know of) since summer. I'm sure they are gone within a couple of months, so she's never tried to age them.

Alright, my wife and I are on our third batch of Island Mist Wine and I will stand up and proudly say... I like them. I am a beer drinker and by-god I like them.

They are clean, refreshing and are great when people are over and they don't want a beer, or rum, and I don't want to plow through 6 bottles of our table wines. I simply can't afford the $ or the time to keep making the "good" wines at the rate they get drunk.

The mist wines are cheap, I can make a new batch in 30 minutes, and they are done in a month.

this exact kit was my first wine...got raves from the people I gave bottles to.

have to say, I like it too.

now back to my Belgian Ales...

My last bottling was the strawberry white merlot. It's good, light and fruity. All of my non-wine drinkers love it, as do the ladies. I don't think any of the island mist kits are a bad choice. They've got enough sweetness in them across the board. My wife will drink all of them.

But I'd rather drink a heavy dry red any day.

Has any one tried to keg and force carb any of the Island Mist wines ? I have made several of these and all were good, just wondered what they would be like carbinated?

How about tweaking the recipe to get a higher ABV?

Tried a sample of this at Home Brew Shop in Saint Charles, IL and it was very good.It was on tap lightly carbed.

I've had this kit carbed. At least I think it was this one, somebody brought to a homebrew picnic. I've also sampled it at the local ferment-in wine shop/winery. It's good.

SWMBO and her friends love the green apple riesling kit, and I like it too from time to time. It wouldn't hurt to add a few pounds of corn sugar to the kit to bump up the ABV but I wouldn't go over 9%. It's nice to have something around you can kill a whole bottle on a weeknight without feeling the effects the next morning.