Juice Kits for Winemaking: A Convenient Alternative

Making your own wine is becoming more popular every day, and for good reason. It's hard to beat the satisfaction of popping a cork and pouring a glass of your homemade vino. Over the years, friends and family come to expect a great bottle of Cabernet at the holidays instead of useless trinkets, and that's reason enough to make a few batches of homemade wine.
After the initial expense of a few reusable pieces of equipment, you'll be able to make a small batch of wine (30 bottles) for about $60! You can't shake a stick at those prices...after all, a decent bottle of wine at the store will set you back at least $10, so making your own makes good sense in a bad economy. At least, that's the excuse I use when making the case to my wife when she complains about my wine expenditures.
One problem that home winemakers encounter is this: where to get grapes or juice in the off-season to make your vino? After all, it's tough to find a grape on the supermarket shelf in February, let alone buckets of fresh juice to ferment and oak to your liking.
That's where winemaking kits come to the rescue: they're a "batch in a box", so to speak. And the best part is, they're available year-round at most beer and winemaking stores. Some are juice concentrate...made with juice from California, Washington state, or Chile. Others are "wine-based beverages", similar to a wine cooler, and these come in exotic flavors like blackberry, blueberry and passion fruit. There are reds, whites, blushes, and everything in between. Most are 30-day kits, from start to finish, although I recommend extending each step of the process by a few days or even a week. Whether you want an earthy zinfandel to comfort you by the fireplace, or a jazzy fruit drink for a hot summer day by the pool, these winemaking kits can save the day.

So, how hard is it to actually make a batch of wine from a kit? If you can read, you can make wine, because every kit comes with complete instructions and all the ingredients you'll need. The kits come with the yeast packet for fermentation, the potassium metabisulfite to stop the fermentation process when it's complete...even the oak chips to give your wine a smooth character. If you choose one of the wine-based beverages, the kit will include a flavor packet to add to the juice.
I started making wine a few years ago at the urging of a few coworkers. At the time, I thought that winemaking was some sort of rocket science, similar to nuclear physics. Only tastier. I was apprehensive about making my own, since I knew nothing about it. As it turns out, the winemaking process is easy to understand, and I was hauling cases upon cases of my wine to family gatherings in no time. Fortunately, I had a great mentor in Lou Mortas, who runs L&M Wines in Syracuse, NY, who was always available to answer my questions and point me in the right direction. Lou has been making wine for decades and knows every aspect of winemaking like the back of his hand. If you have a question about winemaking, he has the answer.

Simple is the key: add water to the juice concentrate bladder that's provided in the box, and mix it in your fermentation bucket. Add the yeast and oak chips (also provided), cap the bucket and place an airlock on it. Then forget it for a week to 10 days. After the fermentation slows (or stops), rack the liquid into a glass carboy, add the flavor packet if you're making a wine-based beverage, and airlock the carboy for a few more weeks. As I said, I like to extend each of these steps by a few days or even a week to let the flavors merge and smooth out the rough edges. Then, it's simply a matter of following the instructions to halt the fermentation process, bottle your wine, and enjoy! Some kit wine can be consumed immediately, like the wine-based beverage kits,and some may need a few weeks or months to reach their best flavor.
While nothing beats squeezing your own grapes or making wine from buckets of premium juice, these kits can keep your wine rack from getting depleted when juice isn't available.
So, visit your local beer-and-winemaking store and grab a kit. In a month or so, you'll be sipping wine and living the good life. And if you live near Syracuse NY, visit Lou at L&M Wines, located in the Regional Market. He'll be happy to help you out with your selection and answer any questions for you.
Happy wining!