Reserve Du Chateau Merlot 30 bottle kit (Amazon)

[BigYin]

oops... bought one too :whistle:

 

[artyb]

you know it makes sense rodney... :rofl:

 

[alanwh]

mine arrived today, a bit slow with yodel...!

it has two bags of oakchips, im looking to improve the basic wine,after reading people comments... :hmm:

i have some elderberrys in the freezer, im thinking of squashing and steeping 1kg of em in hot water,
then put them into the fv before starting the wine kit any thoughts i may also short brew the kit...

any thoughts or good additions .... :idea:

Well I added some dried elderberries to the Sauv. and it has made a big difference to the body. I think on the Merlot I'm going to use chopped raisins as well to try and up the grape content and try for a starting gravity of 1.090, (maybe slightly less depending on the quantity of raisins) by brewing short to get a fuller bodied red, possibly about 20 Litres ?? will add water as I go and check the readings. The problem I've found its extremely hard to get a good gravity reading when mixing the juice, it has to be mixed perfectly before every reading so a bit of a guestimate to start on that one I think. Probably start at 18L and see what the reading is (paint mixer and drill at the ready) . I think at this price its a good opportunity to try a bit of experimentation, though I'm thinking if everyone modifies theirs we arent going to be able to give a true review of the kit, anyone volunteering ?? :whistle: :whistle:
I did read somewhere that you can add small amounts of fruit/juices later on in the second ferment that will linger in the taste and aroma. I think most fruit gets broken down into its constituent parts where much of the fragrence and taste is lost on the full ferment, so this is something I might try in future.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Day 7 of the cab sauv version. SG 1010. Using a vinometer, 11.5% abv, which suggests that without the sugar I added, the final result would have been 11%, compared with the Cellar 7 version at 10%, so better value, even at the new price of £30, plus you get a decent yeast and corks, capsules and labels.

Also illustrates the difference between 7 and 28 day kits. It's easy to get 10% abv in 5 days. Getting beyond that takes significantly longer and requires the secondary fermentation because the yeast really slows down. During this stage the must picks up some 'character' from the superior yeast used rather than off flavours of inferior yeast.
Personally I have had no delivery problems from Amazon, but 3 deliveries from ebay sellers have failed to arrive in the last 3 months. This suggests that mail pilfering is on the increase in these 'austere' times.

 

[brews-brothers]

I am making the Raspberry Merlot almost to the instruction.
The only difference I have done is make it 20L instead of 22L.

I did buy 2 kits and am waiting to test the results of the first kit before I doctor the second one in any way.

 

[tonyhibbett]

The instructions say make up volume to 21 litres initially, then add the bag of raspberry concentrate after fermentation and stabilization to top up to 23 litres, and then add finings.
If you are using 20 litres as your initial volume, this will slightly increase the alcohol and slightly increase the sweetening effect of the rapberry concentrate. However, if you intend the final volume to be 20 litres, then you would start with 18 litres, giving you rather more alcohol, but proportionally more raspberry, making it even sweeter. The initial target sg is between 1055-1065. At 1060, this would produce 7.8% abv. THe raspberry juice would dilute this to around 7%. Reducing the initial volume to 18 litres would increase this final abv to about 8.5, but even sweeter than the original design. You could, of course revert to the original design by adding 3 litres of water, if you so desired. Some reviewers really liked it that way! But it doesn't appeal to me.
Hence my plan to reduce the overall volume and ferment the raspberry concentrate, giving me a stronger, dry wine of a smaller quantity. I can't lose, because I could still convert it back to the original design by simply adding sugar and water!
I notice that the kit price has now gone up to £30.

 

[alanwh]

Baralo is down to £20 :thumb:

 

[patesy]

Well spotted alanwh ordered one.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Thanks for that info
Meanwhile the cab sauv is still very active at 0994 with an abv of 13% on day 8.

