Blush (Vintner's Reserve)

I have been making wine from wine kits for six years. During that time I have made close to 40 different batches of wine. For the most part I've made various reds and some whites. Not too long ago I decided to try the Vintner's Reserve blush. I did this because I've always had excellent results with the Vintner's Reserve kits. I was not disappointed. This is a great blush, one that goes especially good with seafoods or as a refreshing drink on a warm evening.

The Vintner's Reserve wine kits are easy to make. It's a four-step process that begins with mixing, followed a week or so later by racking from the primary fermenter into the carboy. (If possible, purchase a plastic carboy. They are far lighter in weight and therefore easier to use.) Two weeks or so after that comes adding the stabilizing agents and degassing the wine. In another three weeks or so the wine is ready to bottle. (It's not a bad idea to do a secondary-racking during that three-week period to ensure greater clarity, but it's not absolutely necessary.) Each step takes somewhere around half an hour (except the bottling, which is closer to an hour), including the sanitizing of the equipment and cleanup.

So, in six or seven weeks from when you open the kit you'll have approximately 30 750ML bottles of wine, which cost less than $2.50 each, but are the quality of wines that retail at several times that amount. The biggest problem is patience: You'll be tempted to start drinking the wine immediately. Wait a few months. It gets better with age.