Cabernet Sauvignon 30 bottle kits

[Slate Miner]

I've also ordered one of these kits from amazon, the price was too good to turn down.Thanks for the tip-off. :

Typical though , I've just bought a Cellar7 Cab Sav from my LHBS @£25 thinking this was an opportunity not to miss. :lol:

I'll be swimming in the stuff soon :rofl:

 

[alanwh]

Just ordered a Merlot at £20 :thumb:
I will be attempting a bit of blending with the Cab. at some point in the future meethinks :geek:

 

[bobsbeer]

I'll be swimming in the stuff soon :rofl:

And the problem is? :thumb:

 

[bobsbeer]

Has anyone tried this kit on Amazon £15.66 delivered to your door !

During Amazons Black Friday deals I got a couple of white kits but I havnt made them up yet. It comes with labels, corks and shrink capsules ! There's also a Merlot @ £20.

The price has gone up!!!! Now £37.45 :nono:

 

[Stanleythecat]

Just about to start brewing the Californian Connoisseur cab sauv, any tips! Only my second brew. Would this be better bulk aged or bottled?

Leo

 

[Slate Miner]

Has anyone tried this kit on Amazon £15.66 delivered to your door !

During Amazons Black Friday deals I got a couple of white kits but I havnt made them up yet. It comes with labels, corks and shrink capsules ! There's also a Merlot @ £20.

The price has gone up!!!! Now £37.45 :nono:

:hmm: The Chilean Merlot is £18.37 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reserve-Chateau ... _grocery_2

Anyone tempted? :

 

[alanwh]

Bugger the merlot was £20 when I ordered it yesterday. Still one helluva bargain I wonder why the prices fluctuate so much :wha:
The batch of Cab Sauv had printed on the side that it was a batch of one of 1100 and odd, thats quite an order.. so I wonder if the price goes up when they are getting to the last of a batch and goes back down when they get more in stock.
Or maybe they just take the **** when everyone gets on the bandwaggon

 

[anthonyUK]

Cheers - I just ordered a couple of the Merlots. I hope you can't go wrong at that price as I've never made wine in this quantity before.

 

[tonyhibbett]

I presume by 'thin' you are referring to depth of colour. True cabernet sauvignon is deeply red, so I wonder how much 'varietal' concentrate is in there! Having noted that the Kenridge barolo (although not their cab sauv) includes a small pack of dried elderberries, I added some to a Winebuddy, (along with red grape juice and raspberries, which in themselves wouldn't significantly alter the colour, but add body and flavour). Instructions for barolo are to add berries at start. They sink and so are removed on first racking. However, colour extraction is more effective in the presence of alcohol (as per sloe gin), so adding them later makes more sense.
The Lalvin yeast is not usually 'volcanic', which suggests a rather high proportion of invert sugar, which would be consistent with thin colour.
Cab sauv is aged in oak, so I will add some too. I used them in the Cellar 7 version, which also doesn't include them, although the Winebuddy does, as does the California Connosseur and Kenridge. I've had a 20 litre oak barrel on order for 2 months, but still waiting. My old one is exhausted and imparts no flavour, so I put a handful of toasted oak 'beans' inside with the wine and after just 2 weeks the effect is noticeable. So this time, I will do the same using 5 litre PET bottles, which like wood, are gas permeable, at the maturing, rather than fermenting stage for up to 3 months. I can leave 1 gallon unoaked, to see if it makes any difference with this kit.
I notice the price has jumped to £37, but the Chilean still a very good deal.
Cab sauv is often blended with merlot, something else I intend to try.

