A Store-bought grape question...

[OilnH2O]

I was in Costco today and saw one of the employees with one of those huge, 4x6 floor carts with probably 30 crates/flats of grapes (the reddish ones) with"Southern Andes" on the side of the flats. He was throwing them, not very carefully,into a access door in a back wall. I asked, facetiously, "Gonna make wine?" and he said, "These are a little beyond that, but I guess they're going to the crusher." It was only then I realized the door went into a garbage crusher and these grapes were truly getting "pitched!"


Which prompted me to wonder...could they have been used for wine?From what he said,they were starting to go bad, probably had some fuzzy white mold here and there, and so were being tossed out. (Which was why they weren't going to our local food bank). Were they salvagable for wine?

 

[Waldo]

Absolutely not OilnH20. Anytime you are making wine from fresh fruit you need to ensure you allow no spoiled fruit into your wine. I may be too picky but even a bad blemish will get my fruit tossed aside.

 

[MedPretzel]

Waldo gives sound advice:





If you wouldn't eat it yourself, why would you want to drink it?

 

[pkcook]

Fruit of good quality fruit makes wine of the same quality. I'm with waldo, I inspect my fruit and discard anything with a blemish.

 

[OilnH2O]

THANKYOU!

I may be a 'groupie' but I'm really still learning! I realize table grapes present a whole different issue too, but it still just killed me to see flat after flat after flat go into the garbage!

 

[redwineleo]

That brings to my mind another question about store-bought grapes. What grapes (store-bought) make good wine? Are there any to stay away from? Are some better than others?

 

[bj4271]

I made a very food, very dry batch from some of the black grapes Sam's was selling last aug/sep.

 

[redwineleo]

So does the wine taste pretty much like the grape in unfermented form? Or did the wine take on a different flavor from the taste of the grape as you would taste when you simple eat the grape? I too see grapes on sale occassionally, but the grocery store ususally just says "red grapes" or something like that. So I'm just tempted to taste some and if they are good for eating, try making wine out of them. Does that make any sense, or am I wasting my time?

 

[OilnH2O]

I think I saw or read somewhere, maybeon this or the winepress site, something about store-bought, "table grapes" were not very good for making wine, but Bruceobviously has direct experience-- I'll try to find that and post it.