OK, those highly-modified, highly-prized grapes that are used to make wine (like the Merlot, the DuChaunac (I think)), etc… What would they taste like to eat? To the untrained tongue would they taste like, you know, grapes? Or does their use in wine mean that they have flavors that are only enjoyable once distilled into wine?
Regarding those Brazilian, $1.69/pound grapes I buy at Wal-Mart:) and snack on at lunch: could I make a passable wine using those?
Finally, what about store-bought grape juice? Is it more-or-less the same juice that is used to distill wine?
But not the sweet table grapes that you and I are used to. If you’ve ever had wild muscadines, or any other kind of wild grapes, they taste like that. More tannins, less sweet, but with more depth of flavor. You could eat them, but I doubt you’d be chuffed with them. After all, they’re designed to give special flavors to be fermented, so aren’t as user-friendly.
I’ve been making my own wine for three years now from must (unsweetened, unfiltered grape juice), and I’ve had an opportunity to taste it at every step of the process. The must tastes like thick, unsweetened grape juice. Once it’s fermented about a week, it tastes like rotting, fizzy, yeasty grape juice. After six months, it tastes like wine.
You could technically make wine with Welch’s like you see at the store, but it would be sweet, uneven, and generally awful. During Prohibition, several juice makers would sell their product with a warning that the juice must not be allowed to ferment. Sales reportedly took off. Off-the-shelf grape juice is pasteurized, sweetened, and filtered. You might be able to make a passable version of Mad Dog, but why try?
I made a fermented beverage once. Sugar water and yeast in a pitcher covered with a damp washcloth. Kept it in my sink with warm water drizzling on it for about 5 days, caught quite a buzz off of it when I gagged it down later, but I was only 15 then.
The grapes commonly used to make wine aren’t “highly modified” (i.e. because of millennia of cultivation) relative to eating grapes; they’re actually a different species.
Most wine grapes are varietals (varieties or sub-species) of the Vitis vinifera grape. Of course, over time the distinctions between varietals have been enhanced both by natural selection, local climate and soil composition – what the French call terroir – and deliberate cultivation by humans.
Eating grapes, such as Concord grapes, are usually of the Vitis lambrusca species; but I think there may be one or two other species which yield edible grapes, too. These grapes can be made into wine, but the quality is generally considered inferior to that made from the vinifera species.
Some wine grapes are hybrids of the two species; Seyval Blanc and Baco Noir are examples. These are, I think, grown predominantly in North America. Last summer I picked up a nice Baco Noir from Henry of Pelham winery in Ontario.
Should have used honey…then you would have had MEAD! In 5 days you prolly would not have had much alcohol in it but hey, you do what you have to at 15 when you want alcohol.
Anyone who is interested you can get grape juice concentrate of the proper types of wine grapes from several online suppliers or look in your phonebook under “homebrewing”.
I had the opportunity to pick ripe wine grapes right off the vine during a trip to Napa Valley. Chardonnay, specifically. False_God’s adjective “wild” is pretty good; in a weird way, it’s like the difference between a game bird and domesticated chicken. More complicated flavor, not as “obvious.” Also they’re tiny, not the big thumb-sized suckers you get at the grocery store.