Reserve Du Chateau 4 Week Wine Kit, Italian Merlot, 17.5-Pound Box

It's not done yet, but so far I'm impressed. I brew a few batches of all-grain beer a year, and until now have never made a wine other than a cyser with local cider, honey, and sour cherry juice. The kit is super easy to put together (in large part because I already had nearly all of the equipment needed to do it right. Fermenting pails, carboys, airlocks, PBW, StarSan, etc... Heck, when I get around to bottling I even have a Colonna bench corker I use for my Belgian beer bottles. It seemed like wine was a logical branch to the hobby.The cardboard retail package was a bit shelf worn, not quite factory fresh, but it arrived packaged in an Amazon Prime outer box all safe and sound. Everything that was supposed to be in the package was there and in good condition.Putting the kit together was a straight forward affair. Great instructions are included. Mixed as directed my OG was 1.082, on the low side of of the instructions' estimate, but within the suggested range. I stabiized mine at a FG of .990 for an ABV of 12.16%. The top of the suggested OG range is 1.090 so if you wanted to eek out an extra percent on the ABV you might want to start out a couple quarts short on the initial H2O addition to tweak the OG where you want it. Personally I'm good with 12%. Less water also equates to less finished wine.I racked to secondary about 6 days after I started the kit when the SG was 1.010. I used the lees for my second wine, a batch of Skeeter Pee (Google the recipe, it's easy, and hey, why waste good yeast?). It progressed to .990 a little early for the instruction timeline, but fermentation had stopped so I moved on. I did use a whip attachment on my drill when I racked to secondary for some extra O2, then again to mix the finings, and degas on the 16th day. Here on the 18th day the wine is pretty clear, in the tasting glass it may approach brilliant. Later today or maybe tomorrow I'm going to rack into a glass carboy, and bulk age it for a month or two before bottling. Right now it tastes decent, with a medium mouthfeel. It's tart, but the original fruit flavor shines through, and finishes well. I'm not a big white wine fan, but I may (and I'm pretty sure my wife will) enjoy this later in the summer! For the $35 cost of the kit when I bought it, I think this was a really good deal.The kit itself may deserve 5 stars, but gets 4 for the "used looking" retail package.OK - So I'm back here on 7/29/2014 and this kit has been in the bottles for a few weeks now, close to 4 months since I made it. I made some Bolognese a couple days ago and decided to use a bottle of my own white. Of course I didn't use it all in the sauce and I have to say it's a really nice little wine for my first try. I upgraded my rating to a 5 since the worn box is long gone, and all that remains is the pretty decent product. My wife normally drinks Pinot Grigio, and this is fairly similar. I have a few other things going right now, but I'll definitely make this kit again.

Have been making wine for forty years, both from grapes and from kits. If you want a decent table wine for daily consumption, this kit does a good job. Not very good right after bottling, but after it ages a little (few months) it is respectable. As the price is very good compared to others, I will make this frequently. Not as full bodied as cab made from the grape, and a little green when consumed too early after making, but decent.

I used this kit to make 4 gallons of port. It came out very well. It certainly took longer than the 4 weeks claimed by the kit, but then I made my own directions. I will recount my method in case anyone wants to try their hand at it. Here's what i did:I chose this kit because it had made five gallons of decent wine for me in the past. The blend had a good balance, but even at 5 gallons was a bit thin.I reserved one and one-half cups of concentrate and froze it. I used the remaining to make 4 gallons of must and fermented it with the yeast provided.About a month in, I added 1/4 gallon of simple syrup and some yeast nutrient.Two months in, I racked to a three gallon glass carboy and a one gallon jug, topped with simple syrup and air-locked them for another 2 months.I racked them back into a 5 gallon carboy and added the correct amount of cognac, using Pearson's square. I let it sit until I was certain fermentation was done.I stabilized the wine and degassed it and added in the thawed, room temp concentrate that I kept from the first and added medium toast french oak chips and rested the wine for another two months.At bottling I racked the wine from the sediment, but did not filter it as I usually do with regular wine. I wanted any oak residue to remain in the bottle and settle out over time.I was rewarded with a very good port that I expect to age very well. I will do this again in about 3 years.I saved money over using a port kit and got four gallons instead of three which port kits usually yield. It did take a very long time to make compared to a port kit, but with port, there is no need to hurry. I won't even open the first bottle for at least a year.What would I do different? I would splurge and buy a higher end cognac. I could afford it for what I saved. I would probably also use a higher quality cork, only because I plan to still be drinking this 6 or 7 years out. The included corks would have been just fine if i used the kit for basic table wine, as I doubt it would remain in the cellar more than a year. I will also like use a port yeast since I know this experiment worked out very well. I'm still money ahead.I make about 75 gallons of wine a year. Some from kits, some from fresh grapes and some from stuff you wouldn't think would make a good wine (cucumbers, beets, rhubarb, all make good wine, but take about 12 months from must to bottle. Most of my wine is given to friends and those people who have been kind enough to supply me with fresh grapes, cucumbers, rhubarb and beets.Ports, ice wines and sherries stay with me and cellar.Have fun. This is a great hobby. The price of these kits makes them attractive to do odd things with, for instance I blended a Moscato kit with some of the cucumber wine and it was really tasty. I don't think I would have played around like that with a hundred dollar kit.