Wife wants a wine.

I'm a long time home brewery, and I've brewed around 2 to 3 meads before. I'm looking into getting into wine, 5 gallon batch... and want to stay unique and inexpensive.

I have Tannin, Pectic, Campden, and almost everyting else you wil need.

My wife likes wine mid-road white wine. Nothing dry nor sweet, but white.

Suggestions?

Riesling can be a good medium white. I just made a Chardonnay I'd describe as "medium" as well. Not sure what you mean, but I don't have any specific recipes if that's what you want.

To me, the most middle of the road white would be without a doubt a Sauvignon Blanc. At the sweet end you have your Rieslings, and White Zins and at the dry end there's Chardonnay. The problem I have and alot of other people have with Chardonnays is the oak flavor.

I love my Sauvignon Blancs as an all around white, for drinking and cooking with.



You might want to try a kit for your first attempt. Most of the LHBS's have wine kits too.

Sounds like you need to write down the names of wines your wife likes and see if there is a pattern. Like getting started in brewing, your best bet is to purchase a kit or concentrate. Many brewing suppliers, like Northern Brewing and Williams, carry wine concentrates. They are much more expensive than ale kits, but you are making five gallons of wine not five gallons of ale.

digdan said:

Suggestions?

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Everyone has there own favorites with wine (like beer). The trouble with wine is it will take months to mature as opposed to weeks like beer. It's an utter waste of both cost and effort if you don't start with the right ingredients/Kit. It's worthwhile doing your homework with SWMBO's tastebuds and getting an idea of her tastes - Heed David's advice - The grape varieties/style of wine listed on the bottles she enjoys will give you real clues to the wine you should brew!

You might consider going one step more and having her pick out the kit. Just be sure she knows it will be several months before it's ready to drink! It's worth the wait, though.

Find a new wife, one that drinks beer!

Northern Brewer has many wine kits. Don't be shocked by the prices, when you work it out by the fifth, they aren't too bad. And don't be mislead by some of the inexpensive concentrates, they are like cheap beer kits, you need more than one can and you add sugar.

david_42 said:

Northern Brewer has many wine kits. Don't be shocked by the prices, when you work it out by the fifth, they aren't too bad. And don't be mislead by some of the inexpensive concentrates, they are like cheap beer kits, you need more than one can and you add sugar.

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I'll agree with all of what David said. My wife wanted to try making some wine, and we bought what ended up being the most espensive wine kit that the LHBS carried. The kit was about $120 ($140 if you count the couple bottles of commercial merlot that we used to top off the fermenter to avoid watering down what we brewed), but we ended up with 26 bottles of wine, so it came out to about $5/bottle. The kit is a "clone" (for lack of a better word) of a commercial wine that costs between $25 and $30 per bottle, so the price is really good.

We just bottled it up a few about 5 days ago, and it's DAMN tastey stuff. The tannins are a little strong for my tastes (I don't like super dry wines), but my wife LOVES it.

Just last night I put the bottles into the wine fridge that my wife got for her birthday, and their going to sit there until Christmas before we open the first one.

For reference, the wine kit we used is linked to in my signature. Most LHBS's carry that brand (Winexpert). The kit makes 6 gallons.

-walker

Hey there Walker,

Your original posting on this thread got me interested and motivated to get one of these kits to try making wine. I purchased the Winexpert "Island Mist" kit, which is their session-drinking wine - low alcohol and sweet. The exact kit was their "Wildberry Shiraz" which cost around $50 at my LHBS. It reqires NO ageing.

It ended up pretty good, but a bit too sweet for me. The last addition (F pack) was practically pure sugar/concentrate (if it were not for that addition, it would have been way too dry though.)

Making the wine was a good experience, but like you said, a bit too mechanical (combined this with that, stir, blah blah...). Though this is what would give make for a consistent product. The only thing I could do without is the corking...ugh.

This wine is EXCELLENT when blended with mead (esp a dry mead) to make a pyment.

Thanks again for your inspiration. I am going to pick up a bottle of the Stags Leap Merlot and see if SWMBO and I like it - if we do, we will make the same kit as you and LL.

Cheers.

BrewStef

BrewStef said:

HI purchased the Winexpert "Island Mist" kit, which is their session-drinking wine - low alcohol and sweet. The exact kit was their "Wildberry Shiraz" which cost around $50 at my LHBS. It reqires NO ageing.

Making the wine was a good experience, but like you said, a bit too mechanical (combined this with that, stir, blah blah...). Though this is what would give make for a consistent product. The only thing I could do without is the corking...ugh.

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If you are not going to age the wine for a long time, I doubt there is any real need to cork it. Just use flip-top beer bottles or crown-cap beer bottles. (Hell... use screw-top PET bottles for that matter.)

The kit we have suggests 6 months minimum aging, 1 year preferred, so we corked it with #9 corks. We probably won't finish the batch for a number of years. If possible, I'd like to save a few for the bottles we have for those way-out-in-the-distance wedding anniversaries 20 or more years down the road (if we survive that long.)

-walker

Which of these is not an Island Mist beverage?

"mango citrus symphony"
"exotic fruit white zin"
"chicken fat ripple"

Walker-san said:

If you are not going to age the wine for a long time, I doubt there is any real need to cork it. Just use flip-top beer bottles or crown-cap beer bottles. (Hell... use screw-top PET bottles for that matter.)

The kit we have suggests 6 months minimum aging, 1 year preferred, so we corked it with #9 corks. We probably won't finish the batch for a number of years. If possible, I'd like to save a few for the bottles we have for those way-out-in-the-distance wedding anniversaries 20 or more years down the road (if we survive that long.)

-walker

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Wow, I can't even perceive that far into the future. I expect hovering cars and just-add-water wine by that point.

Walker-san said:

If you are not going to age the wine for a long time, I doubt there is any real need to cork it. Just use flip-top beer bottles or crown-cap beer bottles. (Hell... use screw-top PET bottles for that matter.)

The kit we have suggests 6 months minimum aging, 1 year preferred, so we corked it with #9 corks. We probably won't finish the batch for a number of years. If possible, I'd like to save a few for the bottles we have for those way-out-in-the-distance wedding anniversaries 20 or more years down the road (if we survive that long.)

-walker

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I agree that it was NOT necessary to cork these...I guess I wanted to make it pretty for gifts, but this quality wine would do fine in a carton let alone a beer bottle.

I am looking forward to trying that Stags Leap wine.

Cheers!

BrewStef

BTW - This wine did not push any of the corks out at all. I did degass the bejesus out of it, but perhaps it is just the difference in wine.