My Experience with Finer Wine "Forte" Kits
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- Опубліковано 8 кві 2023
- In this video, I will talk through my experience with Finer Wine Forte Wine kits. I made both the Sonoma Forte (Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Syrah) and the Meritage Forte (60/40 Cab Merlot). I also talk through some improvements that I have made upon the kits in an attempt to achieve body on par with a red wine made from grapes.
Finer Wine Kits: labelpeelers.com/finer-wine-k...
Fermentation Tannin Used: morewinemaking.com/products/t...
Aging Tannin Used: morewinemaking.com/products/t...
Malolactic Test Kit Used: morewinemaking.com/products/c... - Наука та технологія
Guys, support him! He needs a new mic!
Yes! Lol.
I just ordered my first cab kit from them last week. What I recived was a Chardonnay kit... contacted them and they are sending out the correct kit. They told me to keep the Chardonnay kit so looks like I will be trying them both. Already looking at frozen grapes to take the next step in my homewine making journey. Thanks for providing such a great resource through Patreon and You Tube!
Awesome!
I recently sent Label Peelers an email about the skin and seed packs. They responded back as to them being both from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.
Nice review. Thank you
I just ordered a forte cab kit, extra skins, seeds along with some FT rouge, CH35, tartaric acid and some medium toast American oak cubes! Plan to bulk age for year following your guidance.
I did their cab kit, decent. But compared to whole grape commercial it's cooked. Decent. Never made any kits. I have a wine enthusiast friend who could easily pick it out in half a sip. He said the kits have a distinct character. Based on your help i'll be doing a whole grape/frozen press soon. Thanks
Rick I agree with you and thank you for doing this video. I have tried these kits and added more seed and skin packs and still the best way is direct from grapes. I have also bought a Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon of these kits and added my skins and seeds from from the grapes I bought in the fall. This turned out to be a better use of my pressed skins from the fall. I have also done a FWK of Pinot Noir and was not impressed at all with the results.
Next up I am doing the Carmenere grapes from Chile when they arrive this month. I have done these for the last 4 years and the quality from Chile is excellent.
How would someone go about ordering these grapes from Chile?
Happy Easter.
Happy Easter to you too!
Love your channel. I am considering one of their Forte kits, i.e. the Merlot. Would it be possible for you to share your deviations from the FWK recipes? I know it's in the video, but there is some risk for misunderstanding. Also I look forward to you sharing an update before bottling and after fully aging. ;-)
I felt that way about the skins too.
2 petite S. finer kits in 14 S.S con. then glass . bottled 4 cases. 4 month later still ageing but good and the darkest red I've made.
I’ve been waiting for your review of the FWK Forte and you did not disappoint. I’ve been making wine now for almost a year and have settled in on these kits as being the best of the breed and provide a basic learning of winemaking. All that being said I’ve been left very fruit forward higher alcohol wines with little in the way of mouth feel, tannins and acidity balance and you are confirming that and more importantly what can be done about it to maximize its potential. My question is what kind of tools do i need to measure these things as I go - or is it purely sample tasting as you go?
The closest any home winemaker will ever get to picking actual grapes if they cant is buying frozen grape must its pretty much spot on like making wine from grapes.
@@pilsplease7561 will try that next - do you have a preferred supplier?
How would you compair these kits to winexpert's premium kits, would they be considered the same or would the finer wine kit be slightly better? I am still just starting out and have made a few winexpert kits. Eventually would love to get into actual wine making but i am still very much a novice.
As a newbie winemaker myself, I am happy with my pinot noir that I got from FWK. It is substantially better than a couple of other kits I have used in the past. Is it the same as from fresh grapes? No, but it is quite a bit better than other boxes.
That is good!
Fermenting the Merlot Forte FWK now. Went with extra skins as recommended, but turns out my 8-gallon bucket’s too small to handle the skins and the ripping fermentation. Overflowing, even with low fermentation temps like 70F. Also noted very high OSG/brix and potential alcohol of 15% when mixed to 6 gals. Keeping everything crossed but I think this will be on the ripe side. It is Lodi after all.
Would like to add that the people at Label Peelers are first class. There was a problem with my order and they were super helpful.
HELP ! MY HIGH BUSH CRANBERRY WINE IS BITTER FROM THE SEEDS. ITS NOT AS BAD AS WHEN I DID THE FIRST RAKING, BUT NOT FUN . CAN ADDING LIMES OUR SOMETHING COVER THE BITTERS ?
I made Winexpert Cabernet Sauvignon to instructions, my first wine. I let it age a year, and what I found is that it seems to be a bit thin. What would you recommend to increase the mouth feel without changing the taste.
It probably could use a little tannin and a little acid. I would experiment with some tannin complex and some tartaric acid. Honestly the kits can usually use an insane amount of tannin... Like 2x the max recommendation on the label and you still may find it a little lower than a middle shelf store bought red.
If adding grape skins to a wine kit would you add Camden tablets to must and pitch yeast 24-36 hours afterwards?
I wouldn't worry about the camden/SO2 addition if you are using a "skin pack".
Are you going to be doing a Chilean wine this spring?
Hi Jim. I am not doing any Chilean this year. The last couple years have been a bumper crop, between our backyard vineyard and the California grapes. I wouldn't mind getting some Chilean Carmenere but just don't have the room or time for it right now.
What do you think about pasteurization? 60C for 20, does it ruin the flavor of home made berry wines?
It won't ruin the flavor but it will change it. That would be similar to the thermo vinification done on some hybrids and concords. It is also similar to the flash detente that some bottom shelf wineries use for red wines. You can expect more cooked fruit flavors and smells vs the fresh fruit you would otherwise get with wine.
