Re: Kendridge founder Series Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc

This kit is not cheap, having trawled the internet, prices vary from £75 to over £100. Still, assuming 28 bottles, that's still £2.67 to £3.57 a bottle which isn't bad.

The kit comes with 15 litres of grape juice from the finest (according to the blurb) Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc grapes.. surely the finest grapes would be made into wine there and then? this is nearly double the volume of juice which you get with mid range kits like Beaverdale and Cal Con. And it shows.

I brewed this over a couple of weeks in the cupboard under the stairs at a steady not to warm not to cold 18-20 degrees, and dispensed with the unnecessary secondary racking halfway through the ferment. In fact it only got racked for the first time this week after fermenting, degassing, clearing, and then sitting for a fair while on the dead yeast (due to my laziness more than anything else). The lees were lovely and compact and I don't think I wasted any more than about a glass worth in the racking.

The resulting wine is very young, but already the quality of this kit shows. It is crystal clear, with good legs on the glass, great depth of flavour on the palette which starts crisp and citrussy and mellows in the mouth and into the throat. It's not quite Villa Maria but it's a good deal closer than any other sauvignon blanc kit wine I've tasted and a lot better than some of the supermarket whites I've had the 'pleasure' of tasting. You can really tell the extra juice in the kit gives the wine a much more robust flavour with a great depth of flavour.

So, in conclusion, this kit is well worth the money. It's easy as pie to make, tastes amazing young, so who knows how it will improve, and you know it is a top end kit because it even comes with a pack of fairly professional looking wine bottle labels. Well, professional to someone who puts white labels on and marks with a permanent marker.

Don't be scared off by the price tag, this wine is easily as good as a £6 supermarket bottle so you will be quids in.

Now to get her supped. :hat:

narmour said:

This kit is not cheap, having trawled the internet, prices vary from £75 to over £100. Still, assuming 28 bottles, that's still £2.67 to £3.57 a bottle which isn't bad.

The kit comes with 15 litres of grape juice . :hat:

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The founders series have 18L of juice.

I was thinking of trying the Reisling one ,but decided to go for the California Connoiseur at less than half the price but then again only half the juice.

Pearlfisher said:

narmour said:

This kit is not cheap, having trawled the internet, prices vary from £75 to over £100. Still, assuming 28 bottles, that's still £2.67 to £3.57 a bottle which isn't bad.

The kit comes with 15 litres of grape juice . :hat:

Click to expand...

The founders series have 18L of juice.

I was thinking of trying the Reisling one ,but decided to go for the California Connoiseur at less than half the price but then again only half the juice.

Click to expand...

Yeah I realised that after typing. Still, my point is the same. I've made both Kenridge and Cal Con sauvignon blancs, and the difference in quality is huge. I have a few bottles of the cal con one left and they have been relegated to cooking wine.

I recon with the Founders there is only 17L’s of actual juice concentrate not 18, as when I added 5L of water to the juice it hit 22L not 23L, only when I added the grape skins did it make 23L and they are later removed, I could have added an extra 1L of water but the gravity was right on the upper limit of what was recommended so I didn’t bother. Bottling it on Thursday fingers crossed it will be 22L of quality wine.

Jason

It sounds as if it would be better made using four DJs (i.e. 20L) rather than a carboy.

Tim_Crowhurst said:

It sounds as if it would be better made using four DJs (i.e. 20L) rather than a carboy.

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I dunno... it tastes perfectly balanced at 23 litres so brewing 3 litres short would make it too strong I think.