My apologies in advance for the length of this post. I just don't think there is any way to get it down to 25 words or less.
I have been making kits (couple of dozen, mostly BK/Winexpert) for several years now. I've made a few batches from locally-grown hybrid wine grapes, but as I live in Minnesota, there aren't very many varieties that will survive here, and few places that sell them to amateurs like me. I've even bought grapes from Brehm Vineyards (very nice, very pricey). I've done a few fruit wines (cranberry, apple, mead). But mostly I've been making kits.
A lot of other folks have commented that white wine kits can rival most of what is available from commercial sources, but that red kits just don't seem to develop the same bouquet and depth of flavor as commercial (fermented on the skins) wines. I haven't noticed the "cooked" flavor that some folks seem to find in kit wines, but I agree that the red kits (4-week, 6-week, super premium, you name it) all seem to come out tasting pretty similar, and just don't seem to develop much bouquet or depth.
There are a few kits out there that include a small amount of actual grapes with the kit. I made the Cellar Craft Rosso Fortissimo kit a couple of years ago (the first such I've run across) and it was a nice enough kit, but again just not much character to it (after 1-2 years of bottle aging).
I am taking the plunge again this year and ordering several pails of red grapes from Brehm (Cab. Sauvignon, Cab. Franc and Merlot). In order to get the most out of that rather substantial investment, my first thought was to do a second run with the Brehm skins, after draining off the first run juice. I've done that before, and it makes a nice (but fairly light) red wine. After thinking about it more, however, I am inclined to try adding those skins/seeds to a kit wine, as a way to give the kit more body and character.
In searching the newsgroup archives, I ran across comments several years ago from Ed Goist about having good results from adding wine grapes to kits (but without any details). I found lots of posts complaining about various kits, and lots of folks advocating making the 6-gallon kits to 5 gallons, adding raisins, bananas, elderberries, etc. But almost nothing about adding wine grapes (from Brehm or other sources).
My latest scheme is to buy two fairly good "6-week" kits (say, the Winexpert Selection Cabernet Sauvignon) from the same batch, mix them up to standard strength, and split them into four 3-gallon batches. Keep one plain as a "control", and add to each of the others the skins/seeds from one Brehm pail. One of those will be Cab. Sauvignon, which should be no problem, and the other two (if they have much impact at all) should produce a Meritage-type of blend. I'm doing
3-gallon batches, as I think that larger containers are less susceptible to stray factors that could affect the end-product, and (more importantly) if I like the results, I want to have more than just 4 or 5 bottles of it.So, at long last, the punch line. Has anyone else tried this approach to "pump-up" a red kit, and (if so) with what general results? In your (personal and biased) opinion is this a reasonable alternative to making a second-run wine by adding water, sugar and acid? Does it yield better results than other techniques for "improving" kits?
I would be happy to post my (subjective) results in due course.
Sorry again for the length. I look forward to lots of informative responses. :-)
Doug