Cali Southern Rhone-Style Wine Kit, Forte

Cali Southern Rhone-Style Wine Kit, Forte

Overview
You are drawn to wines that feel lived in rather than engineered, wines that suggest warm evenings, shared tables, and a sense of place rather than polish alone. With the Cali Southern Rhone-Style Wine Kit, Forte, you step into a style of winemaking that values balance, generosity, and instinct. This is a wine you make because you appreciate nuance and restraint as much as power, and because you want your home to be a place where real wine is made, not assembled. Built around a classic Southern Rhône philosophy and crafted from premium California grapes, this kit allows you to shape a wine that feels relaxed yet serious, expressive yet grounded. Developed by Finer Wine Kits, it gives you the freedom to create a red that reflects your taste for authenticity and your desire to make something worth lingering over.

Flavor and Style
As fermentation unfolds, you create a wine that is layered, inviting, and quietly confident. Grenache brings forward ripe strawberry, red cherry, and subtle hints of dried raspberry. Syrah anchors the blend with darker fruit, cracked black pepper, and a touch of floral lift that adds depth and intrigue. Moscato contributes a gentle citrus brightness that freshens the profile and keeps the wine lively without sweetness. The result is a dry, medium to big bodied red wine with warmth, balance, and a supple texture that makes it as compelling on its own as it is at the table. This is a wine that opens easily, evolves in the glass, and leaves a lasting impression without demanding attention.

What Makes This Kit Different
This is the ultimate home winemaking experience because you are not working with shelf stable shortcuts. You ferment with raw grape concentrates and real grape skins, ingredients chosen for flavor and structure rather than storage convenience. Your kit includes 4 lbs of real grape skins along with exclusive grape seed packs, a feature unique to Finer Wine Kits. In traditional red winemaking, seeds are essential to building authentic tannins and phenolic balance. By fermenting with both skins and seeds, you develop depth, texture, and a natural structure that supports a finished alcohol level of 14 percent with ease. This approach is why wines made with Finer Wine Kits move beyond the familiar kit taste associated with shelf stable brands and instead deliver the depth and balance expected from wines made with fresh grapes.

Designed for Confidence and Control
You do not need years of experience to succeed, but you will gain a deeper understanding of winemaking along the way. Finer Wine Kits were developed by home winemakers like you, translating real world experience into a process that is clear, deliberate, and rewarding. The instructions explain not only what to do, but why each step matters, giving you insight into the decisions that shape the final wine. This makes the experience approachable for beginners and deeply satisfying for more experienced winemakers looking for greater authenticity and control.

Cold Stored, Direct to Your Door
This kit is a true agricultural product and cannot sit on a shelf. Because of its perishable nature, it is stored cold and shipped directly from freezer storage to your door, preserving freshness, aroma, and grape character. This direct to door model is the only way a wine kit of this quality can exist. By eliminating distributors and wholesalers, you receive top grade ingredients at peak condition without unnecessary markups, ensuring exceptional value for a genuinely premium product.

The raw grape concentrate is vacuum evaporated at low temperatures to protect the grape’s intrinsic character and avoid the cooked flavors common in shelf stable kits. If you are not ready to begin immediately, the grape skins must be stored in your freezer, and the raw grape concentrates must be stored at 3 degrees F or colder. Proper cold storage preserves quality and ensures the finished wine delivers the balance, purity, and depth you set out to achieve.

Technical Details
• Finished alcohol: 14 percent ABV
• Yield: 28 to 30 bottles, 6 gallons
• Style: Southern Rhône style red blend
• Varietals: Grenache, Syrah, Moscato
• Character: Dry
• Region: Lodi, California
• Fermentation ingredients: Raw grape concentrate, 4 lbs of real grape skins, grape seed packs
• Storage requirements: Grape skins must be stored in the freezer, raw grape concentrates must be stored at 3 degrees F or colder
• Important notice: This kit is an agricultural product and must be fermented or cooked before being consumed

With the Cali Southern Rhone Style Wine Kit, Forte, you are not chasing intensity for its own sake. You are crafting a wine that reflects ease, balance, and confidence, a red that feels at home wherever it is poured and quietly proves that great wine can be made where passion and patience meet.

You can view and download the complete instruction booklet here. Advanced users can now also download an abbreviated version of the instructions here.

Finer Wine Kits delivers a more authentic agricultural product for a better homemade wine. Make the best wine you can with Finer Wine Kits. 

• ABV: 14-14.5%
• Makes 28-30 bottles  (6 gallons) of wine.
• Character: Dry
• Region: Lodi California

*This kit is an agricultural product and must be fermented or cooked before being consumed.

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