Hi all, this is my first post here. I got a winemaking equipment kit for Christmas, but the White Zin. ingredient kit I got came without the instructions, yeast, and all of the clarifiers. So, a few days after Xmas, I went to the store and bought myself a WineArt Sauvignon Blanc kit.
The box was dusty, but I didn't pay much attention to it, it was cheap and I wanted to make my first wine. I open it up, and pour the juice into my bucket, and notice that it's a little dark, and smells a bit sour, but I figure it must be normal. When I go to pitch the yeast, it has an expiration date of March 2004. I found this a little odd, and went and scoured the box. It was then that I noticed that the box had an expiration date of May 2003.
After racking to the a glass carboy a week later, I noticed that the color is a dark brown. I proceeded as normal to see if it would clear out, but nothing has happened. I racked again last week and added all the clarifiers, and I still have a dark brown wine. It smells a bit funky, and tastes like wine, but not SB. It's clearing, but it's very very dark.
So, am I screwed? Is this batch bad? I know what SB looks like, and this isn't it. I'm just trying to figure out if I should bottle and try it later on, or if I should just save the time and dump it. In contrast, I started a Vino del Vida Riesling about a week later, and the color was very light right from the start.
Any help I could get would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Keith