Poochops
Landlord.
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2016
- Messages
- 606
- Reaction score
- 255
Thought I’d share a review on this kit as I don’t see any at all for Renaissance Kits by Mosti Mondial, a Canadian manufacturer who produce a lot for the USA.
First up, I’m a beer brewer, I used to do wine kits when I was a kid but they were invariably bad so I stopped decades ago. A pal was doing winexpert kits and telling me how good they were and how it all depended on the amount of juice to get the desired body, that got me researching.
Found these kits at spitting feathers homebrew in Bolton,
https://www.spitting-feathers-homebrew.co.uk/brands/renaissance/they have 16 litres of juice with 4kg of grape skins, 2 big packs of oak chips (dark toast and light) and the usual yeast, finings, additives. I paid 75ish in January, they’re about £90 now, or £80 without the grape skins. A lot of money for a wine kit but hands down the best value kit in the uk by a country mile going by cost per litre of juice. They claim to use varietal juice in the kits, but don’t they all?
So the 16 litre bag was the size of a bed pillow! I topped up with water to 23 litres in the FV before adding the grape skins took it to about 26 litres. I used the dark chips in a mesh bag rather than the cotton one supplied. Fermented on the grapes and chips then I racked off eventually into 5 demijohns and used half a bottle of tesco red to top up to the necks for ageing. That was March, I bottled a DJ worth in June, 6 full bottles and a big glass for me so I’ll have had a full 30 bottles from the kit once I bottle the rest which I’ll do before Christmas
What’s it like? Bloody lovely to be fair, much better than I’d hoped for, very full bodied, lots of fruit, slight tannin, some oak. I buy a lot of wine online across a wide price range and I certainly wouldn’t look down on mine as a second choice, it’s really good! I'm expecting even more from it in the next six months and I’ve got their Rio grande rojo on the go and ready for racking soon.
First up, I’m a beer brewer, I used to do wine kits when I was a kid but they were invariably bad so I stopped decades ago. A pal was doing winexpert kits and telling me how good they were and how it all depended on the amount of juice to get the desired body, that got me researching.
Found these kits at spitting feathers homebrew in Bolton,
https://www.spitting-feathers-homebrew.co.uk/brands/renaissance/they have 16 litres of juice with 4kg of grape skins, 2 big packs of oak chips (dark toast and light) and the usual yeast, finings, additives. I paid 75ish in January, they’re about £90 now, or £80 without the grape skins. A lot of money for a wine kit but hands down the best value kit in the uk by a country mile going by cost per litre of juice. They claim to use varietal juice in the kits, but don’t they all?
So the 16 litre bag was the size of a bed pillow! I topped up with water to 23 litres in the FV before adding the grape skins took it to about 26 litres. I used the dark chips in a mesh bag rather than the cotton one supplied. Fermented on the grapes and chips then I racked off eventually into 5 demijohns and used half a bottle of tesco red to top up to the necks for ageing. That was March, I bottled a DJ worth in June, 6 full bottles and a big glass for me so I’ll have had a full 30 bottles from the kit once I bottle the rest which I’ll do before Christmas
What’s it like? Bloody lovely to be fair, much better than I’d hoped for, very full bodied, lots of fruit, slight tannin, some oak. I buy a lot of wine online across a wide price range and I certainly wouldn’t look down on mine as a second choice, it’s really good! I'm expecting even more from it in the next six months and I’ve got their Rio grande rojo on the go and ready for racking soon.
