scottab

Recipes 

So i'll ask anyway, can wine, good wine be made from 100% fruit juice sold in the grocery store? Any drawbacks? What should i avoid?

novalou

Recipes 

You have to read the label. Some have sorbate and/or other preservatives that will prevent fermentation.

Your best bet are cans of juice from your local home brew store.

Yooper

Recipes 

It really depends on what you mean by "good wine".

Can you make an apple juice wine that tastes good and is very drinkable? Sure. Will it be like a fine cabernet? Well, no. It won't be a "good wine" if you're looking for a wine made out of wine grapes and comparing a grocery store juice wine to that.

I have a couple of juice wine recipes posted. They are pretty good. For the Welch's recipe, I"ve used 100% concord, 100% Niagara, and then some apple/raspberry juices.

The apple wine recipe is really enjoyable with chicken or fish.

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scottab

Recipes 

I've done the whole foods apple wine recipe using red star champagne yeast which was ok a bit dry for me and not so much apple taste. i was wondering if it was possible to make something like a beringers white zinfandel or pink moscato without investing $60/5gal kit

WVMJ

Recipes 

Lots of people make good wine from Welches concord and Niagra, I like to get most of the sugar from the concentrate cans, up to a point you can add more than what is required to make a grape drink, but if you go to far the acids will become high, but since its tartaric it can be cold precipitated out or you can even do a little MLF. We got carried away on our last batch and had to do both and I think its not only good but great. Add a little oak. Now you have a good wine, or even a great wine, its your taste that matters. WVMJ

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gratus fermentatio

Recipes 

I've made a cherry/apple/black currant wine with grocery store juices. It turned out to be one of the best wines I've ever made, VERY TASTY! And it only took a year of bulk aging to get good.
Regards, GF.

scottab

Recipes 

Yikes!! 1 year bulk aging? hmmmm i guess if i'm going to consider this i need to look into another fermenter or even a cask.

saramc

Recipes 

Yes, you definitely need a bulk container for aging. By cask, if you mean barrel, you need to be prepared for sealing-maintaining, etc. Plus, you would really want a neutral barrel for bulk aging. Many people prefer glass carboys for bulk aging, and many use the BetterBottle, or similar, carboys for bulk aging. I use bucket for primary, carboys for the rest of it. And one year is common, even longer if you make mead.

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scottab

Recipes 

Well that would explain why my young mead tastes blah and bland. As far as cask i meant like a 5g metal cask.

mikedibens

Recipes 

I found this a while back. Worth a read. I made the wine to have something to drink while I was waiting for a kit to age. It was not bad considering the cost. It probably would have gotten a bit better with age.

http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/blog/2009/07/06/welchs-wine-cheap-quick-and-surprisingly-good/