The Range "make your own" White Wine

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JhnMcK

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According to The Range website this kit, "brews a light, crisp and fruity, easy drinking, medium dry white table wine. This white wine features light apple and subtle floral notes, adding a pinch of citrus for a lingering finish. Why go to the shop to buy white wine for your friends, impress and delight them with your own".

The kit was bought for me by a parent. She bought me this one and the Cider kit (despite me not even asking her to buy me any). Anyway, the kit comes as one big pouch and you cut across the top of the pouch to find a wet compartment, which contains the juice, and a dry compartment containing the yeast, oak chips, stabiliser, finings A+B sachets and instructions. You just pour the juice in, rinse out the packet a couple of times to make sure you get all of it, boil 5L of water, pour into FV and add the 3.5kg of sugar. I did this part a little differently. I boiled 5L in a pan and poured the sugar in there so I could be sure it'd all dissolved but I suppose everyone will do it differently. The instructions are really easy to follow and state that the kit should be ready for the stabiliser and finings after 7 days. I'll see how long it takes for it to ferment out and add it to the review but that'll depend on where you keep your FV.

It all seems very straight forward for a wine kit. I'd say it's perfect for beginners hoping to gain an understanding, and getting confidence, with the whole brewing process through kits. I'll add more to the review about clearing and it's taste once it's finished fermenting. The instructions seem to suggest it can be all done in one bucket, even clearing, but I'll probably go away from the instructions and transfer the wine to another FV to de-gas and clear. All in all, it's a straightforward kit, which is what you would want as a beginner. I am interested to see how it turns out, and how it tastes, considering it is advertised on The Range website at £19.99 but you can't really complain when it'll work out at less than £1 a bottle.
 
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I have made many gallons of the Rose version (see my review in the forum) and for the price it is really good.
I don't know if the instructions are the same (they sound identical so far) but when you get to this part (if they are the same) i would advise tasting the wine before you add the sugar.

Quote from my review -

The instructions tell you to add 750g of sugar to back sweeten after you have stabilised and degassed it, i decided to leave it dry as Mrs Tea doesn't like sweet wine and i am glad i did it would have been sickly sweet if i had followed the instructions.

I found the wine a little rough when first tasting it but if you leave it a week or more the taste changes and is as described -

As for racking it to degas, stabilise and clear i was told by members to do it from start to finish in the FV as that is how its meant to be made, there isn't much sediment and i find it clears in a couple of days.

Take the 7 days with a pinch of salt unless your house is above 20c all day and night, the last one i made took 10 days before the bubbles were down to one every few minutes.
 
I finally got round to being able to bottle this. It's been sat in a second FV, cleared and ready to be siphoned. I thought I'd actually taste it to see how it is and it is quite pleasant. Deviated from the recipe as I didn't add the 150 grams of white sugar it said to add. I just thought if it turns out dry, I'll just add sweetener later on to improve it and I really don't have to. Personally, for me, it's how I like my white wine. Not too strong, not too dry, it's just right. It may even get better with age. No doubt a huge majority of it will be left for a while to mature but I would say it is drinkable as soon as it's finished. A good little kit for the average beginner to do. I've had some terrible white wines which I've paid like
 
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