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

Having never made wine before, we decided to give it a try, mainly because of the price of this kit. Once we purchased the wine-making equipment (fermenter, carboy, siphons, air locks, hydrometer, etc) from a home-brew supply company, we were ready to make this wine. We used Midwest Homebrewing and Winemaking Supply ([...]) for the equipment package. They have a starter kit that is reasonably priced. I would also recommend purchasing a wine thief (to take samples with) and a container to hold your samples in when testing them, in addition to an auto siphon and maybe some oak chips for this kit. All in all, we spent about $60 on the equipment we needed to use this wine kit.Having read reviews about this wine-kit company's wines being "watery" I decided to make 5 gallons instead of 6. Later, I read that this can be VERY tricky with kits because they are specifically tailored for that particular volume of wine. Maybe I got lucky, but our batch came out pretty good. I also added some extra tannin, a little citric acid and I soaked some oak chips in it during the final phase. I was careful to keep everything sterile (with the sterilizer that came with my equipment package- never use bleach or other household chemicals on wine equipment) and I also paid attention to the fermentation temperature, having read that two of the most important things in home winemaking are sterilization and temperature.I just bottled 23 bottles of this wine a couple of days ago and we drank the 1/2 bottle that was left over. It tastes like an inexpensive table wine you'd get in a restaurant in Italy or France. Nothing special, so far. However, I've read that even a few months of aging in the bottle can do wonders for these kit wines so I'm eager to see how it tastes later this year. As of bottling it was clear (no haze) and had a nice, light raspberry color to it. It was semi-dry with lots of fruit undertones; decent legs and an okay nose. There was a faint hint of oak, probably from the chips, which soaked in the carboy for about 5 days before bottling.All-in-all, I've paid more for wine that wasn't as good. I've already started my second batch (a Vinter's Reserve kit purchased locally) and today I started a small batch made from organic grape juice purchased at the grocery store (we'll see what happens there).Warning, wine making can become addictive- it's one part science, one part art. I'd recommend this kit to a beginner who doesn't want to invest the $100 in a higher-end kit. Good luck!

The media could not be loaded.  I have been using these kits for quite a while now, and I'm very happy with them. You can see in the video everything that is included: Concentrated juice, yeast, bentonite, kieselsol, chitosan, and stabilizer, along with labels and corks, bottle cap covers, and instructions of course.So far all these kits have been the same, except for the type of grape the juice was derived from.Overall I'm very happy with the kit because it has everything I need, and I don't need to measure anything. It is also much easier to make wine from juice than it is from grapes. However, no way will your wine taste good after only four weeks. I find the more I have aged my wine made from these kits, the better it tastes. Six months minimum if you ask me, and better if longer.You can also substitute your own ingredients such as a different yeast or fining agents if you don't like the kind they chose for you, but the juice is still fairly inexpensive in comparison to other options of making your own wine. I did have to add dextrose with the white wine kit, because the instructions said the specific gravity should be between 1.080 and 1.090, and it only measured at 1.068. But I think checking S.G. and adjusting is part of wine making. So I don't think that's too big of a deal, however, the dextrose is not included.I use a five gallon bucket to start, so my alcohol content is a little higher as I can't add as much water to dilute, and I average 22 to 24 bottles of wine from this kit (I could get the full 30 bottles if I started with 6 gallons instead of 5). I have yet to have a failure.Only four stars because I think "4 weeks" is misleading, and also because I would like to have better disclosure on the ingredients rather than a generic label that says "may contain..."If you have never made wine before, this is a good way to get started, but note that you need additional (sometimes expensive) equipment.Update 11/09/14 - Someone finally explained to me that the bottle cover caps need heat to shrink to fit the bottle! Such as a hair dryer, and to think, this whole time I have been giving bottles of wine out without making them look pretty. Anyway, 6 months is the minimum before I would even attempt to try the wine, but the choice is yours.