What should you look for in a wine making kit?

What should you look for in a wine making kit? First, all products are required to list ingredients. You will find that the second ingredient listed in many kits is “invert sugar”. While invert sugar is great for baking, and may be needed in “country wines” made with strawberries or dandelions, it has no place in good quality vinifera wines. Invert sugar will make your wine taste thin and give it a “tart” aftertaste. And to compensate for the color lightening characteristics of invert sugar, some producers have taken to adding dies to the juice to re-darken it. Second, try to ascertain where the fruit used in the kit came from. If you want a Chilean chardonnay, then by all means you should get a Chilean chardonnay. But if you want a French Chardonnay, make certain the packaging doesn’t say “made in the style of a French Chardonnay”. That’s a sure fire giveaway that that kit probably contains a cheaper, inferior grape. And if the price of that “Australian Shiraz” kit seems too good to be true, it probably is. Australian grapes are very expensive. And of course, you are not going to get the best quality product at the cheapest price. With good quality wine making kits retailing for C$75-100 / US$59-79, which equals about C$2.50/US$2 per bottle, there is no reason to skip on quality to save $0.50 per bottle.

via Wine Making.

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