Get What You Pay For?

John, I am still learning, though I've made over 12 kits and another 8 recipes not from kits. If you like sweet - Island Mist is great, and cheap. If you like Pinot Noir - I've found $50 kits the same as $130 kits. Though one I had to add 18% Cab just to make it better. If you like Shiraz, Syrah, Cab Sauv., SuperTuscan, etc. Then go for the $150 kits. Find a state where tax is low, and when on vacation, stock up. I just got back from Ohio, where tax is low on kits and I saved a bundle. My 2 cents on juice concentrates - almost double what it says.

Oh, IMHO, the $150 kits taste like $30 bottles! My SuperTuscan is like a $50!

Of course how you make it, temperature c> The answer may be evident but, being someone that hasn't made any wine in

In the area of wine kits, price does matter. Believe me, there was a world of difference between the $30. Argentia Pinot Grigio wine kit that was my first experiment and the $60.00 Kenridge Classic Gurwerztaminer that I bottled last week and this kit is still not among the stellar price range.

I don't know any brands that are bad, per se (but then I am a relative newbie), but you do get what you pay for. Every wine kit company provides several different price ranges to choose from and I found that my best friends were the brochures in the brew shops. I tend to take home sheaves of them, read and decide from there. Over all, a less expensive white wine kit is a little more forgiving than a less expensive red wine kit. The trick is, just don't try to rush things.

I've tried KenRidge, Winexpert and R J Spagnols, and I have no complaints about any of them.

Abby

John - I have to agree that, broadly speaking, you do get what you pay for in kits. The larger, more expensive kits will tend to produce better wine. As a rule, whites tend to be better / closer to commercial quality at a given kit price level than reds. The really full-bodied, tannic reds (e.g., Cab. Sauvignon) seem to be the most difficult to do well using kit technologies -- the tannins that are derived from the skins when making wine directly from grapes just don't survive the kit-making process. Kit companies are getting better at compensating, but (IMHO) they still have a way to go. They continue to improve, though, and the high-end red kits (many now with packs of grape skins) can produce some very nice wine. The bad news is that the really good ones will need 1 to 2 years of aging before they start to show their full potential.

In terms of brands, I've done mostly Winexpert kits, as that's about all that's widely available in the US. RJ Spagnols and Cellar Craft are more widely available in Canada; all three have red kits with some sort of "grape skin" pack, which generally are their high-end kit offerings. I think you'd have pretty good luck with that type of kit from any of them.

Doug

I've made wine from concentrates, kits and grapes. IMHO, concentrates aren't worth the effort, and while kits have gotten a lot better over the last few years as interest in home winemaking has increased, I would say that you do get what you pay for. Of course, a lot depends on what your tastes and goals are. For instance, if you are simply looking to make a nice, drinkable wine that you can share with friends and drink relatively quickly after bottling, then the lower priced kits are certainly reasonable. If your goal is competitions, or to make wines that are more complex, can age and improve over time, then you'd probably want to go with a more expensive kit, certainly when you are talking about reds.

So far I've made all Winexpert kits: Selection Estate Pinot Noir, which was so-so, Selection Estate Washington-Columbia Riesling, which was very good, and the Selection Estate Santa Ynez Syrah w/crushendo (i.e., grape skin pack), which I *just* bottled. I've also made a ZInfandel from a concentrate, and it was pretty well awful.

In sum, and this is just one man's opinion, that most kits make what I could consider a good, $8-$15 bottle of commerical wine, on average. There are some that probably make great wine (still hoping to find one of those), and some I'd only feed to my in-laws. :=)

Ron

I find that price does make a big difference -- up to a point. The cheap kits are just that - cheap. I find that they improve up to about $80-90. After that, you might get an improvement and you might not.

Expensive is not always good but then cheap is not always bad. The island mist kits make a cheap picnic wine. I think the kit is over priced for what you get. But darn it, everybody loves the stuff. People who do not like wine love the stuff. So I have to make some every now and then.

Ray