Brew 1: Australian Blend - Red Wine Kit

So I've decided to keep a brew diary, albeit 5 months too late. The first few posts will be me trying to remember last years brews. So where better than to start with my Australian red wine kit. As a lover of 'fine' red wine, and by fine I mean cheap, this was a no brainer. My regular tipple would be far from exquisite, so for comparison purposes, it didn't have much competition. None the less, there was a fair bit of learning with this kit, and with a bit of experience, you could make a nice light table wine from this.

So here is the kit:
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/australian-blend-red-table-wine-1327-p.asp
"Makes a dark ruby red wine, full bodied with rich tannins.

Well balanced acidity and with a taste of the new world Shiraz grape.
All ingredients except water are included in the box and this kit makes 23 litres of delicious Australian style red table wine."

To brew day. 
Borrowed equipment off a mate, who called over to oversee my attempt. All went to plan, very simple kit, dump your gallon of grape juice into the fermenter, add water to 23 litres, pitch the yeast and wait for a few days.
The wine bubbled away fair quickly and by day three or four had calmed down in a big way.  Stir bubbles out of wine.
Racked to secondary, and added finings / stabilizers. Next days added the second packet of finings (all included in kit), rack to bottling bucket and bottle. Thank God for screw tops.

So basically followed the instructions, no extras or anything.
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.000
Alcohol content of around 8% mark.

So the result was a sweet, easy to drink, light bodied, red table wine with a bit of a fuzzy feeling to it.
Drinkable definitely, so result for a first attempt.

Learnings:
Alcohol content was too low, and the proof of the pudding is in the drinking, very light on alcohol.
Body was a bit thin.
Few small bubbles giving it a fuzzy feeling. This probably would have improved over time, but I rushed the bottling, and the drinking so we will never know.

Improvements:
If I was doing it again, and I plan to here are a few additions:
Stir alot more after rackings. The bubbles leave it in no mans land between flat and carbonated wine, not pleasant. I'd stir all bubbles out at both rackings.
Camden tablets, with all this exposure to the air, I'd be adding camden tablets at each racking, reduces the chances of oxidation.
Add oak chips, or some other flavour. It was a bit lacking in flavour and body, something like oakchips could take the edge off the sweetness and give it a more interesting flavour.
Glycerol, this can be found in the baking department of your local supermarket. stirred into your fermenter, it should give it a slightly stickier feel, giving your wine legs on a glass.
Also I'd only top up to 18-19 litres to give my wine a higher alcohol content and more full bodied flavour. Alternatively add more grape juice if you can get your hands on it. I've been advised not to add extra sugar, as it will only raise the alcohol content, without giving the wine more body and flavour.

 My Label. The Lofty Bush has become the symbol of my wine

This was the two label styles. The one on the left won out!