tonyhibbett
Landlord.
Some time ago I bought 5 litres of pure red grape juice concentrate and the book Winemaking with Concentrates. Most of the recipes state the bleeding obvious and refer to varietal 'styles' of concentrate which no longer seem to be available. The stuff I got has a very ordinary taste when mixed with water and although high in sugar ( sg 1080), it's also fairly high in acid (pH 3.2), and certainly not going to produce a wine of any distinction if used on its own, although probably better than red grape juice. 1 recipe stood out and was for generic concentrate, 570 ml, combined with 110 g of dried elderberries, which I also have and need to use up. When made up to a gallon with water and 340 g of sugar, the sg was a mere 1070 and the colour was pale. So I added 300 ml of concentrate, which corrected these deficiencies, but did not improve the bland flavour. I found a better recipe in Award Winning Wines, which additionally included more sugar, a bottle of morello cherries, and fresh raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrants plus oak chips. I have tried using cherry syrup previously and found it had little or no effect on the flavour of a red wine I was making, but I found a pack of frozen 'fruits of the forest' in my freezer, which consisted of the fresh ingredients mentioned. Once defrosted, mashed and added to the brew, the effect on the flavour was an amazing improvement. The pH is 3.5, which is good. The cost is a little high, at about £1.40 per bottle. This could be reduced by substituting some of the concentrate with cheap red grape juice.