Deborah's Journal

I persuaded davetrow to reserve a little of the grape must for me to strain into fresh juice. He gave me about 1/2 gallon, mostly skins and seeds. I poured it into a ricer set over a large bowl and off we went to midweek Quaker worship. Came back, squeezed out the last of the juice and took a sip.

Oh. My.

The taste-endorphin part of my brain wonders how much of this would actually make it into wine if people only knew...

Now, it was just a tad sweeter than "pure," because Spousal Vintner had added sugar to the right level to keep the yeasties happy. Not much -- he figured 1 lb for 8 gallons. So it's a tad on the sweet side for drinking in any volume. But the flavors are wonderful -- not one-note like Concord, but multi-layered. A thing to be sipped and savored.

Next year, we'll remove the juice-tithe before adding sugar. It would also make stellar jelly, but again, would have to be set aside before the pectin-enzymes are added. I'd use a low-methoxyl pectin (not dependent on sugar to set) and probably wouldn't need any added sugar at all.

We still have about a quart and a half of juice...