"Mark E" > wrote in message
...
> First of all, thanks for all of your advice:
>
> "Brew King" is the company that makes the wine kits and they use the
> terms "fizziness" & "Secondary Fermentation", probably to help newbies
> like me. I appreciate the clarifications of terms from each of you.
>

Mark, I don't have your instructions in front of me but you may be
misinterpreting them. Fizziness is a term used to describe a wine that has
finished fermentation and started to clear but still has a lot of CO2
disolved in it. When you taste it, it will have a prickly feel on the
tounge. Some people like it. If you bottle too early it will maintain
this. It will clear up on it's own given 2 to 6 months in bulk aging or you
can do the verious sloshing and stirring that they suggest. For many wines
it is better to let this clear up on it's own. But for some wines designed
to be drunk young and fruity, it might be better to manually get rid of the
fizziness so it can be bottled quickly. In any case it needs to be in
bottle for a month or so before drinking.

[snip]

>
> Jack said: "I am talking grapes or fruit...." - I live in Austin TX
> and don't have a place to grow grapes. The local homebrew store only
> sells the kits... do you have any advice on how to get wine grapes?
> Let's say that I find good wine grapes and plan to extract the juice
> myself; my understanding is that the kits I am using are 80% juice &
> 20% water... Would I use 100% grape juice if possible or a dilution?

Getting grapes in Texas is an agravation. There are lots of grapes grown
here but I have not found and vineyards that would sell them to home
winemakers. And I have looked for several years. I have ordered them from
California and I have gone on vacation and picked them in the
Virginia/Maryland/Pensilvania area. Good luck in finding them.

>
> Thanks again,
>
> Mark

Ray