We are presently testing new products in the 16L and 10L formats over and above the already tested 23L "Original Alljuice" format. These are all from Mosti Mondiale, a major player in the wine kit industry.
When testing we look for four factors:
1) Quality of juice
2) Time of Fermentation
3) Time of Clearing
4) Aging potential
Quality of Juice:
Not that simple. First of all, we have to know if the company is a "non plonk" company *(see note at end of blog). As a rule of thumb, the larger the kit, the higher the quality. More juice! Also, the larger kits will contain less or no added invert sugar (used to ensure a uniform level of alcohol regardless of crop year). As a precaution, producers will say "contains invert sugar". There was a time when they said "may contain invert sugar’".
Time of Fermentation
This will be affected by temperature as well as the ratio of fructose (natural sugar found in grapes) vs sucrose. Not by that much but this is where a hydrometer is useful.
Time of clearing
Chances are the higher end kits will contain less pectin. Pectin is hard to clear – in some cases only filtering will do it.
Aging
Oops, we can only guess when testing what the aging "potential" is. Only a year down the road can we really tell for sure.
Note: Plonk wine at $1.00 per bottle. Yes it can be done but it’s not really wine. Box stores sell it. A while back we wrote a blog about this. Simply put, take a $50 kit, 10 lbs of sugar and food colouring and enough water to make 46L and presto! You have "wine" – thin, weak tasting and with no aging potential, but has the alcohol.