James Burton
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If anyone of you winemaking brethren have used real grape juice (from supermarket carton, but not from concentrate) to make a successful wine, please let me have benefit of your skills, and comments regarding the widely differing pricings of the options on offer, some of which are listed below.
M&S Merlot Grape Juice - one litre pressed from around 80 grapes – not from concentrate – at £2.10 per carton, would give a demijohn’s worth of pure juice, say, five litres at cost of £10.50
As a comparison, one litre of Merlot concentrate in kit form e.g. Wine Buddy/Youngs 30 Bottle Merlot (liquid content one litre) comes in at £26.35. A huge discrepancy, explained by the fact that the one litre of concentrate is to end up as 23 litres after water and sugar solution are added. The ‘kit’ also contains small sachets of yeast, finings and potassium sorbate – just a few pence-worth in total. Scaling up the real juice to 23 litres minus the quantity of 4 kg sugar, say net 20 litres, cost is £42. Well known retailers B***hoo will sell you five litres concentrate for £53.49 (inc p and p) or £42.80 equivalent for four litres: coincidence? Or £10.70 per one litre inc p and p) It appears that real juice costs the same as concentrate, at least by this comparison.
At the other end of the market on eBay, a white wine 30 bottle 7 day ‘kit’ can be had for £22.39 inc p and p, and close examination of the ingredients photo, shows the ‘kit’ to contain merely a one litre bottle of concentrate plus the usual penn’orth of yeast, etc.: yet the same one litre bottle of generic white wine concentrate can be had from the same B***hoo website for £11.99, although you do have to pay another £4 p and p.
So, grape wine: £16 quid, £22.39 or £53.49 and up?
Does the real juice make a ‘better’ wine than the concentrate, is, I suppose, at the heart of my question
M&S Merlot Grape Juice - one litre pressed from around 80 grapes – not from concentrate – at £2.10 per carton, would give a demijohn’s worth of pure juice, say, five litres at cost of £10.50
As a comparison, one litre of Merlot concentrate in kit form e.g. Wine Buddy/Youngs 30 Bottle Merlot (liquid content one litre) comes in at £26.35. A huge discrepancy, explained by the fact that the one litre of concentrate is to end up as 23 litres after water and sugar solution are added. The ‘kit’ also contains small sachets of yeast, finings and potassium sorbate – just a few pence-worth in total. Scaling up the real juice to 23 litres minus the quantity of 4 kg sugar, say net 20 litres, cost is £42. Well known retailers B***hoo will sell you five litres concentrate for £53.49 (inc p and p) or £42.80 equivalent for four litres: coincidence? Or £10.70 per one litre inc p and p) It appears that real juice costs the same as concentrate, at least by this comparison.
At the other end of the market on eBay, a white wine 30 bottle 7 day ‘kit’ can be had for £22.39 inc p and p, and close examination of the ingredients photo, shows the ‘kit’ to contain merely a one litre bottle of concentrate plus the usual penn’orth of yeast, etc.: yet the same one litre bottle of generic white wine concentrate can be had from the same B***hoo website for £11.99, although you do have to pay another £4 p and p.
So, grape wine: £16 quid, £22.39 or £53.49 and up?
Does the real juice make a ‘better’ wine than the concentrate, is, I suppose, at the heart of my question
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