Vino Italiano 4 Week Wine Kit, Tuscany Rosso Magnifico, 15.5-Pound Box

This is my third Vino Italiano kit and I made a double batch of this Tuscany Rosso Magnifico to fill a 40 liter oak barrel I have ... I want to give this kit every opportunity to shine. It's going to be my "house table wine" to enjoy with everyday meals while I wait for some of my upper end wine kits to fully mature.

A couple of hints to better appreciate these Vino Italiano wine kits:

1. Have realistic expectations. These kits make a nice light to medium-bodied wine. Beautifully red and brilliant in the glass, they are light and food friendy wines (and not necessarily great representations of their varietal). But if you're expecting something full-bodied and inky dark like a Napa Cabernet, you're setting yourself up to be disappointed. Keep in mind, this bottle of wine cost you $1.50 to make. (The cost of bottles doesn't count ... you can reuse them over and over stay green!)

2. These wines will improve with time in the bottle. While it's hard to resist dipping into your supply for weekly tastings, six months to a year in the bottle will make for a much nicer, less green-tasting wine.

I'll add more to this review after I bottle this wine, but I will say that it is drinking better than the Valpolicella did at this early stage. Less dry than the Valpolicella with a nice balance of both fruit and tannins. I think I'll be proud to call this Rosso Magnifico my "house red."

I just finished making my 1st batch.. Great price, great taste..PLUS corks, labels, capsules and everything you need truly does come with it. I saw that a couple people were saying that some of these wines are a little weak.. What I do is make 5 gallon instead of 6. You get 25 bottles, I's still under $2.00 per bottle and the flavor is excellent.

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This is a wonderful kit. They ferment out quickly. Use excellent ingredients and they have the added benefit of labels, cork, and foil seals. Best part? they taste good, too. They are a medium body and are quite good!

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I am not sure if I would still consider myself a beginner, anymore, but I am relatively new to this. Only making wine for a little over a year... In the past year, however, I made about 11 kits from different manufactures.

This wine, Tuscany Rosso Magnifico, is quite fantastic. I made it at 5 gallons by putting in all of the juice concentrate, but only re-constituting with water up to the 5 gallon mark. I also added 30 Grams of Oak Chips. Now, I personally don't like a lot of oak in a wine. For that reason, I don't like many commercial wines... 30 Grams of Oak is enough not to actually taste excessive oak, but have a better mouth feel. I got the oak from a home brew close to where I live. Medium Toasted Oak. Again, it is just my opinion, but less is more with the oak... You should trust your tongue, and not worry about what others say. You can always add more oak, you can't take it away...

I put the oak in the carboy for the secondary fermentation. Not in the bucket. I learned that from copying a Mosti Mondale kit. Some kits but oak dust in the primary... So far, I have had good luck with the oak chips in the secondary.

The wine does taste much better, if you let it sit in the bottle 6 months after you bottle it. But, you will most likely not be able to wait that long.... Put 3 or 4 bottles away to age, if you can't wait for the whole batch...

I am putting a video series up on YouTube, that shows you how easy it is to make this kit. Search for Sicilian Prince and vino italiano, and you should find my videos. It may be helpful if you never did it, to look at the process and once you see it, you will be confident that you can do it...

You will need some equipment to do this, but you don't need more than a beginner equipment kit to be successful. Once you do it, you will be hooked... I typically do two or three at a time... At the time of this writing, I am doing WE Nero D'Avalo, WE Chocolate Raspberry Port, Vino Italiano Merlot. When I get a free carboy, I will do the Rosso Magnifico again. Mrs.Claus got it to me for Christmas.

By the way, everyone who has tried my Rosso Magnifico loves it...

See what I mean. You will get hooked...

I hope this review helps some of you out there.

Cheers!

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These wine kits are great! I have made most of the reds,and have really enjoyed them.I do however tweak them just a little,and offer the following suggestions to make them really good.First use quality water [not from the tap], make 5 gallons instead of 6,I use red star yeast [it's only .99,and works better] or use a yeast nutrient along with your standard yeast included, and finally I always add a condioner at bottling. The cost is only a few dollars more,but the quality must better. All in all these are great kits both my freinds and family have enjoyed and I will definitly keep buying.

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Parmigiano Reggiano Top Grade- 3 Pound Club Cut (3 pound)

Is a good choice, taste great and at a reasonable price, if you like Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, this product will meet your needs.

