On Saturday we bottled our first sweet wine. This was our second bottling of a wine produced from a kit.  Since our last bottling, we had purchased a floor model corker and it was definitely worth it. This corker only takes one person to cork a bottle. According to the wine kit, we should have produce 30 – 375ml bottles but we had 29 bottles. The kit had been labeled Ice Wine Style, so we didn’t expect a true Icewine aroma and taste. Actually we pleased with the wine.

We could have bottled the wine 10 days earlier but decided to wait to see if it would clear more. After the additional ten days there were more lees resting at the bottom of the carboy. The wine had cleared nicely and it was possible to read text through the carboy.

The color was golden. The taste had some nuances of banana and peach.  This is a good wine and worth making but it lacks many of the qualities found in a true Icewine.

From making this batch of wine, we learned that the more expensive the wine kit, the better the wine. Of course this dessert wine was sweet. Sugar can mask many problems. However our dessert wine was delicious, sweet, had fruit aroma and taste and enough acid to cut the sweetness. Not bad for a dessert Riesling at about $3.50 for a 375ml bottle.

Do you have a favorite home winemaking kit or recipe? Write and let us know.

Cheers, Kathy