[Review] Sadlers Reserve Sauvignon Blanc wine kit from Geterbrewed

[Dunkel]

To have my cynical head on, decent €10 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc doesn't exist in this country with the outrageous wine taxes. And sweetness can easily be confused with fruitiness. But it's ready for bottling now, and won't ferment any further. Just as an aside, my wifey is telling me that the wine is now better than ever; I agree - another couple of months after fermentation improves the wine. I'm a happy man 

[Simon_]

I have this bottled now.
It didn't clear as much as I would've hoped. There is a bit of a haze about it.
Kiesesol and Chitosan were added.

[RogerS]

I've just made this kit which is my first go at the Sadlers range. I've made quite a lot of the Vineco kit wines, which are good, but the Sadlers stood out as something different and worth trying.

I didn't bother standing a bucket of water for a day. The instructions indicate that this is to get it to the correct temperature but there are easier quicker ways of achieving that. The making is pretty easy and straightforward for anyone who's made kit wine before. I always do the whole fermentation in the primary vessel for any kit because I can't see any good reason not to. The fermentation was a fairly steady 17c and took 18 days. After racking to a second vessel I whizzed the gas out over 2 days with a drill/whip. The sulfite sachet is called 'sulfitan' which I think has tannin as well as sulfite. I added a bit of extra sulfite because I like to keep a few of any batch for longer term just to see. The sorbate is now provided in a separate sachet which is good because you can leave it out if you want, and I usually do. I was a bit surprised to see that the fining was a 2 stage dose of chitosan, and I too found that a slight haze remained, so I quickly bought some kieselsol/chitosan and gave it a second go which did the trick very quickly. I don't know why this fining method isn't provided because it's what I've found in nearly all other kits and it's never failed for me. Three days later it was as clear as a bell so I racked back to the primary and bottled it using a jug, which I find is less splashy than siphoning. I use Novatwist plastic caps which fit regular screw top wine bottles and work very well and can be re-used.

The colour is unusual for Sauv Blanc - quite a deep golden colour like an old Sauternes. I don't know why this is because other Sauv Blanc kits don't turn out this colour. The juice is from Italy or maybe Sicily I think and I can't remember having had any Sauv Blanc from these countries. Anyway, the wine at a very early stage is fab in my opinion, and I'd say the quality of the juice is exceptional. Deep tangy fruity classy weighty stuff and a stand out product for me. No doubt I'll have to try the rest of the range and hopefully they'll expand the range of white wines.

[Dunkel]

Hi Roger, where did you buy the kit from? I thought Sadlers had stopped making these