Wine vs. beer

So I'm right in the middle of making my first wine. It's from a kit. I'm wondering something. It seems like on beers that the recipe has a lot to do with how good your beer is, but with wine it's all about the grapes. I know this is what the pro critics say, but is it absolute? Can you make a good wine with good techniques and recipes or are you stuck with your ingredients?

Save wine for the romantic evenings with the object of your desire...real men drink the brew! Perhaps a little off topic......

That's exactly where I am. It's just that I'd like more desirable evenings!

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp

I think this is what you're looking for. The page design is atrocious but there is a ton of good info.

Now, I have zero experience with wine...and there are many who would argue that I'm a VERY amateur beer brewer. But, from what I've seen, it's much easier to control the beer brewing process and all of its ingredients than it is to control the same for wine. Whole grains and fresh hops are quite easy to obtain, while a truly magnificent grape crop is quite hard to come by. I'm sure I'll be corrected, but I've yet to see wine brewing kits that include fresh grapes to stomp, and I can't help but think that concentrates and syrups make it hard to get beyond the wine equivalent of "extract beer brewing."

All that said, I still like beer more than wine, so I guess I'm biased...

Agreed, I was all geared up this year to make 12 gallons of white wine, when I couldnt find grapes to my satisfaction.
BTW, if extract is done right it can be indiscernable from AG, there are commercial breweries that use DME by the ton.
In the last Sam Adams competition an extract brewer won. I think with grapes you are worse off than extract.

The problem with wine is simple, it's simple. Most wines only have one kind of grape, so the quality of the grape determines the limits of the final product. You can make it worse, but not better. Ales are very forgiving. I know more than one person that has reclassified a batch of ale & won prizes.

I guess it did sound a bit like I was downplaying extract brewing. I completely agree that extract beers can be quite tasty...I was just looking for a good analogy, and I'm really looking forward to all grain brewing!

I have never made wine..but the topic comes up with people @ work who have....
They tell me stories about kits that have a ton of adjuncts...something that may be comparable to a poor extract kit (and instructions under 100 words) in terms of getting the right colour/alcohol/time for completion but end up with a suspect finished product. If I was ever to make one, I would really research the quality of the kit. As with brew, I am sure with the right ingredients and the know-how, it will turn out great.

But, unlike beer, you could always use it to make sangria if you dont like the finshed taste.

Cheers.

there are very good wine kits out there if you look for them they make very good wine but grapes are much better this is the right time of the year for wine
between now and mid october

How do we know the kits we buy now have grapes from now? On average in ya'lls experience, how old are the grapes in most kits?

Gonzo, high quality wine kits will have experation dates on them. Just like with ALMOST anything in life the more you spend on something the better its. That goes for wine kits.

I've made several batches of wine, but I'm not an expert by any means. I've made it from a kit, from canned fruit, from juice, and from fresh fruit/ grapes. The main thing that I have learned is that you can't get good wine from bad ingredients. I made a batch of wine from apples that didn't smell or taste..well, appley. They smelled more like potatoes and weren't very sweet. Some kind of canning apple, I think. There's 5 gallons of 8% apple wine in my shed waiting for Hell to freeze over. Smells like shoe polish and tastes just as bad. That's the only bad batch I've had. Made a nice one out of canned peaches and a box of white raisins. The best was made from some muscadine grapes one of the girls I work with brought in. Don't try banannas !
I'm a fan of sweeter wines. I guess beauty lies in the tastebuds of the beholder. I'm just saying that depending on your level of wine sophistication, you can make a wine to suit your taste without too much trouble. Go for the $80 kit if you want, or make a damn fine wine for around $10 worth of fruit and yeast. It's really not that complicated, or doesn't have to be.

Just my 2 cents worth.

For a snoby wine..yes..its all in the varietal grape. The venifer of choice and its micro climates. I have fermented everything in the forest and I'd have to say it's all true from my research. I am no expert either , but...

You can make some good wines from fruit. Try a Kiwi/Grapefruit(50/50). I don't know why but it makes a very interesting wine. If you should try this use a champagne yeast.