My wife is a wine snob. There, I said it. Having grown up with a father who appreciates and buys good wine, and having worked for some of the largest wine distributors in the world, she knows good wine and will turn up her nose at those she doesn't like. Me, I'm pretty happy with a bottle of swill from the grocery store. I like wine just fine, but generally go for beer instead.
I've been brewing beer for a while and was just reading the latest Northern Brewer catalog and eyeing all of the wine kits. My question is how good are these? Do you think they could satisfy a wine snob? I'm willing to do the work to learn about how to make wine, put money/effort into anything I need to make it better, and have the patience to wait 2 years to drink it, but I'm concerned that she'd be disappointed at the end.
Is there a better way to make wine than using a kit? I've got all of the equipment and chemicals/nutrients already (from beer and mead), so do I need a kit?
Any opinions would be appreciated. Thanks.
In general, no, a wine kit will not please a discriminating wine snob.
Just like with wine purchases, kits vary in quality from "ok" to very good. But you will NOT make a $200 bottle of wine with a kit. No way.
I have purchased $60 kits up to $180 kits. I'd compare the $60 kits (each kit makes 30 bottles, or 6 gallons, so you need a 6 gallon carboy!) to a $3-5 dollar bottle of wine. Enjoyable with a meal but more of a "jug wine" quality.
The next level of kit, maybe $90 or so, is better. I'd compare it to a $10-$12 bottle of wine. Good enough for most people with a meal, and non-discriminating guests will enjoy it.
The most expensive kits come with more juice (the cheaper kits have less juice, more condensed), and with wine skins to ferment on. I bought a wonderful tannat/merlot kit a few years ago, and it's really good. I'd say it makes a $25 bottle of wine as far as quality goes. The more expensive kits are designed for aging, and are usually just better in general.
We love wine with dinner, and my husband drinks it with other meals. (like breakfast and lunch actually). So, we drink about a bottle of wine a day. Since it's an "everyday" drink, like other people drink ice tea, we're fine with good cheap wine like Two Buck Chuck for many meals. Then, about once or twice a week, we have a "good" bottle. If your wife can't enjoy a $10 bottle of wine with a meal, she probably wouldn't go much at all for kits.
I make country wines as well- crabapple, chokecherry, etc, and these wines are actually better than many of my kit wines. Kit wines can have a "kit taste" to them. They still are very good, and I will continue to make kits, but I wanted you to be aware of that. It's probably because they used condense juice that is packaged and it loses some of the freshness that comes from fermenting before pressing.
You can buy frozen grapes and frozen juice. In my experience, those make pretty darn good wines but not as good as you'll purchase from an excellent winery. I have a very nice sauvignon blanc from frozen juice (from Midwest Brewing Supplies) and a decent pinot noir (three gallons, from five gallons of frozen grapes) that is better than ok, and is quite good actually, but certainly not going to be the same in quality as a fine wine.
Wines can take a long time to make, except for those cheaper kits which can be consumed in 6-12 months. If you're not sure that it's something for you, but you can give it as gifts, then you may want to try a medium/high end kit. If your wife says it's ok, then you've got yourself a wine. If not, you've got Christmas gifts or wine for yourself.