I'm a big fan of red wine, what sort of quality is in a kit?

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ScottM

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As above. I really enjoy red wine and I'm a member of a couple of wine clubs. I've been looking more and more at the red wine kits, unfortunately I'm never going to be able to make it from scratch, and I was wondering what sort of quality they would be.

Not sure if any of you guys are wine drinkers but my favourites are.....

Beneficio McLaren Vale Shiraz 2008
Beneficio Cellar Reserve 2010
Black Pig
The Comeback Kid
Marques de Valencia Gran Reserva 2004

etc, etc, etc

Generally these wines are around £10 per bottle but they often jump up to nearer £20. Am I going to get anything even remotely close to this? If I had something between supermarket and what I am used to I would be over the moon.

Thanks
 
There are some good red wine kits. But you need to pay around £50 + in my opinion to get a decent wine. And a bit of patience. :D Some makes to try are Beverdale Rioja and Barolo and the Selection kits but they are on the expensive side but you get a good wine for about £3 or less a bottle.
 
I haven't made that one, but I would def reccomend the Beverdale kits around the same price. I have found that you get what you pay for with red wine kits. I would get a few going as by the time you start sampling at around 4-6 months the rest gets to mature a bit longer. But it's well worth the wait.
 
Beaverdale kits can be had for £39.99 each and two will get you free postage.
Being 30 bottle kits, with no need for extra sugar, I make that rather less than £1.50 a bottle, even accounting for cleaning chemicals, corks and the like.
 
Just looked at the web site you posted. The Beverdale kits are a good price. Most sell them for £40 plus these days. Well worth considering.
 
The only reason I was thinking of the kenridge is that I really fancy the Cabernet Shiraz, couldn't find a similar grape mix with the beverdale options.

I'm assuming they will be very similar quality wise though? I love the idea of "just add water" and getting a decent wine to drink out of it :D
 
ScottM said:
The only reason I was thinking of the kenridge is that I really fancy the Cabernet Shiraz, couldn't find a similar grape mix with the beverdale options.

I'm assuming they will be very similar quality wise though? I love the idea of "just add water" and getting a decent wine to drink out of it :D

Generally you're paying for the juice, the more you pay the more you get. I just did a kenridge merlot and it smells superb, this compared to the Californian Connoisseur Cab Sauvignon is a step up... the former 7.5l juice, the latter around 15!

Leo
 
Stanleythecat said:
ScottM said:
The only reason I was thinking of the kenridge is that I really fancy the Cabernet Shiraz, couldn't find a similar grape mix with the beverdale options.

I'm assuming they will be very similar quality wise though? I love the idea of "just add water" and getting a decent wine to drink out of it :D

Generally you're paying for the juice, the more you pay the more you get. I just did a kenridge merlot and it smells superb, this compared to the Californian Connoisseur Cab Sauvignon is a step up... the former 7.5l juice, the latter around 15!

Leo


Yeah I just spotted that they do 15L kits too, I'll stick to a 10L kit for my first go though. If the results are as good as I hope they will be I'll definitely stump up the poppy for a 15L kit.

Happy enough with the KR kit then?

I've just found http://www.homebrewcentregy.com/win...its-1/beverdale-cabernet-shiraz-5-gallon.html so I now have a choice :D
 
Just noticed that the beaverdale kits are 5.5L so I think I'll go with the KR 10L kit :)
 
I use the Beaverdale kits and red wine is my tipple.

The ones I have made are
Merlot (fairly average to me, but its not my favourite red wine)
Chateau du roi (my absolute favourite, fruity, not real dry, smooth)
Cab sav (fruity, blackcurrant flavour very prominent, dry)
Shiraz ( dry, smooth, not too fruity but a lovely grape flavour)
Rioja (also one of my favourites)
Barolo (quite disappointed to begin with but after 9 months it was excellent!)

You need to try them, I dont think you will be disappointed.
I have used the 6 bottle kits so that I can try all flavours with out overload.
The kenridge get a good review but I have never tried it.

I would say they do improve with time but in all honesty if stocks are low I do drink them early sometimes and they are not bad.

good luck
 
I haven't tried the Youngs Kenridge brand but I would expect a similar quality. With all the premium kits you just add water. The more expensive the less water you add. Some of the Selection kits you just add about 6lt of water,but they cost over £100. Not tried one, but I am sure the result would be good.
 
Thanks for the info and replies folks. Really looking forward to getting my vino on now :D
 
brews-brothers said:
Scott,
you can get beaverdale in 6 bottle kits or 30 bottle kits.

Yeah, the major drawback there is the 6 month wait though. I would be absolutely gutted if I waited 6 months on 6 bottles only to find them to be a smashing tipple and I only have 6 of them.

I'm hoping that by choosing my grape preference I'll get something that I'll enjoy regardless of how it compares to what I am used to so I'm thinking that I can't really go wrong :D
 
Well another thing to think about is.....
sampling, most of them taste ok when you are bottling. So you will get an idea of what you do and dont like.

If you make 20 bottles and you hate it then you have wasted money too.

Let us know what you have chosen and what you think of it too. :D
 
brews-brothers said:
Well another thing to think about is.....
sampling, most of them taste ok when you are bottling. So you will get an idea of what you do and dont like.

If you make 20 bottles and you hate it then you have wasted money too.

Let us know what you have chosen and what you think of it too. :D

I'm fortunate in that I'm really not that fussy. I know when I'm drinking something really special but I'm also very happy drinking a 3 for £10 bottle out of asda :D

Definitely will do, thanks again :thumb:
 

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