Home wine makers start with fruit in three different forms: concentrate, juice, and the grapes or other fruit itself. Particularly for the beginning wine maker, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
If you are starting out in wine making, you are going to gravitate towards concentrate and juice whereas more seasoned wine maker tend to use fruit juice and the fruit itself. Here’s why:
Making Wine from Concentrate
The principle benefit of using concentrate is it’s accessibility. It’s easy to find juice from concentrate and in any variety year round. If you wanted to make a Merlot or Chardonnay from the grapes themselves your timetable has to coincide with the harvesting of those grapes. You can’t wake up on a cold morning in the dead of winter and decide to make varietal wine from the grapes.
Another benefit is that you will find the greatest selection in concentrate form. All types of varietal wine grapes are available as are a wide selection of other fruit whether they are in season or not. It doesn’t matter whether you want to make strawberry wine or use a more exotic fruit, it will be available.
What suffers, however, is the quality of the final product. Some of your wines will turn out fine while others won’t be very good at all. Part of this is because juice from concentrate isn’t usually made with the highest quality fruits.
Using Juice to Make Wine
Compared to using the fruit itself, this is a much less labor intensive choice for two reasons. You won’t need a wine press and you will be saving hours and hours picking the grapes off the vine only to turn them into wine making juice. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to save time making your own wine.
While your selection is more limited than with concentrate, you will still be able to find a variety of options throughout most of the year whether you are interested in using wine grapes or other fruit.
Starting with Wine Grapes
The limitations of using the fruit itself are clear: its labor intensive and you only have a limited amount of time throughout the year to use the grapes or other fruit. There are a number of good reasons, however, to use grapes themselves.
First, if you’re a purest, this is really where the process starts. If you have a do it yourself streak and are at least partially attracted to this hobby because you want to connect with the process, use whole grapes, berries, and other fruit.
Starting with fruit is the most economical option. Particularly when you are able to find fruit in season or just after, you can get a great price and make your wine for less than the cost of concentrate or juice.
Finally, you get the best results with fruit. Fresh grapes make better wine than juice or concentrate. With that said, this is true if you have the skill to do it. Most beginner wine makers are not going to consistently get good result straight from the fruit itself.
Which Starting Point is For You?
Most beginner wine makers should be making wine from concentrate or juice. There are pros and cons to both but the edge goes to juice because as a home wine maker, you want to produce consistently good wine.
If you don’t mind that quality of your wine will vary wildly by using concentrate because you are just experimenting with the process or for some other reasons, it’s a great choice. If you find that idea demoralizing, use juice. Juice is going to help you make better wine more frequently.