Wine-making has been around for centuries but it is only until recently that wine-making has become affordable and fun for the average person that likes to drink wine. Today's wine-making kits are processed to exacting standards and stringent quality specifications from the moment the grapes are picked, crushed and the juice is stored in a bag. For those wine-lovers who don't have the time or space to make wine at home, we can make the wine on our premises for you for a standard fee of $40 per batch of wine. All you need to do as per B.C. liquor laws is to add the yeast to the "must". We'll call you to book an appointment for when your wine is ready for bottling.
Wine-Kits come in boxes consisting of a bag of varietal grape juice and concentrate grape juice in a bag plus separate kit-bags containing additives such as yeast and oak chips to add to the "must" during the fermentation process. Instead of crushing grapes to make a "must" for fermentation, the wine-kit contains a bag of juice and concentrate juice that already has had the grapes crushed.
Most wine-kits will yield 23 litres of wine for producing 29 to 30 bottles of wine. There are speciality wines which yield 11.5 litres such as port. We stock a range of wine kits from the Winexpert, one of the worlds leading suppliers of premium wine kits, Cellar Craft, Vineco, and Mosti Mondial 23 Litre Wine Kits. We also supply wine-making equipment as well as Giftware.
WINE KITS FOR BEGINNERS!
To those who have never tried wine-making before and are overwhelmed by the number of wine kits to choose from, there are three ranges of wine kits to choose from:
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"Ready to bottle in 4 to 5 weeks"
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"Ready to bottle in 6 to 7 weeks"
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"Ready to bottle in 8 to 9 weeks"
One of the key differences between the three different bottling periods is the volume of the starting wine-kit and the percentage of varietal grape juice and grape concentrate in the kit. Most "Ready to bottle in 4 weeks" wine kits contain 7.5 litres or 10 litres of varietal grape juice and concentrate whilst the "Ready to bottle in 6 to 7 weeks" may contain 15 litres to 16 litres of varietal grape juice and concentrate. "Ready to bottle in 8 to 9 weeks" wine-kits will contain 16 to 18 litres of varietal grape juice. Finally, there are some kits that provide 23 litres of juice and concentrate.
In order to yield 23 litres of polished wine for bottling then water is added to the kit at the beginning before the fermentation is started. This does not mean that a 4 week kit is watered down or tastes "weak". The fermentation of the natural sugars in the grape juice turns to alcohol so it stands to reason that the more water that is added to a wine-kit, the more sugar has been included in the wine kit juice mixture. Many of the 16 litres and 18 litres wine kits have no added sugar. The difference then is the taste of the wine improves considerably with the higher premium wine-kits but the quality of wine of a 4 week kits is good..
One other point to bear in mind is that the 4 week wine-kits are ready to drink as soon as they are bottled whilst the 6 weeks and 8 weeks wine-kits can benefit from a little aging in the bottle before consuming the wine.
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