The Kit!

I received my kit today. Pretty excited. I ordered it from Adventures in Homebrewing out of Taylor, MI. It was $149.99 which is definitely on the high end of wine kits. However, with wine ingredient kits you definitely get what you pay for.

This is an 18L kit, which means nearly 4.8 gallons of wine concentrate used to make 6 gallons of wine.

  

As you may be able to see, this is a Wine Expert Selections International Chilean Malbec/Shiraz blend. It also includes grape skins, which is a feature of only the high end kits. Grape skins add tannins, body, mouth feel, and they also add to the aging potential by increasing the total dissolved solids in the wine. They are quite important for a quality red wine.

Inside the kit:

Here are the packets of additives- Lalvin is the yeast used for fermenting, Chitosan and Bentonite are clearing and fining agents (I'll explain in a moment) and Potassium Sorbate and K-Meta (Potassium Metabisulphite) are additives to inhibit yeast growth (sorbate) as well as to prevent oxygen from getting into the wine and to kill off harmful microorganisms (k-meta).

Chitosan and Bentonite are clearing agents which are used to remove sediment from the wine. Chitosan is positively charged so it binds to negative particles, and Bentonite is negatively charged so it binds to positively charged particles.

The oak:

The shaved oak (top) is added during fermentation to give the wine that characteristic oak flavor. The cubes (below) are added later on while the wine is bulk aging or in secondary fermentation.

And finally the grape skins:

Most of this combined with the concentrate will be going into primary fermentation tomorrow!