Regular grapes?

Searching didn't help here but I'm sure this is no where close to being a new question.

But anyone tried using the regular from a supermarket grapes?

They will not produce a decent wine as they are much lower in sugar and flavor. They are not wine grapes and you will be lacking in many areas including taste. If they have Concord though it can make a decent wine if you like that type.

Kind of what I thought. Side note: Last year I found out that Wyoming can support grapes (they had plants at Lowes) and there are actually a couple wineries here. Took me totally by surprise.

Last night I found one of my usual liquor stores is carrying one, Table Mountain Winery. I picked up a bottle of their blush to try out, figured I'd support the local guy.

I can now with no reservations whatsoever recommend that everyone stay far far away from them. I forced myself to finish 1/2 a glass and it was work. I've never had as foul a tasting wine as this one. Smelled horrible had at best a semi-mediocre start and an aftertaste as bad as the smell. I spent an hour licking my living room carpet trying to get the taste out of my mouth :laugh: First bottle I've ever dumped down the drain.

indy said:

Kind of what I thought. Side note: Last year I found out that Wyoming can support grapes (they had plants at Lowes) and there are actually a couple wineries here. Took me totally by surprise.

Last night I found one of my usual liquor stores is carrying one, Table Mountain Winery. I picked up a bottle of their blush to try out, figured I'd support the local guy.

I can now with no reservations whatsoever recommend that everyone stay far far away from them. I forced myself to finish 1/2 a glass and it was work. I've never had as foul a tasting wine as this one. Smelled horrible had at best a semi-mediocre start and an aftertaste as bad as the smell. I spent an hour licking my living room carpet trying to get the taste out of my mouth :laugh: First bottle I've ever dumped down the drain.

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Most good stores will gladly give you your money back if the bottle is bad- it could have been cork taint or just a bad bottle, I would have taken it back to the store and had the owner/manager taste it, at worst he could have said-- forget it, you bought it tuff luck, or at best given you a store credit or your cash back... Just a "heads up" for next time.. most stores don't want to sell crappy wine.

I purchased 40 LB of black grapes from my local King Supers last year at 69 Cents a Lb. destemmed by hand and Pressed with a meat grinder, Fermented with WyYeast Chianti Smack-Pack It was 1.116 OG and finished at 1.008. I left it on the skins and the few leftover stems for 14 days. Then secondary for 1 month. The wine has been incredible, it has a very nice berry flavor and turned out (in my opinion) to be a very good, fast wine. I was drinking it at 2 months in the bottle. At 6 months age it was better than any >$15/bottle of wine from my local liquor store. . I have only 1 bottle left, as it makes such a good cheap house wine, and I intend on holding onto it for another year just to see how it goes. I will probably go up to 100 Lbs this year, hopefully I can let more of it age!

Also I would be willing to bet that bottle you bought was corked. By your description it sounds like that is the case. This defect happens to ~10% or wine stored with natural cork and can happen to even the best wine in the world.

Or that is just bad wine in general.

Either way the liquor store should replace your wine. If corked probably an exchange for the same wine, if just bad they should give you store credit a recommendation and stop carrying the brand. Or they can just say it is true to style has no defects and just not to your taste.

As for store bought grapes along with little taste compared to wine grapes I doubt the acidity is high enough to keep it preserved.

That said people make wine out of all kinds of fruit that are not for wine (read: anything other than grapes) so it is possible, you will need to add acid, sugar and possibly grape concentrate.

You can do it and I would give it a try if you are interested.

I talked to the wine guy today, told him about the wine that I tried room temp, chilled, cold, and even left it open overnight and it was still horrible.

He said the staff has tried every wine and different bottles the winery makes and had the exact same conclusion with each. There is a bar attached to the store and they do a periodic wine tasting, so far 1 guy has ordered 2 glasses and liked it, everyone else has had the same reaction. So it wasn't just me. He says the staff can't tell someone not to buy a specific type but they'll generally try to steer someone away from bad ones, and the guy I talked to did try to push me a different direction.

No refund for the bottle though.

Sounds like it must be the winery and or the grape/style then. Well now you know what you don't like for sure. There are some wineries around here that just puzzle me how they stay in business.

Not to through credentials around but I have worked in a few tasting rooms at wineries around here and the New York Wine and Culinary Center and I have been making wine myself since I was ~12. So I have tried a lot of wines and supposedly have knowledge about them. I have had several wines that tasted terrible but are actually true to style and have no faults. How people drink/pay/enjoy them is beyond my understanding.

Another FYI there is a winery here that uses "table grapes" like those found at the supermarket to make a wine. They are able to sell it and some people like it. My opinion is that is lacks body and is not very balanced. So still back to the original question, yes you can make wine with them, no it will not be like "most" wines.