Wine kits Versus Wine from Fruit

[BamaProud]

I am interested in hearing some of the experienced winemakers thoughts on wine from kits versus wine from fruit(fruit available to most normal home-winemakers).

From my limited experience in wine making, Jack Keller's recipes seem to be pretty much a home-winemakers standard. How would you compare the wine those recipes produce to the kits?

Beer Brewers often modify kits (add, subtract ingredients) to improve their beer...or adjust them to their preferences. Are there easy ways/techniques to turn a 100 dollar wine kit into a 150 dollar kit? Or would you generally get a better wine starting with fruit?

 

[Honda88]

It is hard to beat a good kit, everything is measured out for you and the balance is just right. There is no guessing when it comes to kits. With fresh fruit you are in control of the outcome of the wine and this can be good and bad. Most of the time a kit will outperform a newbie winemaker making wine from fresh fruit. I can't say if jacks wines are up to par with the quality of wines produced by kits because I haven't tasted any of his wines. I can only speak from my experience alone and I will say kits do make very good wine. As far as turning a 100 dollar kit into a 150 dollar kit I don't see how this is possible, the ingredients are what makes a wine good and you pay for what you get. I hope this helps.

 

[Yooper]

Wine kits are great, if you don't want to buy fresh grapes and crush and press and adjust the acid and perform MLF.

Fruit wines are great, but they aren't comparable to commercial grape wines.

If you want to make a, say, sauvignon blanc, you either have to buy a good kit or buy pressed frozen juice or grapes. If you buy the grapes, you have to crush and press, adjust acids, sulfite, etc. Same with juice. The kits make it easy, as that works is all done for you. Adding extra things to these kits is not recommended, as it's balanced the way it is.

For country wines, chokecherry wine is one of my favorite reds and crabapple is one of my favorite whites. They are great, but they don't taste like a wine made out of wine grapes at all.

You can't make a $150 kit out of a $100 kit. The reason is that the better kits have more grape juice, and less concentrate. That is what makes the biggest difference- the more concentrate, the cheaper the kit. The more real juice, the more expensive the kit. The cheaper kits are "ok" but not as complex as a premium or ultra premium kit.