Pinot Noir (Vintner's Reserve)

Ok, I have fallen into the very addictive hobby of wine-making. Sure, why not? I mean I drink enough wine, why not make my own? One thing I have to say, the hardest part about making wine is having patience. Everything else is easy. Really easy.

This Pinot Noir was one of the first kits I tried. I have done a few more since then, all are still in the aging process right now. But that does not mean I have not tested them. I have, and they are good. And they continue to get better with age.

Most of these kits need at least 6 months of aging to really bring out the flavor and character. One year is even better. So basically you need to start a kit and then a few weeks later start another, etc. Do this so you have a few different kits bottled up and aging. Then before you know it 6 months has passed and you can start drinking the wine you made. If you like a really young wine, you can start drinking this after about a month in the bottle. But have patience, it gets even better. My Pinot is about 4 months old. I crack a bottle every month, and every month it tastes better.

One thing I have noticed is you really need to address the CO2 levels before you bottle this wine. Actually any kit wine. It needs to be vigorously stirred for about 2 minutes to release the CO2. Test it, then stir again if needed. I found I needed to stir it a number of times before it was perfect. Then I read an article about stirring it at the right temperature. 75 degrees is where you want to be. My homemade fermentation chamber is kept at 72 degrees. So I had to up the temp to 75 a day before I want to degas and found it degases much better. I have since stopped stirring to degas and now I use my brake bleeder to pull a vacuum on the carboy. That works much better! Not necessary, but if you have one, use it.

These kits are great because you can and should experiment with them. Want more body? Top it off to 5 or 5.5 gallons instead of 6. Like an oakey flavor? Add white oak blocks to the carboy while aging. Want even more kick? Add some sugar in the proper amounts to ferment to a higher alcohol level. This kit fermented to 14% for me, so that worked out just right in my opinion.

While I currently have a few kits going, I definitely see more in my future. I like the taste and it is truly cost effective. This kit makes 30 bottles of wine, so including the cost of the bottle that means you are spending about $3.50 a bottle. Then since you will reuse that bottle, the next batch will only cost you about $2.25 a bottle. Not too shabby.

We made this Winexpert Vinters Reserve Pinot Noir for our first atttempt at making wine because it was reasonably priced and we didn't want to start off with a $100+ kit in case we messed something up. We bottled it after 4-5 weeks. We thought we'd give the wine at least 6 months to age. But one month later, we didn't have any other wine in the house (on a Sunday) and we needed something to drink with those steaks on the grill. We expected the wine to be so-so after only a month of aging. We were pleasantly surprised if not shocked. It was actually very, very good and potent. I was "feeling it" after one glass. I can hardly wait to see what it tastes like with a little more age on it. We will make this again. At a cost of $3.50 a bottle you can't beat it.

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Easyb to make, great trasting, but remember to be patient and let it age to get the best tasting wine.

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