Wine kit value for money

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Does anyone know what actually happened to the Young’s Definitive range? I was very fond of them
 
250g in a gallon works well. I do add two litres or more of Tesco fruit juice. Apple seems the best. Pineapple is too much. Welch's purple grape is excellent. And sugar to a total of 800 to a 1,00 grammes.

I boil them for about twenty minutes.
 
With a red the skins are fermented along with the juice,This extracts a geat number of things into the wine.
The manufacturing process for red wine kits seems to "miss" these vital substances.Going by members comments.!!!!
 
Adding dried Elderberries to a red kit might help ???
Defo for colour.
Other than that i cant speak from experiance as i only do white kits.
 
Having read many threads about poor red wine kits I think you have to pay top price to get something worth drimkimg
 
You know, one of my go to wines in shops (and this sounds bad if you full on rate wine lol) is that barefoot Pinot grigio. That, or that I Heart Sauvignon blanc. Now I appreciate that a lot of people will probably see this a frankly sinful lol, with yer 20 quid bottles or whatever. Me? I’m a £6 a bottle guy. It’s a good drink, it’s cheap, and I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my money buying it.
So, Homebrew terms? £6 x 6 (6 on a gallon innit) equals £36.

I can buy a wine kit from Wilkos for about £12 that I rate around the same. That’s £2 a bottle.

So for me, wine kits are always a winner.

Hell, even if I push the boat out and double my money that’s still only £4 a bottle. And that one will be nice for a £24 wine kit right?

But don’t ever lie to yourself and think you’ll ever get some Pouilly Fume or some **** out of your wine kits no matter how much you tweak them. It’s always gonna be a Barefoot lol.
 
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I used to buy quite a few youngs definative range kits,The last one I had ate through the tins,It was a red, So I have still not made a red kit.
However I have made whites that are better than the cheapest white wines that are onsale at the supermarkets.

There is likely an even greater saving here in Scotland,Due to minimum price policy.
 
I have been very happy with the few beaverdale reds I have made I think there as good as a £5 bottle when about 3 months old and better than anything for £5 when there over a year old.
 
it really depends to me on what you think a bottle of wine is worth to start with,

would you ever produce an equiviant kit to a £129 claret, i doubt it. i can certanly match a £25 bottle of wine, with kits and good practises, but thats a £25 bottle of wine i like, i drink black tea therefore my wines are high in tanins to best suit my tastes, if you drink white tea and two sugars, my wine is cheek sucking in, bitter and harsh.

I never compare the two and never will, i like big reds and strong flavours, the wife does not. i hate sweat white wines and ribena like merlots, the mebsaab loves them. similar shopbrought wines comefrom £5 to £25, we never buy wines past £25 as we dont have the taste pallet to do it justice, i was once given a sip from a £1000 bottle of red wine, to me it has tobe the pinical of bad and nasty wine. i hated it, yet everyone and there was hundreds all saying how fantastic it was. I have brought and drank a £300 bottle of claret once and that was the same. better than the first but still not my sort of wine. maybe i can justify a £50 bottle of wine but like i said i have no pallet to enjoy it. a barrel of rhubarb wine fermented out like a Liebfraumilch and i am yours
 
There's something a little incongruous about someone called Hedgerowpete paying £300 for a bottle of wine. I imagine you in a tattered old greatcoat, buttonless and fastened with a length of bailer twine...

Maybe it’s supposed to be ironic, like Little John
 
There's something a little incongruous about someone called Hedgerowpete paying £300 for a bottle of wine. I imagine you in a tattered old greatcoat, buttonless and fastened with a length of bailer twine...
love it, thename comes from the fact i harvest from hedgerows, all crops as well as planting hedges to crop, at present we are trimming elderberry trees for better fruit, a million years ago i set the name up to work three you tube channels as well as a website, beekeeping and instructing, home brew wines and country wines, kites and flying, to include altitude as well as distence and fishing and photography, there was several other items under the hedgerow banner. i joined a wine club where i used to live which was run by the wine merchants, generally it was idiots fat wallets and bids to out do each other. i took it more seriously than that and learnt a lot about old world wines, mainly France, alas the idiots killed it with money and no brains. it was a great chance to taste some amazing wines ( and to buy the odd case) but some times they would break open a special bottle, say £3000 but split over five or six people, i cant see the sence in paying £500 for a glass of wine so i used to step out of it, but managed to get the few drops in a glass. once you realise about wines and what people pay and why its an incredable con
 
Have a The Range red with added elderberries finished October, now in bulk ageing didn’t quite make the Christmas outing, thinking about bottle & bag in a box next week, first cheap kit did a Beaverdale and a Kenridge which were uneventful so hoping a doctored kit might reach same levels at half the price.
 
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.
How about now?
 
I know they are not favoured by most on the forum but I started with 4 cheap 7 day kits (winebuddy, solGrund) just so I can have finished bottles to hand while I create some 30 day kits. Also to remind myself of the process.
So far it’s like riding a bike...whilst drunk
 

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