Wine from juice concentrate - why add sugar?

[Caliper]

Trying my first wine after doing several batches of hard cider. I notice that most recipies I see call for some amount of concentrate + a lot of sugar. I've been wondering though, why add raw sugar instead of more concentrate? Is it just a cost thing or some other reason?

I'm calculating that if I use one can of concentrate per quart of must that my OG should be in the 1.07x range with no added sugar. Is this a bad plan?

 

[Terek]

the concentrate does not have enough sugar for wine. Adding more concentrate wont really bump up the gravity. You want to be around 1095 to 1110. That is what I shoot for. Wine is a lot more involved than cider

 

[Caliper]

According to the can, the concentrate has a SG about 1.192 (32g sugar in 60ml). So it has to be diluted out of the can to get down to 1.100. Would that much concentrate give an overpowering flavor in the finished product? I thought commercial vineyards used just water and grapes?

 

[jensmith]

Using 100% juice, frozen can style. 4 cans per galleon, no suger of any type added, will make a nice wine. Sg will be near 1.100 to a little lower depending on your juice. This makes a nice medium to high medium bodied wine. Less juice per gal will make a lighter flavored and bobied wine. More juice per gal will make a richer wine, but the balance may be off, making adjustments to acids ect neccesary.
Your starting sg is up to you and your yeast tolerences. No need to have such a high starting sg. Lower abv wines are earlier to drink

If you are using premixed juice off of the store shelf you will need to add suger or frozen concentrate to get a sg of 1.100. Otherwise it will be like your hard cider.


Sent from my iPod touch using Home Brew

 

[DoctorCAD]

...I thought commercial vineyards used just water and grapes?

No, they just use grapes, no water required.