The only premium kits I can get ahold of are WineExpert Private Reserve where I live. Have you tried those, and in that case, how do they compare?
Yes, they generally will have the same banana runt smell that all kits have. Some of the kits with the preserved skin packs actually have a little more pronounced artificial fruit smell. To a new wine drinker it can be perceived as actually better than a top shelf wine. There is really an upper limit on the quality that you can get from a kit unfortunately.
Hi, your mission statement at the front of this vid was to see if this kit lived up to all the hype. Did it? The hype is that this is the best kit on the market right now. In your opinion, is it? In a nutshell you stated it was the next best thing to field crush. That sounds like a pretty rousing endorsement. Thanks for the video I really enjoyed it.
It may possibly be the best kit on the market. The other top tier kits come with a mush/puree of skins that appear to be preserved in some sort of simple syrup slime. All kits are cooked to some extent and most kits are made from less than top tier grapes. They are also likely under ripe grapes that are dropped early to allow the rest of the clusters to reach optimal ripeness (which is necessary for good wine). If you notice in the fall, the red juice buckets are available about a month before the fresh grapes are ready. They can heat them to extract color and knock down the asparagus smell the underripe grapes would have, but the grapes have not really developed the varietal flavors yet. The best of the best juice wine or kit is just a different thing than a top shelf red wine. It can be very silky smooth and usually "crushable", but generally will not provide the exciting, multi layer experience a good red will.
So it's the best kit you know of, just not as good as a field crush. Thats awesome I'll have to give them a try. Thanks again!
It's like the best "TV Dinner" vs a meal cooked from fresh ingredients. There seems to be a real upper limit to how good they can be.
Oh I got it. But you have to realize that during a review of TV dinners I may say I added some salt and pepper to make it better, but one would never compare it to a fresh cooked meal. Its an irrational comparison. Hungry Man just can't go toe to toe with Wolfgang Puck and it would be absurd to expect him to.
He didn’t follow the instructions. He just couldn’t help but to think he’s better than the maker of the kit. These kits make awesome wine in 8 weeks. Who’s got the time to wait 2 years to drink some wine
How did the Finer kit compare to the flash frozen kits you tried?
James
The flash frozen kits are better but come with some risk if you aren't buying enough volume. Any one bucket can be a little out of whack but with enough buckets they tend to average out. The finer wine kits will be very repeatable and reliable but the upper limit of what you can produce will be a lot lower. Mostly they will be much lower in tannin, body and complexity which is basically everything if you are a seasoned wine drinker. But to a newer wine drinker they may actually be preferred over a wine from grapes.
What are these flash frozen kits?
Frozen grape must, you can buy it online. They pick the grapes crush them and then freeze them, what you get is grape must with skins seeds and etc and its like making wine from grapes and is the best wine you can make at home short of planting your own grapes. @@vincentlabruzzo5368
My biggest issue with the kits these days is how cooked and concentrated the flavors are. It works in some kits when we add enough tannin to balance but in most of them I still cant get by those flavors.
On a side note, at least the south America grapes are coming in , in 2-3 weeks
How would one go about ordering these grapes from South America?
@@soniccuriosity that all depends on your local grape suppliers. Where do you live?
I used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area when I started making wine, but now live in Northwest Arkansas. I've made some wine kits and even some wine from local Norton grapes since moving, but the quality is lacking. I've been trying to figure out how to get quality grapes from elsewhere at a value price.
@@soniccuriosity that’s a state I really have no clue about. In NJ we get grapes easily from many locations. There must be a make your own wine place in the area that you should be able to buy from. Have you looked or asked at your home brew stores?
@@prccap Yeah, I've asked around. The homebrew shop didn't know. And one place I found where you could make your own wine used kits (they're out of business now). There is a regional winery here that sources grapes from Washington that I called - they said they're the only winery around that sources outside grapes (ie non-Norton varietals). They might let me add some grapes to their order in July, but minimum add is a 1/2 ton of a single varietal, which I don't have capacity for.
I also called a grape back in California. They said they mostly ship to the East Coast, and adding a stop of their refrigerated trucks just for me would be expensive. I'm getting the sense that certain areas have more infrastructure setup where a critical mass of people make the cost more reasonable?
In general, a good review. However, comparing a "kit" to premium fresh grapes (any variety) is not really fair. A fair comparison would be a FWK to other kits on the market. A video of how "you" change directions and components to make a wine better for your liking should be totally separate.
so much chemicals and it still ended up with VA 😂
VA before fermentation even starts is common with kits. Often you will catch a little raisin smell if you smell the juice. Fermentation can "reduce" acetic acid or acetaldehyde by metabolizing them but it doesn't come without a new group of artificially fruity smells.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel my fermentation stalled for 3 days, since I dont use cultured yeasts and it got really cold and the last day, while it was soaking with skins (I was making an amber wine in clay) before fermentation started, i could smell acetone, nail polish but fermentation are all up
VA is going to be in pretty much every single wine that is ever made to a varying degree.
Why not just follow the instructions to a T. Now you don’t know what the kit really tastes like. Terrible review
Have you ever made a wine kit, following the instructions to the T? 10 out of 10 times they are thin jug wine with about 1/5th of the tannin you would get fermenting on the skins and seeds and no real depth. It is all you can do to make a kit wine even remotely compete with fresh grapes. And once you have made enough wine you can get a feel for where a wine is headed and give it what it needs. That is what winemakers do. We don't follow recipes because we are not dealing with a uniform product each season and not a sterile product. It's more synonymous to gardening than it is beer making. If your soil needs something, you adjust it long before you are eating the vegetables.
This is very much the case, although you can be very consistent with enough time spent with grapes out of a vineyard if you make wine with grapes from it over a extended period of time. @@TheHomeWinemakingChannel