Wine kit value for money

[Juraj]

Hi All,

I have recently got into home brewing wine. Bought a Wineworks Château du Roix kit, which is happily bubbling in my spare room.

What would be shop value of the finished product?

I.e. A kit costs up to £40 for 30 bottles. How much would you have to pay for a bottle of a similar quality wine in your local Tesco or off licence?

 

[nige]

I buy lindermans 2 for a £10 from bargain booze so a saving of £150.00, if its that good mind.

 

[Drunkula]

What would be shop value of the finished product?

£8.99.

 

[kelper]

Its value is what you paid. You couldn't see lit for £8.99. I'd say it's worth up to £2 a bottle. If it tastes good and is clear. And has a printed label. Remember, commercial wine has a lot of tax in the price.

"61% of a £5 bottle of wine is tax (£2.23 duty plus 83p VAT = £3.06). The average price of a bottle of wine in the UK was last reported by the WSTA (source: Nielsen) in late Sept 2018 as just £5.68 (56% tax)."

 

[The Baron]

I have done loads of kits lower end and middle end and have yet to produce especially red a bottle that is worth more than £5. The supermarkets have some really good wines under a fiver nowadays which are hard to match/beat as they have specific grape juice that is meant for making wine and most of the kits use a blend of non-specific grapes that are generally not full blown wine making grapes and make slightly inferior wines. I have never had a problem with the wines being clear infact that is one thing that you can match the supermarket wines on but as regards depth of flavour and colour they are not quite there. Do not get me wrong you can produce some good quaffing wines with a £40 kit or less but they do seem to turn out better if you use white or rose kits but matching a full red is very very hard as they lack the depth of grape used

 

[kelper]

I agree with the Baron. My red kits have all disappointed. Maybe I'll try again but add some elderberry as this gives lovely colour and complexity. My homemade wines are better than any kits so far.

 

[Hanglow]

I've only done some california connoisseur kits in the past and I was quite impressed considering the cheapness. would say they were better than cheapest of the cheap plonk, so maybe £5-£6 a bottle or so equivalent quality of wine from a supermarket. I'd quite like to try some of the more premium kits, but to be honest still wouldn't expect to get much more than a table wine. I always brewed the kits just a bit short which might have helped. I always did that with beer kits too

 

[Graham Simpson]

I add 3 x 1L bottles of Asda pressed red grape juice to a 23L Beaverdale red wine kit and it improves the colour and body of the finished wine.
(I make the start Volume up to 25L)

 

[kelper]

Add more grape juice, some elderberries and ditch the kit!

 

[Sandimas]

I agree with The Baron and Kelper, I've been trying to produce a half-decent red for years with various kits even the expensive ones and they're all just about OK. Nothing special at all, just a really basic table wine - no bite or depth.

White's are a different matter and compare well with a £5 supermarket bottle, at least to my taste.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

We find the Rose kits very drinkable in fact we rarely drink white now and the Range store Red is nice but to me it's between a Rose and Red so Red wine drinkers would probably find it a bit lacking.

 

[The Baron]

I think we've had this question many times and as usual the answers are pretty consistent that reds are do-able but not to a high standard however whites and rose are well do-able and comparable with the £5 bracket even some of the cheaper kits produce nice whites and rose that are well quaffable. Reds are like searching for the holy grail of homebrewing

 

[Cwrw666]

I made a Beaverdale Merlot kit recently. Brewed it slightly short - 4 1/2 instead of 5 gallons. Have to say it tastes just like Merlot.
We normally buy Isla Negra Merlot from Tescos at £5/bottle, £4.50 when on spesh. I'd say it was as good.

 

[hichaechoc]

I've been doing kits for years and settled on Kenridge Classic as a good compromise between quality and price. The Chardonnay is superb but the reds - I agree with the previous comments.

 

[nige]

Kelper, I do agree with Elderberry and damson or both mixed make a top reds and the ridiculous Taxes we are hammered with, interesting to see the white kits are OK as I have not done any wine kits.

 

[Drunkula]

It's good to see us all matching up on this.

I think Chippy does Winebuddy kits now and again and I've slagged them because I got about 12 of them at once, did the reds first and though they were pish, then I did the Sauv blanc and Chardonnay, also thought they were tasteless but then drank a real chardonnay and it was almost exactly the same as the Winebuddy, so it really seems white wines are far more forgiving.

Like Cwrw I really did like the Beaverdale merlot, then started liking the more tannic reds and found the Chateau Du Roi more along the lines. It's their version of Chateauneuf Du Pape. I had a bottle of the real thing for for my birthday and it was like sucking lolly sticks while someone fed dark chocolate into the corner of your mouth - seriously! It was staggering. I was drinking it while playing Gears of War co-op on Xbox Live with my best friend and he kept telling me to shut up and shoot people rather than rattling on about the fekkin wine. I drank the whole bottle in one go and I really don't recommend that as it's diminishing returns. 'Specially if you're eating left out chicken wings in between. Anyway, yeah, I've never had that kind of richness with kits. But then again I never really aged them. Some merlot kits I'd brew then just scoop out of the fermenter with a pint glass and never even bottled.

I'm a classy bird.

 

[Graham Simpson]

Add more grape juice, some elderberries and ditch the kit!

It’s a wine kit thread!
I stopped using elderberries as they take too long to ‘mellow out’, l do make red wine from my own grapes and get 5-8 gallons from them, but that’s not going to last me a year, so use wine kits.

 

[kelper]

All my elderberry wines were great within a month. But they were dried.

 

[kelper]

I've just opened a bottle of Beaverdale Shiraz that has been in the cupboard for three weeks. It's a disappointment. No bouquet, no depth or complexity. I've lowered my standards and it's still dreadful.

 

[Graham Simpson]

All my elderberry wines were great within a month. But they were dried.

I’ve used fresh and ones l have frozen, but not tried dried. Must make a difference