96 replies to this topic

[Birdman308]

I am an amazing cook. I can make Mac & Cheese like nobody! Just ask my kids! My Mac & Cheese is better than anyone else's! I bet I would win an award if I entered it in a competition! I open the box of Kraft Mac & Cheese, and follow the directions. It comes out perfect every time, exactly the same. If I win a gold medal for it at a Mac & Cheese competition, it's a reflection on my skill as a chef and I'm opening my own restaurant!

Any parallels to making wine from kits is purely accidental.

I have no problem with kit wines, but they are as much a reflection of the kit wine manufacturer as they are on the ability of an individual to make wine. IMHO they are not on the same playing field as wine made from grapes by someone with no instruction manual. They should not be judged in the same category, and they only are because there is so much money in the kit wine business.

Just my opinion which is worth about what you paid for it.

[kakeeler]

Okay, I've got to ask, do you put dried mustard in your Mac and Cheese? And before anyone asks, I think Mac and Cheese should be paired with Pinot Noir or Zin. is Petite Sirah too bold???

[Hammered]

It might be time to bump Zac's Wine Kit Tweaks thread again. Some pretty crafty things you can do to to make an award wining wine beyond M&C.

My sparkling from a chardonnay kit was pretty remarkable.

[WVMountaineerJack]

BM, by your purist Macoroni rules you would have to grew your own wheat, harvest it, grind it, form your own macoroni, milk your own cows and make your own cheese, grow your own veggies and herbs, churn some butter from your own cow, have pasture for your cow (organic of course), carve your own spatula etc. for you to claim you actually made the Mac and Cheese. Anything short of that and you are using kit components.

CC

[WineMan2008]

BM, by your purist Macoroni rules you would have to grew your own wheat, harvest it, grind it, form your own macoroni, milk your own cows and make your own cheese, grow your own veggies and herbs, churn some butter from your own cow, have pasture for your cow (organic of course), carve your own spatula etc. for you to claim you actually made the Mac and Cheese. Anything short of that and you are using kit components.

CC

Love the comparisons!!!!!!!!!

[Birdman308]

Don't agree. Do you think your grandmother's delicious mac and cheese made from "scratch" is a kit because she didn't made the cheese? She buys a couple blocks of cheese (several different types for her special recipe), grates them, uses spices of her own design, her favorite kind of macaroni, bakes it for an hour, etc. I would call that "made from scratch." She doesn't have any instructions, pre-made envelopes of ingredients that are pre-measured, etc.

I can see your point but there has to be a line drawn somewhere between "home made" and "kit made". I don't think you need to grow your own grapes for your wine to be considered home made, although that might be a great category too for a wine competition: for wines made by someone that also grew the grapes.

I find it stunning that there is anyone who honestly feels that making wine from a kit is the same as making it from grapes. It's a whole different world of skills. They are separated into different sections on this website for that very reason.

I am truly not putting down kits or wine made from kits. I have had some great kits wines. To each his own. I just don't think they use the same set of skills. You have to know a heck of a lot more about wine making to make a decent wine from grapes. If that weren't the case, this website wouldn't exist.

And the awards given out in a winemaking competition are not really for the wine. They are for the winemaker. The wine didn't make itself. The award offers evidence that the wine was made well. The award is not a reflection on the wine per se, but on it's maker. So judging kits against grapes is just comparing apples and oranges. I'm not saying that it is giving kit makers an advantage or disadvantage. They are just different skill sets. It's like judging grandma's mac & cheese against Kraft and giving them both a gold. What does that mean? They are both good to the judges. But in the case of the kraft, the person who made it simply doesn't have the cooking skills of grandma. Since the gold medal is a reflection on the cook, do I really deserve one for Kraft? Or should it go to the person at Kraft that invented the kit?

[P Cuthbert]

Folks, this is devolving. Thread closed.