Are cheapo wine kits much different than expensive ones?

[biodiesel]

So I've made country fruit wines, concord grape wines (from fresh fruit from the backyard), and cheap-to-midrange wine kits. I've never splurged on the top-of-the-line kits. I guess I'm a cheapskate.
But now, as I am trying and failing to get exact info on how much concentrate versus real juice (if there even is any) is in ANY wine kit (mostly dealing with Spagnols) I am starting to research this more, and it sounds like even almost all commercial wine (again, low-to-midrange - $10-20 in Canada) contain super concentrates like Mega Purple. Am I the only one who would really appreciate wine ingredient labeling that is as strict as the food industry (and please don't bring up the Canadian government's current obsession with eroding our food regulations!)?
SO: THE QUESTION:
If any of you have made the top-end kits like Eclipse as well as low-to-mid kits, would you please give your impressions here. All details appreciated!
Cheers!

 

[DoctorCAD]

If a low dollar kit has 12 liters of juice and you need to add 11 liters to it to get 23, the juice is now almost 100% diluted.

If a kit has 16 liters of juice plus a liter of grapes, you only dilute it with 5 liters of water. The juice is only 23% diluted.

More grape solids makes better wine.

Which one do you think has more solids?

 

[Cyclman]

I have made several Eclipse kits, all came out good to outstanding. For $6 a bottle, no complaints, even some wine geek friends raved about them.

 

[Yooper]

With wine kits, you really do get what you pay for. A cheap kit is fine for "jug wine" type of results, and I make those for everyday drinking wines, but the expensive Cellar Craft and those Eclipse kits can make wine that is excellent.

A $175 kit makes a wine that with a little aging can rival a $25 bottle of commercial wine, maybe more.

 

[biodiesel]

I wish wine kit manufacturers would list how much pure juice, how much juice from concentrate, how much concentrate, and how much TDS are in their kits.

A 16 L kit could conceivably contain only 0.1 L of pure varietal juice. How are we to know if it contains more than this or not? There are no regulations mandating proper labeling so we just don't know.

 

[homegrownSoIL]

I think you have a valid point on the need for better labeling of wine kit ingredients. Good luck in getting the kit makers to comply :/

 

[madscientist451]

If you go to Amazon and look for wine kits they have many to choose from. To see how much concentrate there is you can look at the shipping weight. A 55 lb kit makes 23l of wine and no water is added.
Some other kits are 40 lb and 17.5 lb.
Are the more expensive kits worth the extra money? You'd have to do a side by side comparison to answer that.
I've never made a kit wine, have only used grapes and buckets of juice. But I think the more expensive ones are worth trying out.
The difference may be $2-3 a bottle, but when you compare that to buying wine at the store, the extra cost isn't that big.