Any experience with Vino Del Vida kits?

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DUCCCC

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I picked up an R.J. Spagnols Vino Del Vida Australian Shiraz kit this afternoon.

The only other kit I've done so far has been the Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay, which was pretty darn good for a quickie (28 day) inexpensive kit. The guy at the LHBS started getting these Vino Del Vida kit on the requests of a winemaker friend of his and he likes them as good as the Selections kits for much less $$.

We'll see. I got the green light to spend Father's Day brewing another batch of my IPA and now making a batch of wine as well. Sounds like it should be a good day.
 
I've made one of these kits. The quality will be comparable to your WE Vintner's reserve kit.

Well that's at least good then. I know the VR kits aren't the greatest wine you'll ever have, but that Chardonnay was a pretty good table wine that I had no problem serving to friends and family. I only hope this VDV comes out as drinkable.

I will add that it looks like it's got all the needed extras like Lalvin yeast, and the clarifiers, but it has oak dust. The VE kit had slightly larger "chips", which were closer in size to cake sprinkles.
 
While I don't have the instructions in front of me (I'm wasting time when I should be working), I've used a lot of oak in a variety of kits from different manufacturers. The chips tend to go in during secondary fermentation or during bulk aging while the sawdust goes in during the primary. Some kits provide both to go in at the appropriate times. The sawdust actually works very well in that it imparts a lot of oak during the short primary stage and the yeast and gross lees attaches to the sawdust and settles to the bottom of the primary.

Any kit from the "Big Three" kit manufacturers (WE, CC, RJS) are good. As a general rule, the bigger the kit (more concentrate and suspended solids) the better quality wine you'll end up with. That's not always the case though. A 10 litre Vineco Ken Ridge Classic Viognier took best of show at this year's Winemaker's Magazine's 2008 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition.
 
These RJS kits get pretty good reviews on the cheap end. Generally, if you're using one of the name brand kits (Winexpert, Vineco, RJS, Cellar Craft, etc), and you follow the instructions, you'er always goign to get good wine of level applable from that kit. Some of the smaller off brands, and supposedly, the kits from Costco, can be a lot more hit or miss, or just bad.

Being as it's a Shiraz, might try tweaking the kit with a pound of Zante Currants from grocery store. Give a bit more body to the wine, and it's a cheap tweak.

Oops, see summersolstice just said same thing about the manufacturers and leevels of kits.
 
Well, already had my first f-up with this one. Probably not a big deal though.

I kept looking at the box on the counter, and I just couldn't wait until Sunday to start it...

Read through the directions a couple times, figured I've done a kit already, no big deal. Sanitized everything, and had all the tools and equipment laid out ready. Went through all the numbered steps, and combined the lot. I put in the bentonite, water, juice, stirred in everything with my drill-mounted Mix Stir, and took my SG (1.086), which was right in the neighborhood where it was supposed to be.

Did you see any mention of the oak?

Nope, neither did I, until after I had pitched the yeast. I looked at the stuff I had left over, and saw the oak dust bag. I thought to myself, "Gee, I wonder when I put that in?" Then I read over the directions again, noticing the print in the sidebar with the green background that's different from the rest of the directions, which says when it's a good time to add the oak and stir vigorously.

I added the oak after the yeast. I figured what the heck and stirred it all up, because I don't think having a clump of oak dust at the bottom would impart too much flavor.
 
Just racked this to secondary. It's supposed to be in secondary for another 2 weeks, but I'm going on vacation, so it's going to sit 3 weeks until bottling. I imagine this won't hurt a thing, only help in clarifying.

The sample today was 0.998, which is what the directions said it should be. I topped up with about 1.5 cups of water after adding all the sulphite, sorbate, Kelosan and Chitosan, and degassed for over 10 minutes total. 5 after the first 2 additions and another 1 in between, and then another 5 after everything was added.

I had to try the sample. It tasted like pretty young wine, go figure. I'm really hoping I enjoy this wine, as it seems like a pretty decent kit for the price, and I look forward to making a few more of these in the future if it turns out well.
 
I'm sitting here having a glass of this wine right now. I didn't have enough to fill the 30th bottle all the way. SWMBO and I are splitting the 3/4 bottle, since it tastes pretty decent already. I'm pretty psyched about this batch now.

I also have to give "mad props" to my Portuguese floor corker. That thing rocks and I have to say that I'm really happy with the investment every time I use it, from a couple batches of Apfelwein to a Chardonnay and now this Shiraz. This is really one of those things you shouldn't skimp on if you're making wine and using corked bottles.

I'll update again in around 90 days when I get to see how this stuff tastes then.
 
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