Brew King has many different lines of products out these days. They have five levels of wine kits that are available year-round, the Reserve Collection, the World Vineyard Collection, the Selection Collection and the Estate Collection and the Crushendo Collection; they also have a very special "Limited Edition" wine release that comes out (one per month) each January through April. The Limited Editions need to be special ordered by mid-December each year.
The Reserve wine kits tend to be the least expensive; they also have the most concentrated juice. In the Reserve kits, six gallons of grape juice has been concentrated to two gallons. When you do these kits, you add (aproximately) four gallons of distilled water to bring the juice up to its natural density. These kits tend to produce - what I like to call - "table wines." They are good, cost-efective wines that are great if you drink a bottle of wine with dinner each night and are not looking for the fanciest quality. The benefit of these kits is that they are the fastest maturing: they only need a few months in the bottle (or less) to be in top form.
The World Vineyard kits are next in line. These are slightly more expensive than the Reserve kits, but you get a less-condensed kit which tends to have bolder, more complex flavors. All of the grapes used in these kits have been grown and picked in countries outside of the US. There are Australian, French, Italian and Chilean grapes represented. Six gallons of grape juice has been concentrated to 2.6 gallons, so you add about 3.4 gallons of distilled water to these kits. Right now - in my opinion - these are very good kits for the cost-to-quality ratio.
Next come the Selection wine kits. These are our most popular seller. Six gallons of juice has been conentrated to four gallons; you add two gallons of distilled water to these kits to bring them back to their natural state. These wines take longer to age than do the Reserve or World Vineyard kits, but over time they tend to exceed the quality of the previous ones. Red wines should be aged about a year in the bottle, upon which they will show deep, complex, delicious flavours. In the short term (over the first few months) these wine may actually taste WORSE than the Reserve level, but will tend to smooth out and soften over their extended aging period.
The Estate Series is like a "super-Selection"kit. These kits produce spectacular wines, but also take the longest to mature; they will benefit from one to two years of bottle aging. That's not to say you cannot drink them young - and many people do - but their quality will continue to improve as they sit and mature. All of the grapes used in each of these kits have come from single vineyards, where quality is emphasized over quantity. Upon reaching maturity, these wines will show complex, deep flavors and aromas and should rival any $20 to $30 bottle of wine that you can find of that same variety.
The Crushendo kits are like the Estate series, except a bag of crushed grape puree (skins and all) is included in the kit. You add this bag of grape pulp into the primary, and allow it to ferment with the juice. Later, after the primary is finished, they include a filter mechanism so you can siphon your wine out of the primary and into glass. The addition of the grape pulp adds tannin and acid complexity to the wine which makes it very edgy in the first six to nine months after bottling, but ultra-complex and flavorful after a year-and-a-half or more in the bottles.
I like to compare all of these wine kits, as like the difference between a "special" wine you would bring to dinner with friends (the Selection, estate and Crushendo), to a house table wine (Reserve and World Vineyard) that you really enjoy drinking with spaghetti, (the Reserve). All of them have their place in the lives - and hearts - of the wine drinker, and if you drink a bottle of wine each night with dinner, the Reserve may be all you want. Or make some of each, and have some for quick drinking and some for laying down for special occasions.
The procedures to make each "level" of wine are virtually identical, except for the amount of water that is added to each type.
