Wild Grapes Premium DIY Wine Making Kits - Cabernet Sauvignon Style - Makes Up to 30 x 750mL Bottles, 6 Gallons of Wine

Easy to follow directions. Makes a very good dry, red wine.

This wine ended up surprising me. Initially, once ready for bottling, the nose was off - almost chemical-like. The taste was quite pleasant, however. After spending a few weeks in the bottle, the nose cleared up and I was left with a very nice product. Light on the nose and palate. More translucent than traditional cabs.I did note that after primary fermentation, the oak pieces that were provided were pushed up the side of the vessel during the fermentation process. This limited the exposure of oak in the wine. So, while bottling, I filler only 12 bottles and put the remaining quantity back into a glass carboy and put a medium toasted oak stave in with the wine, letting it rest for another 4 weeks. I bottled this volume this past weekend and was very pleased with the result. I will do this for all future batches.In the end, this is a do again with adding the stave once “ready for bottling”. Again - it was very nice without it once given enough time, which was a couple more weeks.I will purchase this again. Hope this helps.

I was initially impressed last year with the product and labels in the kit, however this year the labels came without the product name / type of wine omitted. I sought out the product since it was complete, pricey but complete, looks like now I've got a reason to try another product . Once they start short cutting the product, I can't remember a time it got better. I'm not big on more $ for less.

I was hoping for a few individual bags, but it is one 6L bag. I ferment a few gallons at a time, so luckily the cap reseals beautifully. The ratio of water to concentrate is NOT 1:1 like recommended... that produced 1.140 and above on the hydrometer. I found that a mixture of 250mL concentrate to 750mL to 3/4 gallons, measure specific gravity, then add straight concentrate in increments to desired 1.110. Great flavor. Make sure to pair with the right yeast, as diacetyl ruins the flavor of this concentrate.

This is the third batch of this we have made so obviously we like it. In fact we like it so much that we hate to run out and purchase the wines we previously really liked. We do not put the oak chips in because that can contribute greatly to a hangover for some people. I suggest purchasing two of the big mouth carboys that have the spigot at the bottom. This really simplified draining the wine (to remove sediment) and also in filling the bottles.

I recently got back into making wine again. A friend recommended the Wild Grapes concentrate kit. I did some research online on the various kits. Everyone kept saying, "...you get what you pay for." Just so I had something to compare against, I purchased a red Zinfandel kit from Winexpert which was twice the cost (~$169). Much to my surprise, the Wild Grapes Cab turned out better than the kit from Winexpert.Nonetheless, the wine produced from this kit is amazingly drinkable. I added an additional 1/2 a stick of medium roast French oak. Just to prove a point, I put this wine in front of a friend who has a discerning palate - he loved it. I've already purchased the Wild Grapes Merlot and Chardonnay.Well done.

I followed the instructions to the letter with excellent results. I had a hobby job as a brewer for 9 years which gave me a healthy respect for sanitizing equipment. I used a wide mouth glass carboy for secondary. Iodophor sanitizer for everything; spoons, tubing, racking parts, vessels. Rubber gloves for handling anything wet. I even put the powered oak in 180 degree water to sterilize. I washed the bottles with bottle brush I chucked up in a drill using commercial glass were sanitizer from restaurant supply. I gave the bottles a final sanitizing in the dishwasher sanitizer heat only cycle. I have excellent sand filtered well water with low hardness, I don’t think I would use city processed water, probably try different drinking waters. I would not use deionized or distilled water. Water and sanitization is your only control so important to read up. Like others I was disappointed at bottling, 2 weeks and 4 weeks. I put it aside for 2 months and was pleasantly surprised at the results. For my results I think 3 months will be just right.

The wine was easy to make. Great directions and it turned out fantastic. Taste great! Actually bought another one.