The quality of the 3lb. cut that I received is good, but not great. Few salt crystals and doesn't taste like the high quality product we have come to associate with parmigiano reggiano in the past. I won't comment on the grading because it is labeled parmigiano reggiano (On the label, not the rind) I have purchased better locally and will look to do so in the future.

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My family enjoys this cheese as a snack. This purchase was high quality and was a very generous cut. The Italian consortium that controls this cheese for export tries to keep the quality high but some of the lesser quality cheese seems to get in the US. This is a nice piece.

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Vinegar - Essig Essenz Surig Concentrated 25 percent Acid, 14 fl.oz.

This is the same brand and almost the same style jar label that I have been cooking Rot Kraut with now for the last 15 years. Came as expected and all was good.

it is a great product. taste is wonderful and will buy it again. price is right also. it is something great for every kitchen

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Tamanoi Sushinoko - Sushi Rice Mix Powder - Sushi Vinegared Powder - 2.64 Oz

This product was excellant for making sushi rice quickly. No mixing water,vinegar and sugar to get the right flavor. You just mix it into the hot rice. The only drawback was that the instructions on the package were in Japanesse only. I was able to get more information about what amounts to add to the rice from the Amazon website.

I have tried several other brands but I really like this one. First, the taste is right. Not too sweet, not too sour. Second, the powder formula makes for stickier rice. Some of the liquid brands make the rice balls for nigiri fall apart. The bad thing is that if you get some up your nose, it stings and makes your eyes water. (I realize that a typical person does not generally inhale sushinoko intentionally, but it is hard to avoid when you open the packet and sprinkle it on rice!) I see that it says to use the whole packet for 4 cups of riceI think this measurement is for uncooked rice. You can season to taste, which is what I did the first couple times, but I find that it has a strong flavor when the rice is hot and it gets a lot weaker after it cools, so it was kind of bland unless I followed the directions.

Sometimes when I am really lazy, I just make minute rice and put some of this on instead of bouillon, salt, soy, or other flavoring. Weird? Maybe. But delicious.

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I love this product. I'm a novice at making sushi, but "Sushinoko" makes this task very easy. Just sprinkle as much as you like and mix, that's it!

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It is a great product and make the rice taste delicious. It is a little expensive but it is very hard to find in the US.

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This is about the best and easiest thing you can buy to get perfect tasting sushi rice when you make homemade sushi! It is so amazing (i actually didnt think it would be, but haha jokes on me:P) and I was so (happily) shocked when I tasted the rice after mixing it in, and finding it tasted just as good as real sushi, Maybe better, since I made the rice myself! I wish the price could be lower, but the quality can't be beat for this real made-in-Japan mix!

But now it is gone, and there is no Asian market near me, so I use this recipe: 1 TBPS Apple-cider vinegar (should be rice-vin, but odnt have any, and it works in a pinch!), 1 TBSP Sugar, and 1 Tsp Salt. Stir these over heat until dissolved, then mix into cooked warm rice. Tastes almost good!

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Vino Italiano 4 Week Wine Kit, Montepulciano, 15.5-Pound Box

This kit comes with everything that you will need including the corks and labels. Following the directions I was able to create a wine that is very tasty. It is slightly dry and the flavor hits the tongue with a pleasant and slightly fruity flavor. The dryness of this wine disappears quickly after you swallow. This is an excellent wine for meals and should make a very good sangria when combined with fruit and a hot summer afternoon.

I have just started my 15th kit so my experience level is getting up there. I've done kits from a couple of other companies; Wine Expert, and Vino Vida. I've bought kits from other online companies, from a local brew hut, and from Amazon. I'll continue to buy these kits so long as they are selling them at this value.

You cannot beat the Vino Italiano Kits. They are complete with everything, delivered to your door with free shipping, and they make a really good wine. Let me back up and say first that a wine I like may not be good to someone else. We each have our own preferences. I've had many a wine served up at restaurants with price ranges of $10 to $100 a bottle. And the wine I am making now I like better than pretty much anything I've tasted from the restaurant, or the store.

I have tried the Valpolicella, Shiraz, Reisling and the Montepulciano from Vino Italiano. I have made a couple merlots, some white zinfandels also, but from other companies. I prefer the reds, and made the others because my kids requested.

