White Grape Juice shortage.

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Chippy_Tea

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White grape juice became scarce a couple of years ago due to a failed crop and it is still not available in many supermarkets and can be expensive if you can find it, this was posted by tonyhibbett in 2013 (he still occasionally posts so may be able to update the thread) so if you must have white grape juice (red grape juice is readily available at most supermarkets) you can make your own.




Frustrated by the lack of clear information about the amounts of glucose and sucrose added to grape juice concentrate in wine kits, I have decided to try using purely sultanas and water.Raisins are not so good as they are somewhat caramelised, which is why they are darker.
Both are mostly produced from Thompson seedless grapes, which closely resemble chardonnay in flavour. These grapes are used in the US to make so-called chablis and it was palmed off to Australian wine producers as chardonnay juice and no one realised until the supplier got found out!
I can get 2 kilos of sultanas for £5. This is the equivalent of 8 kg of fresh grapes. They contain 70% sugar, by weight. By adding 6 litres of water, you get about 8 litres of must, including 2 kg of pulp, 70% of which will convert to alcohol and co2, on a roughly equal basis, leaving 600 ml of solids to be removed and about 700 ml of alcohol, leaving about 6.7 litres, with up to 20% sediment, about 1.3 litres. After racking, this leaves about 5.4 litres of must. After a second racking and fining, there should be enough for 6 bottles of wine made without added sugar. I have yet to try it, but compare this to the Wilco 30 bottle kit, in which the equivalent grape content is a mere 10%. More than half the can is glucose syrup and sugar, to which you add even more sugar. I tried one, and even though the sg went down to 0994, because of the excessive amount of glucose syrup, it tasted sweet.
The only pure grape juice kit they sell is £2.75 for 220 grams. To make a gallon of wine with it without sugar would cost about £24. They no longer sell Youngs Definitive white grape juice compound for medium white. It's called compound, (not concentrate) because it contains an unspecified amount of glucose syrup, and it's called medium because that glucose syrup contains unfermentable sugars which prevent you making a dry wine. A small amount, say 10%, would have little effect in this respect, which implies the inclusion of significantly more than that. I can still get it from my LHBS/chemist, but at £8.50 per 900 gram can, I won't be buying any more.
 
I had a bit of a read through some of Tony’s old threads last night, some incredibly good stuff in there. I’m thinking about getting into winemaking a bit and found some really useful ideas.
 
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