Picking a Wine that's right for you! (hint: hard to screw this up)

Picking out a wine to make is much easier than it sounds.  It can be overwhelming because you are making a 6 gallon batch of wine...30 bottles.  (which I like to think of as one bottle a day for a month)  But if you take a second to put it all in perspective, it's a piece of cake.

I start with what style of wine am I looking for.  Red, White, Blush or Sweet.  Let's say I want a red.  Do I want a full bodied, heavily oaked red, or do I want an easier drinking lighter bodied wine?  White?  Am I looking for a light and fruity white or a rich full flavor?  These questions will narrow down the field considerably.

Red wines range from light and fruity to big and bold.   The lighter end of the red wines are the Pinot Noirs, Bergamais and Coastal Red.  The medium bodied reds would include Merlot, Zinfandel and Sangiovese.  For the Big and bold wines you can pick from Cabernets, Malbecs, Shiraz and a wide range of blends including Luna Rossa.

 White wine characteristics will be light bodied, off-dry or rich, full flavor and aroma.  Pigot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc would lean toward the light bodied whites.  Off-Dry (slightly sweet) include Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Muller Thurgau to mention a few.  The many Chardonnays are certainly at the richer fuller end along with Luna Bianca.

Blush wine is generally an off-dry wine.  White Zinfandel is probably the sweetest Rose' wine....while White Merlot is slightly drier with a bit more body to it.

Sweet wines include Moscato and all of the mist wines.  Moscato is a light and fruity white wine.  The mist wines are a wine based beverage with fruit flavors such as Peach Apricot Chardonnay and Blackberry Cabernet.  They are nice easy drinkers and come in a wide range of flavors.

I hope this will help you navigate through the many wines that are available.  Remember...it's only 30 bottles and there is always another kit to mix up!  Cheers!