I'll typically, but not always, spike the kit with additional sugar to up the alcohol content slightly. If you follow the instructions, the initial specific gravity comes out around 1.080-1.084. By adding a couple pounds of sugar in the form of corn syrup or simple syrup, you get to around 1.09 or better. That usually will give a final ABV of 11.5 12%. Other things that I do outside of the kit instructions include adding 1 cup of black oak chips, 1-2 tbsp of vanilla extract, and a lb or two of some black cherries, blue berries or black berries (found in the frozen foods section at the store). Lastly, I like my wine not so dry, so I'll back sweeten just as I am bottling. Again using corn syrup and usually between 8 16 oz per 6 gallons. To me the corn syrup seems to be better than simple syrup, but that's just my preference.

I love the stuff. Currently my production is having a hard time keeping up with my consumption. Cheers.

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These Vino Italiano kits are a great deal plus free shipping, you can't beat it.

I have made a number of them and make 5 gallon instead of 6. It gives a very good robust flavor. I will buy them as long as they are sold here.

I really like the deep Italian reds.

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This is my second Vino Italiano wine kit. The first was a Cabernet Savignon. I had read reviews of that variety and I ended up making 5 gallons instead of the 6 that the kit calls for. Other reviewers had complained that the Cab was too watery. My adjustment worked out well for the Cab, but for this wine I probably should have bottled the full 6 gallons. Instead, I ended up brewing about 5.2 gallons. The finished wine is very dry and almost has an acetone flavor to it (that's a whole other issue for wine makers and I'm concerned that it might actually be ethyl acetate, but it's hard to tell. It might just be overly acidic due to the high concentration). When I add water to the wine (equal to approx 1/5 the volume of the wine) it mellows out a bit. Other than modifying the total amount of must during primary fermentation, I stuck to the recipe.

For the price, it'll be a decent wine if it mellows out a bit in the bottle. As of bottling the wine is highly acidic (but, again, that's probably due to the higher concentration); it has a nice deep rich burgundy color; it's crystal clear with no signs of oxidation or residual sediment. I did not filter but I carefully racked during the final stage to ensure that no sediment made it into the bottles. The jury is still out on this wine, but, overall, I'm still a fan of the Vino Italiano kits. You can't beat the price.

Oh, and if you're new to making wine from kitsthis kit only includes the ingredients (grape concentrate, additives, plus corks, labels and shrink wrap closures) to make the wine. You will still need to invest another $70, or more, in the wine-making equipment. You will need: A 7 gallon Primary fermenter, 6 gallon carboy, siphon hoses, hydrometer, wine thief, container to hold wine during testing; 30 wine bottles (bottles you drank already work fine, mostly, if sterile and clean); an air lock (inexpensive); sterilizer (campden tablets or "Easy Clean"); a bottle filler (recommended and also cheap) hand corker and, preferably, a brew belt (to maintain proper temperature during primary fermentation). Visit your local home brew shop and they'll show you what you need. Or, visit midwestsupplies.com for mail order supplies. Their prices are competitive. So far I've done 3 kits, made Sangria wine from organic Concord grape juice, and now I'm working on some Cab Sav from juice I picked up at a local vineyard. BEWARE: this is addictive and can be both frustrating and incredibly rewarding. Good luck!

P.S. Of the three kits I've done, I've been most happy with the Vintner's Reserve World Vineyard Collection California Red Zinfandel/Shiraz at $80.00. At that price it works out to about $2.75 a bottle (not counting initial equipment costs). So if you're contemplating spending a little extra for a "nicer" kit, I say go for it.

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Purchased this kit and mostly followed directions, main deviations were to allow more time in primary and secondary. Added a little Hungarian oak early on. Let it age two months after stabilizing then filtered and bottled. Opened the first bottle two months later.

Nice little wine, good bouquet, quite smooth. bright flavor, not a whole lot of body. I expect the flavor to develop with a little more aging but after about 4 months in the bottle (two more to wait)I won't expect additional improvement.

I thought the wine was quite nice, a very pleasant drinking wine. I'll buy more of their kits, at this price point they are a good value.

Several friends have purchased other kits from this vendor with no complaints.

Been in the bottle about a year now, nice little wine that is enjoyable fairly early aging hasn't helped that much. Guess I better drink the other bottles. Have made several other kits with favorable results, good dependable house wine.

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