 

[alanwh]

Amazon have taken the Cabernet off sale :?
I read that they had received customer complaints and were suspending it until they had investigated.
Possibly due to oak chips being left out of some boxes I know mine didnt have any.
Just hope it's that and nothing major, mine is in the secondary, should be finished this week.
Added oak chips and left them in 7 days, just a touch too much oak. (should have been 5 days but forgot )
so it's going to take a few months to age out I think, but so far so good

 

[tonyhibbett]

At the original asking price of £14, the omission of oak chips is hardly cause for complaint, and it doesn't claim to include them anyway.
Mine is at the fining stage, (day 9) with a final sg of 994, (does it ever get lower than this?) which is odd, as it was 994 yesterday, actively fermenting and full of co2. As for de-gassing, it threw up significantly less foam this time. I gave it a couple of minutes with the heavy duty paint stirrer and used the light duty one for the finings.
The vinometer read 15% abv, which is a bit scary, but it's most accurate with fully finished wine and this stuff is still very opaque. The spirit hydrometer is more conservative at 10%, but as it is calibrated for the hard stuff, this end of the scale is well outside it's intended range. Seems to me it needed niether extra sugar nor reduced water, oh we of little faith, and it tastes pretty good already.
A discontinued item now removed from Amazon, this stuff is destined to become an urban legend!

 

[alanwh]

At the original asking price of £14, the omission of oak chips is hardly cause for complaint, and it doesn't claim to include them anyway.

There definately has been some oak omissions, as the early reviews I have seen refer to them, though I agree not a reason to send them back at this price. I think the oak cost me £2.50. Maybe they will sell this remaining batch off really cheap :grin: :grin:

 

[tonyhibbett]

Let's all tell Amazon that it was ok at the original offer price, but not so good at the new price. Get some control!

 

[pondlife]

Baralo is down to £20 :thumb:

Dammit! I seem to have ordered one too. Can't think how THAT happened (again) lol!

 

[pondlife]

Just referring back to the oak chips thing...I have 2 Chilean Merlot kits and oak chips are not mentioned in the instructions anywhere, but I had 2 sachets included in the packaging.

I've only got one kit going at the moment and I decided to use 1 sachet in the primary fermentation and keep the other sachet for a country/supermarket wine project.

I added 500g sugar in 500ml boiled water to the must just to raise the alcohol level and, after 1 day, the froth had escaped the lid!

I did the 1st racking at 1.020 and the subsequent fermentation took off again like a train! I usually ferment all of my wines out to 0.990 and I don't think this one will have any problem achieving that target.

Here's hoping the finished product tastes as good as it ferments!

 

[artyb]

do the oak chips add much to the flavour....?

do producers add flavours to red wine after its been fermented,
i find some of the full bodied reds very full of fruit tastes ....

 

[pondlife]

do the oak chips add much to the flavour....?

I'n no expert on oaking wines, but I have noticed that the Youngs Chardonnay and Merlot have a taste in common with each other and I think that can only be due to the inclusion of oak chips in the fermentation process.

I removed the oak chips from the Reserve de Chateau Chilean Merlot on the 1st racking, so I wouldn't imagine that the effect will be so pronounced with this wine.

I don't (knowingly) buy commerically-produced oaked wines so the taste, while not unpleasant, is new to me.

 

[alanwh]

Oak reacts with controlled oxydisation to balance the wine chemically in bulk ageing, smoothes out the mouth feel and along with aging, oak adds character and depth to a wine. Taste and aromas of spices and vanilla that are popular in higher end wines come from the oak aging process.

 

[tonyhibbett]

Day 10 of the cab sauv. Now the wine is starting to clear, the vinometer now reads 11.5% abv., which is what I was aiming at by adding 24 ounces of sugar, so unmodified it would be 10%, like Cellar 7, but with a respectable yeast and an extra kilo of concentrate, suggesting the grape juice element to be around 70-75%.
Somewhat academic, since this kit has been withdrawn, but I guess the others would be similar in these respects. Colour, body and flavour as good as the California Connosseur version, so I've ordered the barolo.
If 2 bags of oak chips are supplied, I would use 1 to simulate barrel fermentation and the other to simulate barrel ageing.in a polypin.

 

[alanwh]

I emailed Amazon and they say it has been suspended from sale at the moment because of complaints with regads to "item not as described"