Any Recommendations for Sauvignon Blanc Kit??

Vineco's Ken Ridge Founders Series New Zealand Sauv Blanc (18 litre

Winexpert's Selection Estate New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (16 litre 6-week)

Spagnols En Primeur New Zealand Sauv Blanc (18 litre 6-week) Spagnols Cru Select

Vineco's Ken Ridge Founders Series New Zealand Sauv Blanc (18 litre

Winexpert's Selection Estate New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (16 litre 6-week)

Spagnols En Primeur New Zealand Sauv Blanc (18 litre 6-week) Spagnols Cru Select New Zealand Sauv Blanc (16 litre 6-week)

All of these kits should be excellent. Which is best??? Don't know haven't done 'em all.

Steve

What's the diff between the Vineco Founders Series and the Showcase? Is the FS supposed to be "super-premium"? Haven't seen that one mentioned before I don't think.

Pp

Overpriced crap. Not a hint of NZSB character. Flabby, lifeless, and at the time I bought one, the strangest colour I've ever seen in a wine. A weird orangey colour in carboy. Not just my opinion, everyone in my wine club was suitably unimpressed by this offering.

Excellent, on a par with a good commercial wine.

Brian

Brian:

Orangey? Oxidized? Did you check the batch date of the kit?

Steve

The Founders Series was added above Showcase as Vineco's top of the line maybe 18 months ago. The NZ SB was not part of the initial release, but added maybe 10 months ago. (Sorry too lazy to look up better dates.)

More recently two grape skin kits were added to the FS line called Harvest Crush. Varieties currently avail (more details on their web-site)...

German Riesling New Zealand Sauv Blanc Australian Cab/Shiraz Italian SuperTuscan French Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre (Crush) Italian Brunello (Crush)

Steve

Sounds oxidized to me too, I had a Pinot Gris that looked like that from Presque Isle and it never got better, only worse.

Joe

I made that kit.. and it came out drinkable. It's been cellared for 7 mo now and I keep thinking time will help it get better. The color isn't bad on mine, just way too dark gold for any Sauv Blanc let alone a Marlborough. More like a Rombauer Chardonay in color.

Interesting. I haven't done these - actually I haven't done a Winexpert kit yet, but I've had a strange colour experience with pretty much all Spagnol's white kits that I've made (3-4). These weren't out of date or oxidized, just came out much darker than expected - medium to deep gold, even for a Riesling/Gewurz blend.

The WE NZ SB kit did very well in the Winemaker mag competition, better than the Spagnol's En Primeur so that would also suggest your kit was an anomaly and you should ask them for a replacement.

Pp

How do you make it through the day with suffering like that. ;-)

No anomaly, and not oxidized. Winexpert acknowledged that there was a colour issue with this product. I think they explained it vaguely as an enzymatic problem. I could have lived with the colour if it had displayed good NZSB character, but it didn't. Not in my effort, and not in a bottle made by a WE retailer. I don't put a lot of stock in any competition results. There are so many factors that can influence how well an entry does that have nothing to do with the absolute quality of the entry. The WE kit obviously has its fans, but I'm not one of them.

Brian