Topic: Kit-Winemaking

“A letter is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises. One ought to reserve an hour a week for receiving letters and afterwards take a bath.” -Friedrich Nietzsche Man,

To address your first question: A chemistry teacher in high school once mentioned that since distilled water was free of minerals and many dissolved gasses, it behaved differently in osmotic equilibrium situations

Here are the top 100 wine kits from the 2017 WineMaker Magazine International Amateur Wine Competition.

Good for you for thinking “outside the box” and going with a different yeast choice. I love both D80 and D254 for Syrah. D80 was isolated by the ICV in 1992 from

Here’s the top 100 wine kits from the 2016 WineMaker Magazine International Amateur Wine Competition

The two changes we are going to discuss in this article are alcohol levels and tannin. It’s important to remember before we start that any change you make is completely interconnected to the character of the wine in what can be very subtle ways.

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

This article we’ll be discussing immediate and intermediate strategies for making table wines that can be consumed very young while still delivering the full and delightful wine experience. Strategy one: go cheap

Over 50 experienced judges evaluated a total of 2,552 wine kit entries as part of the 2012 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. This large collection of kit entries was sent into the

Unless you work in the industry, you’ll likely never have seen the inside of a wine kit manufacturer’s facility. For liability reasons, they don’t give tours to civilians. There’s something about running

In a recent study commissioned in the UK, researchers studied the sociological data of people who expressed a preference for either red or white wine. In addition to mundane facts (red wine

Most home winemakers have limits on their winemaking space, equipment, cellar capacity or the ability of their liver to keep up. If you are one of those who has to pick and

Over 50 experienced judges evaluated a total of 2,725 wine kit entries as part of the 2013 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. This large collection of kit entries was sent into the

An introduction to what you’ll find in your first wine kit.

I had a very interesting conversation with a couple of veteran winemakers at a guided wine tasting I conducted this fall. Together, they had made dozens of batches of wine, were using

The failure rate of wine made from kits is very low. Looking back at my database for the last 14 years and eliminating the weirder stuff (you simply would not believe how

Making kit wines doesn’t have to be only about following directions. Improve your wines by using tannin additions at various stages.

This past April 2014, over 50 experienced judges evaluated a total of 1,460 wine kit entries as part of the 2014 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition. This large collection of kit entries

In this article I’m going to go into detail on the reasons behind two of the four most confusing concepts in kit winemaking: 1) Temperature, and why higher is better, and 2)

Try some new grape varieties similar to the tried and true varieties you already know you enjoy drinking.

When we tackle a big project it isn’t the immediate effort that pays off, but all of our work combined into one glorious enterprise. It’s the same with winemaking: A single effort

Here are some of the best wine kit-related questions we’ve received from readers. Now, on to the questions! QUESTION: A kit I received as a gift instructs me to start fermentation at

Looking to buy your first wine kit? Here’s what you need to know before you start shopping.

Lots of home winemakers concentrate their efforts in the harvest months using seasonally available just-picked wine grapes. But sometimes a home winemaker wants to do something else. Maybe you didn’t make enough wine in harvest season. Or maybe you just want an adult beverage that doesn’t line up with the local seasons. Whatever the motivation, there are several techniques for out-of-season wine.

How do you make the best possible homemade wine from a kit? You know, something truly great that can stand out in a crowded competition and go toe-to-toe with a fresh grape