Curious Wine Lovers Want To Know

Ever curious, even the slightest bit, how your favorite wine making kits compare to one another based on an official judging process and published results? It's no surpise that RJS Craft Winemaking, Vintner's Best Fruit Wines and WineXpert wine making kits totally dominated the competition!

Blind Judging Process

Well every year around April, experienced judges evaluate a large number (i.e. 400+) of quality craft wines made from wine various wine making kit entries as part of the overall WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition from an average grand total of ~1,500+ entries each year. This year there were 366 wine kit entries selected of 1,718 rand total entries. This large collection of kit entries was sent into the competition from across North America. The 366 wine kit entries were entered into over 30 different categories and represented a broad selection of varietals and blends from all major kit manufacturers.Wine kit entries are typically entered into over 30 different categories and represent a broad selection of varietals and blends from all major wine making kit manufacturers. Wine judging panels examined all entries, over the course of ~3 days, both kit and non-kit, using the University of California-Davis 20-point wine scale giving their scores on appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste, and overall impression. All judging is done blind, meaning those evaluating each entry were given a pre-poured glass of wine with absolutely no identification attached except a tracking number. The judges also have no idea whether the entry was made from a kit or fresh fruit.

Entries are awarded gold, silver, bronze, and Best of Show medals based on the average score given by the judging panel. A full rundown of the 2023 medalists can be found at: www.winemakermag.com/competition/23compresults

WineMaker's Top 100 Ranking Spotlot List

Over the years it seem very reasonable that beginner, novice, and expert wine makers would want to know how each wine kit compares to the other in relation to appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste, and overall impression year over year. Especially as new kits are introducted into the market place. Thankfully wine kit makers looking to purchase a wine kit can refer back to each year’s competition results as a third-party list of specific wine kits that scored well in the blind judging and thus are capable of producing an award-winning wine. WineMaker Magazine® decided 16 years ago to put the spotlight on the top 100 scoring kits from the larger annual competition. Ranking is based on the average scores given by judges of the top performing kit entries this year and by extending all the judging scores out to the furthest decimal point WineMaker is able to compile ranked list of those kit entries that had the highest average scores in the annual competition.

No Suprise Who Dominated the Top 100 Wine Making Kits Of 2023

Southern Homebrew always carries premium homebrew products for making wine, beer, spirits, coffee, tea, seltzers, and hard cider ingredient kits, equipment and supplies. Therefore it should not be a surprise that RJS Craft Winemaking, Vintner's Best Fruit Wine Base and WineXpert wine kits dominated WineMaker Magazine® recently released Top 100 Wine Kits of 2023 list that features prominently, RJS, Ventner's Best, and WineXpert wine making kits winning 50+ top spots on the list.

This list represents the top 100 scoring kit entries with the highest average scores from 2023 that have shown the potential in a blind judging format to make excellent wines. We organized these top kits not only in numerical order, but also broken out into general wine style categories for easy reference.

Raise a glass & cheers!