Using Grape Skin Packs in Wine Kits

Grapes . . . they do seem to inspire metaphor, but not as much as they inspire winemakers and wine drinkers. It is the source of wine, the beverage we all know and love so much. (Well, one source: if there’s one thing I’ve learned in more than two decades of working in the consumer wine industry it’s that folks will ferment anything that grows-on trees or off-from bushes, gardens or forests.) But it’s the grape that gets me out of bed every morning, and more often than not sends me there at night. Wine made from kits is a step removed from grape-wrangling: crushed, macerated and pressed in a winery, the juice arrives at wine kit companies clear and mostly free of solid material, to be balanced and blended into the bag of rich, luscious juice that you lug home in its sturdy cardboard box, pour neatly and easily into your sanitized fermenter and with a few additions and a bit of stirring, you’re on the path to bottling day. So where does that leave the poor grape’s contribution