Heritage Estates
6.3 litres; 4 weeks to make

The most affordable wine kit is made from premium wine grape concentrates, giving you a chance to expand your cellar and try some new varietals. Ready to drink in just 1 month.

For the last week, Urban Reserve has posted about some wonderful wine making kits for you to try. Here are a couple of last tips to ensure your full wine making potential.

Cellaring your wine allows all the elements in a wine (fruit, acid, oak and tannins) to integrate and develop a delicate balance and optimize the wine’s aging potential. Cellaring is significantly more important for wine made from kits. Commercial wines are already aged when purchased, and most are ready to drink. Kit wines need to be cellared to develop some of the aged characteristics of commercial wines. However, not just any location will do, consider the following when storing your wine:

Temperature: 12-15°C is a great temperature to store your wines. More importantly, reduce frequent temperature fluctuations.

Storage: Bottles are best stored on their sides to keep the cork moist.

Humidity: A relative humidity of 50-70% will keep the corks in a supple condition and keep air out.

Sulphite Level: If your wine is being aged for more than 6 months, add an extra 1/4 tsp to 23 litres of wine. This will ensure the safety of your wine.

Light: Try to keep the cellar dark when not in use. Avoid fluorescent lights—they emit UV light that can be harmful to your wine.

Movement: Constant agitation tends to disturb sediment, creating a haze.

Closure: Not all corks/closures are created equal -they have a life expectancy. Be sure the cork you choose will last as long as (or longer than) your wine.

Click here for more information on RJ Spagnols wine making kits

Cru Specialty
11.5 litres; 6 weeks

Cru Specialty brings you truly unique and distinctive wines to stock in your cellar, including the 2008 Best In Show Dessert Wine Orange Chocolate Port to the 2009 Best In Show Dessert Wine winner White Chocolate White Port. Sip slowly, these wines make only 11½ litres (15 bottles) of wine, but they are perfect for holiday entertaining and gift giving. While these wines are ready to drink very quickly (almost immediately) they will improve in your cellar over time.

Grand Cru International
12 litres; 5 weeks to make

Highlighting winemaking techniques and unique flavours from around the world, Grand Cru International wines are easier to drink, expressively bold and fruity. With a little aging they become smooth and graceful. Many of the reds contain GenuWine Winery Dried Grape Skins, which decreases the aging process. Allow 2-3 months for the red wines and 1-2 for whites.

Grand Cru
10 litres; 4 weeks to make

These wines cover the spectrum of full-bodied and hearty to fruity, light and refreshing. A style of wine to suit every taste and the convenience of a wine ready to bottle in just 4 weeks. These wines don’t take long to age; 1 month for whites and 2 for reds.

Vino Del Vida
9 litres; 4 weeks to make

An entry level kit that explores the world of wine; made from premium grape juice and concentrates, these are quick to make and age. Cellar white wines for 1 month and reds for 2 months.

Cellar Classic Winery Series
18 litres; 6 weeks to make

These red wines are produced with fermentation with 2 litres of crushed varietal specific grape skins, seeds and stems. This allows for greater extraction of colour, hearty and chewy tannins and complex full bodied wines. These rich flavourful wines will mellow with time. Allow 9-12 months aging to ensure your wine is at its best.

Cru Select
16 litres; 6 weeks to make

From full-bodied and robust, to soft and delicate, these wines are generally a more “old world” style – subtle and refined in flavour. Cru Select represents some of the best examples of wines from around the world – all the classic wine regions, as well as some up-and-coming wines. Allow your white wines 3-4 months aging and 6-9 months for the reds.

Cellar Classic
15 litres; 6 weeks to make

Wines of quality, depth and character, Cellar Classic are more “new world” style – fruit forward, easier to drink, though still flavourful and complex. These wines are quicker to drink than the other Super Premium wines; 2-3 months for white wines and 4-6 months for reds.

For more information visit the RJ Spagnols website

When you first start wine making, the many options available can be confusing and overwhelming. For each day this week, Urban Reserve will be profiling some of RJ Spagnols wine kits and helpful tips for the wine making process. Hopefully, making the decision of which fantastic wine to choose will be a little easier.

The main variables between the quality of wine kits is in the volume of juice and concentrate. All table wine kits make 23 litres (approximately 30 bottles) but the initial volume of the kit can tell somewhat of it’s quality. Generally, higher volume kits contain more juice and produce a finished wine of better quality.

The brands can be different “styles” to suit individual tastes and some contain grape skins for added flavour and body. Great wine takes patience; the higher quality the wine, the longer it will take to make and the longer you might need to age the wine before consuming.

En Primeur
18 litres 6-8 weeks to make

En Primeur is the highest quality wine kits available. These kits contain varietal juices and concentrates from the best wine regions world wide. The red wines also contain GenuWine Winery dried grape skins. These virgin grape skins are dried using a special patented process that ensures the grape skins retain their nutritional and natural goodness creating wines of intense flavour, bouquet and body.

