My First Wine Kit – Winexpert World Vineyward Chilean Malbec

I’ve brewed beer about a half a dozen times over the last few years. It’s not a hobby that I’m not particularly active in, but I do enjoy it once in a while. I’ve made ciders and ales a few times, even going as far as to make a Trippel once. The only thing I’ve bombed was a batch of mead which, for some reason, refused to ferment. Ah well, it was college. I blame distractions. Anyway, I thought it would be good to keep a journal of some of these activities. So here goes, my first foray into wine making: The Winexpert World Vineyard Chilean Malbec.

Day 1 – Customer Appreciation Day (Nov 20, 2016)

It was Customer Appreciation Day at my local homebrew store, Keystone Homebrew, so my wife, son, and I went down to see what they had. Aside from a bouncy-castle, crepe truck, and lots of samples, they had a great selection of wine kits. My wife, being a wine person, was really interested. However, she didn’t think it would be easy to do. Originally, we were going to get a 1 gallon demo kit to try out the whole process, but thanks to a very helpful sales guy, we realized just how simple the kit process was. We walked out with two kits: The Winexpert Speciale Dessert Wine and the Winexpert World Vineyard Chilean Malbec.

After reading the directions for both kits, I decided to start with the Malbec. Both were surprisingly simple, but the malbec had one less step. We cleaned our equipment, hydrated the bentonite, poured the concentrate in, topped it up with bottled water, tested, and otherwise got the kit ready. The OG was 1.092-94, which is right where the directions said it should be. The kit is happily hanging out in the utility closet now. T-Minus 5-7 days to racking!