Juice vs concentrate which give you highest quality wine? This is a debate which has existed since the dawn of home winemaking, so really, which is best? First off, both juice kits and concentrate kits can range wildly in quality, so it’s important to find a reputable dealer for either.
Good quality pure juice, of course can yield a fantastic end product, as long as the product is in fact, pure juice from a high quality purveyor. That being said, The Home Vintner made the decision to stop carrying pure juice products for a variety of reasons. Firstly, juice is highly perishable, and thus only available seasonally. The perishability of fresh juice is problematic when home winemakers want to make a wide variety of wine from around the globe throughout the year. Secondly, ascertaining the quality and origin of fresh juice is extremely difficult. We here at the Home Vintner guarantee all of our kits, and the instability and varying qualities of juice products do not fit into that model.
As you can see, high quality concentrate has some advantages. The process of concentrating fresh juice acts as a preservative as the increased sugar concentrations inhibit the growth of spoilage causing organisms, allowing the consumer to find and make the wines they want when they want them, from all over the world. If fresh juice isn’t used or made to concentrate quickly, then it would have to be frozen to preserve it, rendering it not so fresh!