Each 250g package of GenuWine Winery Dried Grape Skins is the equivalent of 4.5kg of whole varietal grapes. GenuWine wines are drinkable more quickly, but have the potential to age for longer than others, though they still require aging. Allow the whites 3-4 months and the reds a minimum of 6-12 months prior to consumption.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.

P.S. Keep an eye out for Hightail – A unique process ensures that vineyard fresh grapes are picked, pressed and packaged within 48 hours. Available in limited quantities during Autumn harvest.

Tomorrow: Cru Select, Cellar Classic and Grand Cru International

If you didn’t get a chance to meet Tim at The Harvest events in Toronto and Vancouver, here’s a glimpse of Tim Lang and his some of his favs:

My Tribe: Wine Enthusiast

Favourite Varietal: Gewurztraminer….at the moment

Favourite Brand of Wine: My own for general occasions – I make En Primeur usually. If I’m buying it, Sumac Ridge or Kim Crawford

Favourite Place to have a Drink: Well, I have kids so mostly its driven by need rather than occasion. If/when I get a free pass it would be on the beach overlooking the ocean

Top Interests / Activities: Surfing, skiing, soccer, cycling + running. Playing the guitar……badly

Favourite Music: Pretty much most things (except country….can’t to that I’m afraid)
Bands – Marillion, Kasabian, AC-DC, Walter Trout. Getting into Canadian music too…The Trews, iMother Earth

One of the first steps before sipping your wine starts with an “s” – SIGHT. Before you savour your glass, take a look at the wine colour. From pale gold to ruby red, the depth and style of colour are affected by any number of variables: the variety, the vine age and exposure, the vineyard, and the vintage.

The condition of the grapes also makes a difference – wines from rotted grapes have a wonderful golden hue; wines with a low pH (a high natural acidity) will be brighter and have more blue notes.

Where does the colour come from?

White wines can be made from a yellow, pink-or amber coloured grape, but also from a black one. The classic example is Champagne; all but the blanc de blancs are made partially or totally from black grapes.

Red wines can only be made from black grapes. The colour is in the skins. Just a few varieties have coloured flesh. These, such as Alicante Bouschet, are known as teinturiers – ‘dyers’ – for the way they can be used to boost colour.

Once in the winery, colour, like aroma, is extracted by controlling the time the juice is in contact with the skins before the alcoholic fermentation starts. This is often referred to as the ‘cold soak.’ Extraction may be enhanced by heat, and by moving the liquid and the skin

Source: Decantor.com

For full spectrum of wine colours go to Colour Lovers Wine Colour Guide for Quality and Age

Lisa Jones, Assistant Brand Manager at RJ Spagnols recently joined us at The Harvest in Vancouver. Lisa presented the five easy steps to tasting wine, or “The 5 S’s of Wine Tasting” – Sight, Swirl, Sniff, Sip and Savour. We then asked her to share some of her favourite things about wine:

My Reserve Nickname: lisajones

My Tribe: Wine Enthusiast

Favourite Varietal: Gewurztraminer

Favourite Brand of Wine: RJS

Favourite Place to have a Drink: on a sunny patio

Top Interests / Activities: travel, food & wine, reading

1. There are a lot of people already doing it! One in five bottles of wine consumed are personally crafted.

2. It’s 1/3 of the cost to make your own wine than to purchase in the store. The average Canadian price per bottle is $13.43 and the average wine made on premise is $4-5 per bottle.

3. It takes as little as 4-6 weeks to make 30 bottles….age it to your taste and you choose how long it takes to drink them.

4. It’s easy! It takes less time than shopping for your weekly groceries.

5. There are over 1,000 RJ Spagnols Craft Winemaking outlets across Canada. Buy your kit and craft it at home, or many outlets allow you to make wine on their premise leaving you to participate in the fun parts of the process!

6. Make a wine from every country….RJ Spagnols has over 250 styles to try!

7. If you have a creative side and love to explore new things, take your wine making hobby as far as your creative desires will lead you.

8. Wine making is a fun and fascinating hobby. You can begin with the basics and stay there, producing high-quality wines that you and your friends and family will enjoy.

9. Its customizable. Choose from many styles of wine, and personalize the bottle to express your individual personality.

10. Its green! Juice and concentrate is shipped in bulk from wine growing regions, made on site at your local winemaking store and packaged in your reuseable bottles!

Jeremy Day is the owner of Cafe Taste in Parkdale. His goal is to bring local wines to the city so urbanites in Toronto can taste wines from Niagara or Prince Edward County. In Toronto, Cafe Taste is the one-stop tasting tour of Ontario, with a wine list that rotates through local boutique wineries every 6-8 weeks.

My Urban Reserve Nickname: wine geek

My Tribe: wine enthusiast

Favourite Varietal: Pinot Noir

Favourite Brand of Wine: Le Clos Jordanne

Favourite Place to have a Drink: Cafe Taste

Top Interests/Activities: wine, cheese, espresso

Favourite Music: EBM