Re: Wilco 30 bottle white wine kit

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Chippy_Tea

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I have thought about trying one of these kits as there is a Wilkos in our town, how would you describe the wine, is it sweet or dry and how long did it take to make ?



Edit to add -

What happened to the original post in this thread ?
 
Chippy_Tea said:
I have thought about trying one of these kits as there is a Wilkos in our town, how would you describe the wine, is it sweet or dry and how long did it take to make ?



Edit to add -

What happened to the original post in this thread ?

Hi. I've just bought the same thing 3 days ago
My house was too cold so had to put it on a radiator
Doing much better now. I'll keep you informed
 
Hi. I bought the Muntons Cab Sav 30 bottle kits at Wilkinsons. I have done 2 of these now and they are very drinkable immediately on bottling. They do get much better after about a month. For my taste they are medium dry and better than what the supermarkets sell for £4-£5 per bottle.
At £37 they are a bit more expensive but still less than £1.25 per bottle.
 
shellbell said:
Chippy_Tea said:
I have thought about trying one of these kits as there is a Wilkos in our town, how would you describe the wine, is it sweet or dry and how long did it take to make ?



Edit to add -

What happened to the original post in this thread ?

Hi. I've just bought the same thing 3 days ago
My house was too cold so had to put it on a radiator
Doing much better now. I'll keep you informed

Thanks Shellbell, I look forward to your review.
 
An interesting point to note about the Muntons premium, as opposed to the Wilco kits, which are Muntons mondego rebadged) is that they are 41% pure grape juice concentrate, only half of which is the named variety. This means that only half of the finished wine is made from reconstituted grape juice, the rest being from glucose, fructose and water. Once mixed, the sg is 1075, only enough to produce 10% abv. It therefore makes sense to use less (by 2 litres or more) water to improve the body and alcohol level. The addition of oak chips would also improve it. The quality of local tap water is a factor too. Mine is somewhat alkaline (pH 7.8, 7.0 being neutral) and therefore reduces the overall acidity of the wine to below what it should be. Using a jug filter significantly improves the taste of tea and coffee. Boiling the water helps if you happen to have a large (15 litre) water boiler, but I can get that much bottled water for £3.
 
I have just put two of these kits on and they both said if instructions are followed to the letter they will come out at 12%.
 
still bloody fermenting :doh:

6 weeks and 4 days. Tiz down to 1 bloop a minute though :drunk:
 
Both mine finished on Wednesday, i added the flavour sachets last night and i am going to add finings and stabiliser tonight as per instructions.
 
Chippy_Tea said:
Both mine finished on Wednesday, i added the flavour sachets last night and i am going to add finings and stabiliser tonight as per instructions.

Done, degassed with coat hanger and drill and 15 minutes later -

20130621_180317.jpg
 
Bearing in mind that these kits, when mixed with water, have the equivalent of 20% grape juice, therefore the natural acidity is very low. Adding, say, 3 g. of tartaric acid would speed up the fermentation, encourage the yeast to produce a dryer wine and improve the balance of the finished wine.
 
I only bought the kits because they were half price in the sale, if they turn out to be just average I wont buy one again, I have a couple of WOW variants I now make regularly to go with my cheap (but nice) 30 bottle kit from the Range that I make to keep stocks up.
 
About the tartaric acid. I read that 12grams can be fatal to human beings. Do you think it is good to be messing with this stuff in your wine.??
 
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