Best kits available

Mark Winexpert's (Brew King) Estate series is probably the best on the market. I have tried several kits and the BK Estate series is the best. Just go to

and you can see them there. Your local wine maiing supply company can get them for you.

Dan

Mark I forgot to add. Besides being just my opinion about the Estate series, Technical Services Manager Tim Vadergrift from Winexpert says it their top of the line kit. Dan

For white wines BK and Spagnols are both good. I personally prefer Spagnols. For red wines, I have not found one that I would recommend.

Ray

Thanks Ray. Have you heard anything about the Spagnols El Primeur kits? They seem pricey but from what I hear you really get what you pay for when making kits.

I racked my BK French Merlot last night and added 1oz of French Oak cubes to start. The directions say to bottle in about 28-35 days, however I plan to bulk age for at least four months. How much extra SO2 should I add in the form of campden tablets to protect it for this long aging?

Mark

As a ball park figure without checking SO2 levels I would add 5 crushed and dissolved campden tablets for 23 Litres. It is important to crush and then dissolve then in a little of the wine. Stir in gently and Bulk age for at least 6 months

I plan to get one of those titator kits when I go to the homebrew store. The only problem is that I have heard the margin of error in those is +/- 30ppm. I'll probably do 3-5 tests and take an average of the results.

Mark

1. I dissolve them separately to ensure that they do actually dissolve completely and don't have any larger bits to lay dormant at the bottom of my carboy. Certainly the type I use are not the easiest things to reduce to a fine powder.

1. I degas by long term bulk aging and just don't believe that beating the hell out of a new wine does it any good

Then I presume you keep the airlock on during that time to degass the wine... for how long and at what temperature do you bulk age?

TIA, Guy

Thanks for clarifying the names and congealing my memory. I know what I made was Spagnols so it must have been Cellar Classic. I cannot comment on the Cellar Craft.

Ray

Trevor, Aren't there a number of vineyards in England now especially in the South or are they all whites? I would think you should be able to skip across the channel at the right time to get way better grapes than are available to us in most of North America. One day ferry passes are suppose to be cheap or so I've heard from some relatives.

Don

I am aware that one or two of the English vineyards do sell small quantities of pressed grape juice. The one I have seen is only available occasionally and is a white wine variety. Most of the wine produced in England is white although one or two vineyards make a red. I don't know what they are like.

However I have tried reds from the Loire valley on my tours in France but to be honest they are what I would call " slurping" or "gulping" wines and lack the robustness, flavour, bouquet and body of wines produced further south.

When I visit France ( I have friends living in the Dordogne area) I inevitably bring back completed wine rather than grape juice. I use "Cubitineres" of 20 litre capacity and treat the wine with sulphite to permit the usual 4 day journey back toward home.

However this year my trip to Europe was my pilgrimage from home to Santiago de Compostella in northern Spain -- all the way ( 2340.4 km) by bicycle -- and camping all the way -- 7 weeks in all, in April and May. I actually cycled round the edge of Bordeaux and also through the heart of Rioja in Spain but my bike was already loaded to the limit and I couldn't manage even case of wine ( my 2 litre collapsible water bottle in my rear pannier was however filled with the local wine of the area as I travelled )