What Comes in a Wine Kit?

For the urban wine lover, winemaking doesn’t necessarily have to include a vineyard, large oak barrels, and a cellar the size of a football field. The art of vino production can be mastered in the comfort of your own home. You will however need a little help, but that’s what wine kits are for.

Wine kits rarely contain all the equipment needed for the fermentation and bottling process but they do come with all the wine production ingredients required to produce your vintage. If you’re planning to start making wine production a regular hobby, you’ll only need to buy the equipment once. Thereafter, simply replenish the wine-making kit for every new batch.

If a wine kit doesn’t include equipment, then what does it include?

Wine Kit Basics

The main consumables needed for wine making are preserved wine-grape juice or concentrate, yeast, and additives to take the wine to completion. The type of additives included can vary from kit to kit. Some also include a non-fermentable sweetener which can be added just before its time to bottle the product.

Each kit will include a complete instruction guide to help you along the wine-making process. You don’t have to worry about too many technicalities since the acid, pH, and sugar levels have all been adjusted in advance.

The amount of concentrate each kit contains will vary, but you can expect to produce around 6 gallons of wine from a single kit. That’s enough to yield thirty 750ml bottles of wine. We hope your wine rack is empty and ready for stocking up!

Wine Kit Details

Now that you know the kit basics, let’s go a little deeper into the purpose of the kit additives for a successful production.

Stabilizers and Preservatives

These two ingredients don’t generally have a great reputation, but they are necessary to kill off harmful yeast and bacteria that can spoil your aging wine.

Potassium or Sodium Metabisulfite

These ingredients sound much more scary than they actually are. They are used as a source of sulfite which prevents the oxidation of your wine. It also suppresses wild yeast and bacteria. Whether your kit includes potassium or sodium metabisulfite, the flavor and preservative effect will be the same.

Sorbate

Potassium sorbate (or sorbate) will prevent renewed fermentation where yeast starts to affect the flavor, appearance, and stability of sweet wines. When combined with sulfite, it helps the wine to remain stable during cellaring.

Fining Agents

Bentonite, colloidal silica, gelatin, and isinglass are all fining agents that help to clear wine of particles and cloudiness before it is bottled. Not every kit will include the same fining agents. It is important to only use the amount recommended in your kit instructions.

Oaking Alternatives

Kit wines are much quicker to ferment and age than traditional wine that spends many months, if not years, in barrels. Oak can impart vanilla, smokey, and woody flavors to barrel-aged wines.

In wine kits, powdered oak and oak chips are generally added at the beginning of fermentation for smooth oak notes and a subtle touch of vanilla. They can also be added after fermentation for a more noticeable woody accent.

Final Thoughts

A wine kit is the perfect gift to give you any wine enthusiast in your life— or, a perfect self-love gift to yourself! You can expect to bottle your own wine within one to two months and let it age for another two to three months before celebrating with a glass of your very own vintage. Salute!