Lurker surfaces - dry red wine kit suggestions

[drphilwv]

Howdy all!
Long time beer Brewer and one time winemaker. Bought my wife a white wine kit (fancy plastic fermenter type) and made a serviceable Pinot Grigio. Been wanting to make a dry red wine like a Sangiovese-Tuscan type. Looking for suggestions and pitfalls I might encounter. I have glass carboys and most of the beer making supplies. Any books that you would suggest for a novice winemaker. Thanks for any help.
Doc van Phil

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum.

I don't make red wine so cannot help, i am sure you will find something here - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=57680

 

[Dutto]

Welcome to the Forum.

Before buying a book, I suggest that you take a look at the wine recipes to see what the Forum Members have devised.

I have 10 litres of "Mango and Red Grape Juice" wine maturing in the garage and first tastes indicate that it will be a dry summer wine. It is one of many, many recipes that are cheap and cheerful and basically use supermarket fruit juices.

The joy of these recipes is if they are rubbish they can go down the drain without a tear; and if they are superb they can be replicated with ease (if you remembered to write down what you used and what you did).

Enjoy!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the Forum.

Before buying a book, I suggest that you take a look at the wine recipes to see what the Forum Members have devised.

As Dutto says you can make your own for around 50 pence a bottle and mess about with the ingredients, here are the basics - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462


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[Saltrock]

The Beaverdale or California connoisseur kits are very good too, the Barrollo version of both of them is lovely.

 

[simon12]

I think with kits you get what you pay for, well alot more than you pay for but there all similar value a cheap kit gives drinkable wine Beaverdale gives you great wine the most expensive are even better. You have to wait for the best to be at there best though. I did a wilko cab sav for my 1st ever kit and it tasted awful untill the last bottle was 6 months old it was then not bad at all. Latter beaverdale kits were also good but definitely got better after a year, never had one much older. I highly recommend the beaverdale merlot even though merlot is not normally what I would buy. As for fruit juice wines they can be good or bad but always fun and unique.

 

[engineer]

A reasonable cheap kit to start with is the Cellar 7 Cabernet Sauvignon. This kit comes with 5 litres of juice and will improve if left to age for around 3 months. Its very drinkable and is my staple kit. If you want a more robust wine then you could try the Kenridge Classic Nebbiolo (formerly Barolla). This kit comes with 10 litres of juice and is astonishingly good within a week of bottling and just continues to improve with time.

 

[brumbrew]

Beaverdale make some lovely kits. I'd look at those. They can be a bit pricey but very good in my opinion.

Plenty of info online about wine making. Although I do admit I love a good book.