Hi, I though I would post a review as I could not find one for this kit already.
I made the 6 bottle 7 day kit, bottled it and also had the first of the bottles as a sample.
The kit is designed to make 4.5l and consists of a bottle of grape concentrate, yeast, nutrients, stabilisers, clearing agents and a pouch of flavouring.
I did not achieve the 7 day duration as I did not want to lose volume taking gravity readings and my utility room is not warm enough to ferment in that time. It is claimed that if you have a hydrometer you can complete the kit in 7 days, but, unless they feel this puts the yeast under pressure of having their performance measured it is probably more accurate to say that if you get the conditions spot on it may be complete within 7 days as confirmed by a gravity reading - but as the kit is 4.5l and they are claiming 6 bottles if you start losing volume taking gravity readings with a floating hydrometer you are going to be very short on one of the bottles.
You need to start by marking your FV to the correct fill level, then its some hot water, the concentrate, add some sugar 700g to 1kg ish depending upon how strong you want it. I added 800g as I wanted something closer to commercial wines rather than the extra strength. Then once the sugar has dissolved top up with cold water and add yeast etc.
I then left it for a 12 days of weeks to finish fermenting, it ended up nice and clear with 1/2" of white sediment, you then add in a stabilizer as shake the mixture a few times over the next couple of hours, then add a fining sachet and the flavour pouch, leave for 12 hours then add the final sachet and leave the wine to clear, at this point I stored the wine in the fridge for a day and it was completely clear.
I bottled the wine, but getting 6 full bottles is not possible due to the sediment, but I did get 5 3/4 bottles before wimping out and stopping. Once thing to note is that as you keep on shaking the FV the sediment is soft and easily disturbed at this point.
After bottling I decided it was not right to leave 3/4 of a bottle and as it was already nice and cold the best course of action would be to drink it (having been out of the FV for about 5 mins)
The wine was surprisingly good, it is completely clear and a nice pale colour as per the attached image (the distortion is due to condensation as the humidity was very high at the time)
The initial taste of the wine is very similar to a shop purchase piesporter (thinkg Sainsburys rather than expensive wine shop for me though) with a nice nutty undertone, the finish to the wine is a bit dryer than the commercial one (I had until tasting this never really appreciated what people meant by a dryer finish!). I would not say this is better or worse that the commercial version, just slightly different. Overall I am really please with the kit, I would happily pay for win like this from a shop. I will keep sampling over the next few months to see if it matures / changes at all.
I made the 6 bottle 7 day kit, bottled it and also had the first of the bottles as a sample.
The kit is designed to make 4.5l and consists of a bottle of grape concentrate, yeast, nutrients, stabilisers, clearing agents and a pouch of flavouring.
I did not achieve the 7 day duration as I did not want to lose volume taking gravity readings and my utility room is not warm enough to ferment in that time. It is claimed that if you have a hydrometer you can complete the kit in 7 days, but, unless they feel this puts the yeast under pressure of having their performance measured it is probably more accurate to say that if you get the conditions spot on it may be complete within 7 days as confirmed by a gravity reading - but as the kit is 4.5l and they are claiming 6 bottles if you start losing volume taking gravity readings with a floating hydrometer you are going to be very short on one of the bottles.
You need to start by marking your FV to the correct fill level, then its some hot water, the concentrate, add some sugar 700g to 1kg ish depending upon how strong you want it. I added 800g as I wanted something closer to commercial wines rather than the extra strength. Then once the sugar has dissolved top up with cold water and add yeast etc.
I then left it for a 12 days of weeks to finish fermenting, it ended up nice and clear with 1/2" of white sediment, you then add in a stabilizer as shake the mixture a few times over the next couple of hours, then add a fining sachet and the flavour pouch, leave for 12 hours then add the final sachet and leave the wine to clear, at this point I stored the wine in the fridge for a day and it was completely clear.
I bottled the wine, but getting 6 full bottles is not possible due to the sediment, but I did get 5 3/4 bottles before wimping out and stopping. Once thing to note is that as you keep on shaking the FV the sediment is soft and easily disturbed at this point.
After bottling I decided it was not right to leave 3/4 of a bottle and as it was already nice and cold the best course of action would be to drink it (having been out of the FV for about 5 mins)
The wine was surprisingly good, it is completely clear and a nice pale colour as per the attached image (the distortion is due to condensation as the humidity was very high at the time)
The initial taste of the wine is very similar to a shop purchase piesporter (thinkg Sainsburys rather than expensive wine shop for me though) with a nice nutty undertone, the finish to the wine is a bit dryer than the commercial one (I had until tasting this never really appreciated what people meant by a dryer finish!). I would not say this is better or worse that the commercial version, just slightly different. Overall I am really please with the kit, I would happily pay for win like this from a shop. I will keep sampling over the next few months to see if it matures / changes at all.
