Cali Southern Rhone-Style Wine Kit, Forte

Sun-warmed and confident, Finer Wine Kits' Forte Cali Southern Rhone-Style kit makes a dry, Southern Rhône-style red blend showing strawberry, red cherry and raspberry notes. You ferment it on 4 lbs of real grape skins with grape seed packs, for 6 gallons (about 28 to 30 bottles) at around 14 to 14.5% ABV.

Overview
Chances are you reach for 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
From the first day of fermentation, 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.

What's in the Box
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
Without years of experience, you can still succeed, and 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
As a real agricultural product, this kit isn't shelf stable. Since it's perishable, it's kept cold and shipped from freezer storage straight to you to protect freshness, aroma and grape character. A kit of this quality could only exist with direct to door delivery. With no distributors or wholesalers in between, your ingredients arrive in prime condition and fairly priced for a genuinely premium kit.

Low temperature vacuum evaporation keeps the grape's own character in the raw concentrate and steers clear of the cooked flavors found in shelf stable kits. If you have to wait, store the skins frozen and the raw grape concentrates at a maximum of 3 degrees C (38 F) to keep it at its best. 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 C (38 F) or lower
• 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.

View or download the complete instruction booklet here. If you're experienced, you can also grab a short version of the instructions here.

Finer Wine Kits delivers a more authentic agricultural product for a better homemade wine. Finer Wine Kits help you make your best wine yet. 

• ABV: 14-14.5%
• Yields 6 gallons of wine, about 28-30 bottles.
• Character: Dry
• Region: Lodi California

*Because this kit is an agricultural product, it must be cooked or fermented before consumption.

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Aging Guidelines for This Wine Kit

We recommend 12 to 18 months of aging after completing the process. The generous skins and seeds add substantial body and a firm tannic grip. With longer aging, that structure relaxes and the flavors knit together, and you're rewarded with a fuller, more expressive wine. Should it taste tight at twelve months, let it rest longer and sample periodically.