 

[Slate Miner]

I presume by 'thin' you are referring to depth of colour. True cabernet sauvignon is deeply red, so I wonder how much 'varietal' concentrate is in there! Having noted that the Kenridge barolo (although not their cab sauv) includes a small pack of dried elderberries, I added some to a Winebuddy, (along with red grape juice and raspberries, which in themselves wouldn't significantly alter the colour, but add body and flavour). Instructions for barolo are to add berries at start. They sink and so are removed on first racking. However, colour extraction is more effective in the presence of alcohol (as per sloe gin), so adding them later makes more sense.
The Lalvin yeast is not usually 'volcanic', which suggests a rather high proportion of invert sugar, which would be consistent with thin colour.
Cab sauv is aged in oak, so I will add some too. I used them in the Cellar 7 version, which also doesn't include them, although the Winebuddy does, as does the California Connosseur and Kenridge. I've had a 20 litre oak barrel on order for 2 months, but still waiting. My old one is exhausted and imparts no flavour, so I put a handful of toasted oak 'beans' inside with the wine and after just 2 weeks the effect is noticeable. So this time, I will do the same using 5 litre PET bottles, which like wood, are gas permeable, at the maturing, rather than fermenting stage for up to 3 months. I can leave 1 gallon unoaked, to see if it makes any difference with this kit.
I notice the price has jumped to £37, but the Chilean still a very good deal.
Cab sauv is often blended with merlot, something else I intend to try.

Tony, I hope to be starting my Cellar7 Cab Sauv at the weekend, would you recommended adding say a litre of red grape juice and some oak chippings? Or is better to stick to the instructions? :

 

[alanwh]

Yes thin as colour, suggesting less grape juice than I had hoped and i too think there is a larger amount of syrup as the ferment has now slowed right down after only 5 days. (It will be interesting to see what the gravity is) The elderberries will help with the colour and the body, the juice is extremely water soluable (throw one dried berry in a cup of water and you will see what I mean) so they are ok to add at the start, just how many is a matter of experiment and I will know better before secondary ferment where I can add more if required. I am mindful not to overdo it though as they are quite tannic and it may take years for it to mellow out if overdone.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Interesting. I never normally take an initial sg reading with kits. Always took them on trust. The instructions are honest: initial sg should be in range of 1075-90. I was a bit shocked when it did actually read 1075, as this is below 10% potential alcohol. I've never seen a bottle cab sauv that low. The stated range for cal con and kenridge is 1080-95, which is more acceptable. So I tested some Winebuddy sauvignon blanc. 10%. Cal con cab sauv 12%. Cellar 7 cab sauv 10%. I don't worry about my alcohol consumption, my body knows when it's had enough, but it seems I consume rather less than I thought. On raw stats then, this kit seems on a par with Cellar 7, apart from corks, capsules and labels, which I don't use. Final proof in the tasting, of course. Cellar 7 admits to contain water and yet weighs 1 kg less, so this kit should contain substantially more grape.
I decided to add a kilo of sugar rather than Youngs definitive grape concentrate, as this is Spanish (probably mostly garnacha, which I recently tried and was not impressed), which might compromise the flavour. Anyway, they are actually 900 g and contain 20% glucose.
Colour density looks fine to me, so no elderberries, which would also influence the flavour, but I did add 30 g of french oak chips, which apparantly used to be included, so part of the plan.
Watch this space.

 

[tonyhibbett]

So the cab sauv table now looks like this:
1 Solomon Grundy Gold £24.95 + £3 sugar
2 Cellar 7 £30.62 sugar inc. 6.0l. (7kg) 7 day Abv 10% no oak
3 Cantina £33.49 " " 5 day
4 Solomon Grundy Platinum £33.49 " "
5 Reserve du Chateau £37.00 " " 6.1l. 28 day Abv 10% (Amazon) no oak
6 California Connosseur £41.99 " " 7.5l. 28 day Abv 12% oak inc
7 Beaverdale £42.98 All Juice? 7.5l.
8 Kenridge Classic £46.94 sugar inc. 10.0l. 28 day Abv 12% oak inc
9 Kenridge Showcase £60.00 " " 16.0l. " " 12-13%

Of those tested so far:
Cellar 7 is good, but not such good value as it seems, as it does not include oak chips and really needs extra sugar or concentrate to bring it up to strength.
California Connosseur needs nothing added and is much better, but takes longer to produce.
Although the Winebuddy cannot be regarded as cab sauv, it has great potential as a basis for experimental additives.