Aug 2004
Pails vs Kits
August, 2004 Filed in: Wine making
Isn’t it better to make wine from those 23 litre pails that are available from discounters rather than kits where you have to add water?
Quite often it is buyer beware on these pails. Check to make sure they are in fact wine juice and you are getting what you think you are. Many of these juice pails are in fact reconstituted juice, or in other words made by adding water to the concentrated juice somewhere remote to the vineyard. How do you tell? Look at the pail and if you see the words wine “must” or “may contain grape juice and or concentrate and or liquid invert sugar” you have reconstituted juice. Don’t be mislead.
Another good clue is the price. A true 100% juice kit retails for $70 + with most good ones selling for around $100. If it is less than this you likely have reconstituted juice. So in fact all you may be getting is a product where the water is added in some factory just prior to sending it to the store. You should also consider that usually the product in the discounter is likely there because they had the lowest price.
True 100% juices are not for the average home winemaker. They take 3 – 6 months to make and at least double that time to properly age. Be very cautious of pails of juice that do not require the addition of yeast. These pails rely on wild yeast, which sounds romantic, but may not produce the best quality wine. Commercial wineries never rely on wild yeast, so neither should you. True juices are not pH balanced and may require the addition of acid/base additives in order to get proper quality and fermentation.
While Creative Connoisseur does bring in true juice in the fall, we are not big advocates of these pail products. Kit manufacturers comb the worlds vineyards for quality product and test all the juice prior to including it in their kits. The addition of some grape concentrate is also beneficial to earlier ageing and better clearing. We have all heard of the inconsistencies of true juice or even reconstituted juice in pails, but the consistency and ease of making wine from Winexpert or CellarCraft kits insures you get quality wine kit time after time.
Quite often it is buyer beware on these pails. Check to make sure they are in fact wine juice and you are getting what you think you are. Many of these juice pails are in fact reconstituted juice, or in other words made by adding water to the concentrated juice somewhere remote to the vineyard. How do you tell? Look at the pail and if you see the words wine “must” or “may contain grape juice and or concentrate and or liquid invert sugar” you have reconstituted juice. Don’t be mislead.
Another good clue is the price. A true 100% juice kit retails for $70 + with most good ones selling for around $100. If it is less than this you likely have reconstituted juice. So in fact all you may be getting is a product where the water is added in some factory just prior to sending it to the store. You should also consider that usually the product in the discounter is likely there because they had the lowest price.
True 100% juices are not for the average home winemaker. They take 3 – 6 months to make and at least double that time to properly age. Be very cautious of pails of juice that do not require the addition of yeast. These pails rely on wild yeast, which sounds romantic, but may not produce the best quality wine. Commercial wineries never rely on wild yeast, so neither should you. True juices are not pH balanced and may require the addition of acid/base additives in order to get proper quality and fermentation.
While Creative Connoisseur does bring in true juice in the fall, we are not big advocates of these pail products. Kit manufacturers comb the worlds vineyards for quality product and test all the juice prior to including it in their kits. The addition of some grape concentrate is also beneficial to earlier ageing and better clearing. We have all heard of the inconsistencies of true juice or even reconstituted juice in pails, but the consistency and ease of making wine from Winexpert or CellarCraft kits insures you get quality wine kit time after time.