After making wine from juice and grapes both at home and at wineries, making another wine from a kit seems like a step backward. On the negative side, I don’t like the “kit wine taste” that I often pick up. So I decided to only look at higher quality kits. Since I only want to make a small amount, 2 – 3 cases, a kit wine can meet that criteria. I also had the possibility to get a kit with grapes sourced from the Marlborough area of New Zealand.
The Winexpert kit Selection Estate New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc was suggested. The grapes are sourced from the Wairau Valley, Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand. We visited wineries in the Wairau Valley in November 2010. Our visits included Brancott Estate, Cloudy Bay, Delegat’s Wine Estate, Fromm, Nautilus Estate, Saint Clair Winery, Seresin Estates and Villa Maria Estate (Marlborough). The Sauvignon Blancs were enjoyable and hopefully we’ll like the wine from this kit.
I recorded some data prior to pitching the yeast. The brix was about 21.2 and SG was about 1.090. After using the lab at Vint Hill Craft Winery in Virginia, anything I record at home is going to follow the word about. I just down’t have the expensive equipment that the winery has. The TA was about 0.70 and the pH was about 3.5. The sugar levels were a tad low. Most of the Sauvignon Blancs we tasted from the Wairau Valley were in the 13 percent alcohol range. But I could end up with between 12.5 and close to 13 percent alcohol so I didn’t feel the need to add sugar. The yeast that came with the kit was the Lalvin EC-1118. Kathy added the yeast and I closed the primary fermenter. Now it is wait and see time.
If this kit wine tastes like a kit wine, I am going to give up on kit wines. I wonder what will begin fermenting first the peach wine started a day ago or the Sauvignon Blanc.
Cheers,
Terry
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