RPh_Guy
Bringing Sour Back
Hi vintners,
SWMBO needs a delicious Pinot Noir. Unfortunately she's been a little spoiled with some really excellent Willamette Valley Pinots. This will be my first grape wine.
I'm looking to make a decent wine, in the $15-20/bottle value range hopefully without spending that much to produce it. It seems like I should be able to make a nice lively but also refined Pinot within this budget.
Time it takes to complete is not an issue. A 5-6 gal batch is preferred.
So I need either some grape juice or a kit. I was looking at this kit. Is that a reasonable starting point? How important is a "skin pack" when selecting a kit? Should I swap out oak powder/chips for cubes? Would it be better to wait for this year's harvest and get fresh juice (or rather, juice concentrate) without using a kit? Oregon grapes are preferred but I haven't found any currently available. Suggestions are welcome.
I need a corker, corks, and bottles. Any recommendation for a corker that will last and won't make me dread bottling day, but not break the bank? This? Are there particular corks I should avoid?
I don't currently have materials to test YAN/FAN (is this done on the homebrew level?), TA, or fSO2. I'm not exactly sure how necessary these items will be, especially if using a kit.
I also need to pick up an degassing/aeration tool for my drill.
My early experience with beer kits really wasn't very good. Low quality ingredients. I had to unlearn most of what they tried to teach. Once I started learning I modified some of them quite a bit just to make them palatable.
So I'm a little wary of getting kits, but if wine kits are generally fine, then great.
I think I hopefully already have a modest understanding of the basics for wine making. The only part that looks unfamiliar is the large variety of fining agents.
If you have a link to good info, I'll happy read whatever might help me in my journey.
Thanks for your help.
SWMBO needs a delicious Pinot Noir. Unfortunately she's been a little spoiled with some really excellent Willamette Valley Pinots. This will be my first grape wine.
I'm looking to make a decent wine, in the $15-20/bottle value range hopefully without spending that much to produce it. It seems like I should be able to make a nice lively but also refined Pinot within this budget.
Time it takes to complete is not an issue. A 5-6 gal batch is preferred.
So I need either some grape juice or a kit. I was looking at this kit. Is that a reasonable starting point? How important is a "skin pack" when selecting a kit? Should I swap out oak powder/chips for cubes? Would it be better to wait for this year's harvest and get fresh juice (or rather, juice concentrate) without using a kit? Oregon grapes are preferred but I haven't found any currently available. Suggestions are welcome.
I need a corker, corks, and bottles. Any recommendation for a corker that will last and won't make me dread bottling day, but not break the bank? This? Are there particular corks I should avoid?
I don't currently have materials to test YAN/FAN (is this done on the homebrew level?), TA, or fSO2. I'm not exactly sure how necessary these items will be, especially if using a kit.
I also need to pick up an degassing/aeration tool for my drill.
My early experience with beer kits really wasn't very good. Low quality ingredients. I had to unlearn most of what they tried to teach. Once I started learning I modified some of them quite a bit just to make them palatable.
So I'm a little wary of getting kits, but if wine kits are generally fine, then great.
I think I hopefully already have a modest understanding of the basics for wine making. The only part that looks unfamiliar is the large variety of fining agents.
If you have a link to good info, I'll happy read whatever might help me in my journey.
Thanks for your help.
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