Red vs White Grape Juice

[keithv]

I've been perusing various recipes for my first foray into winemaking. I'm leaning towards a strawberry chocolate or raspberry chocolate wine, at my wife's request. I noticed some recipes call for red grape juice and some for white. Can they be exchanged for each other? Are the flavour profiles vastly different? I don't drink grape juice so I genuinely don't know.
I have access to both, so it's not a make or break situation, it's more of a visual preference thing.

 

[winemaker81]

The flavor differences between a white and red juice are night-n-day. Both can be good, but your taste preferences are what matters. Without knowing more, I can't give you a better answer.

I suggest you post the recipe you're considering before doing it, to get feedback. Recipes tend to be what worked, not what's best, and there are a multitude of less-than-stellar recipes floating around.

However, for your first batch, I suggest you go with something basic. Winemaking is not difficult, but until you've done the process once or twice, things can be confusing. If you really want a fruit/chocolate wine, Winexpert, RJ Spagnols, and other quality kit vendors produce 3 gallon kits of this type. Your likelihood of having a good result improve greatly if you buy one of these kits.

 

[ratflinger]

Agree fully with Bryan, however if you are dead set on making wine from juice then I'd go with a red for those 2 flavors.

 

[Rice_Guy]

You have mentioned several flavors. Which goes back to balancing to meet a market expectation.

Chocolate as harvested has fruity notes and is compatible with either white or red grape juice. As cocoa beans are roasted fruity notes go away and bitter/ tannin like notes dominate. This is closer to a vinifera red tannic grape (not grocery store grape juice) and one could reduce the amount of cocoa or chocolate extract yet still have nice chocolate flavors by using a red vinifera. ,,, Some recipes will add grape juice for yeast nutrition not flavor, in this case it doesn’t matter which juice. ,,, US market usually consumes milk chocolate which has vanilla flavor, therefore adding a few drops of vanilla produces the expected flavor notes (1 or 2ml per 20 liters).
While on chocolate, ,,, cocoa powder is nasty, it traps gas therefore has to be used in a primary with extra volume. If you are adding/ doctoring a fermented wine use an extract.

Wine making is like cooking. Do you balance flavors when you cook? Then have at it. If you follow recipes when cooking it is worth while looking at several recipes to guesstimate how flavors will combine. ,,, welcome to WMT.

 

[keithv]

Thanks for the plethora of good information and ideas to consider. This is the strawberry chocolate wine recipe I was looking at.

I was looking at gallon recipes for two reasons: 1. It's the equipment I have. 2. If I make trash it's only a gallon lost not 5 or 6.
I will definitely look at kit options.

 

[winemaker81]

Thanks for the plethora of good information and ideas to consider. This is the strawberry chocolate wine recipe I was looking at.

I was looking at gallon recipes for two reasons: 1. It's the equipment I have. 2. If I make trash it's only a gallon lost not 5 or 6.
I will definitely look at kit options.

That recipe looks good, for what it is, although you want the starting volume to be enough that after removal of solids and a racking, you have enough wine to fill a 1 gallon or 4 liter jug. Generally speaking, topping wine with water is not a good thing, as it thins the wine.

Depending on your tastes, you may find the wine to be on the thin side, light bodied. What do you normally drink?

You may consider the following kit. I'm not necessarily recommending this vendor, as the kit is sold by many vendors. I made this kit last year, and I like it -- note that I'm not a sweet wine drinker in general, but like a good dessert wine. Also note that I have friends that consider this wine a typical table wine.

https://www.homebrewit.com/products/chocolate-raspberry-dessert-wine-kit-port
My notes for this kit are on my web site.

One big advantage of buying a kit is that if you follow the directions, you will get a good result. I understand your concern about making a larger batch and having it turn out badly, but a kit is a great way to start.

 

[Raptor99]

The link to the recipe opens to Mangosteen Wine. I don't see a Strawberry Chocolate wine recipe there.

To add to what @Rice_Guy said, cocoa powder works best in the primary with frequent stirring. In the secondary I use toasted cocoa nibs. That's what I did with my cherry chocolate wine, and it turned out great.

The recipe will depend on the flavor profile that you are looking for. Do you want a chocolate wine with a hint of strawberry? Or a strawberry wine with a hint of chocolate? I have not made strawberry wine, but strawberry is a delicate flavor, so if you want a decent strawberry flavor you probably need at least 10 lbs. of strawberries per gallon. Those who have made strawberry wine might want to add their comments on this.

If you add a significant amount of grape juice, that will influence the flavor of the wine. That might be good if you want a grape/strawberry/chocolate flavor. Red grape juice will influence the flavor more than white grape juice. If you use enough strawberries, you might not need grape juice. You will need to add yeast nutrients anyway.

I think that a chocolate strawberry wine had the potential to be awesome, so I look forward to hearing about how this comes out.

 

[Peggy Billingsley]

Thanks for the plethora of good information and ideas to consider. This is the strawberry chocolate wine recipe I was looking at.

I was looking at gallon recipes for two reasons: 1. It's the equipment I have. 2. If I make trash it's only a gallon lost not 5 or 6.
I will definitely look at kit options.

I don't see a strawberry chocolate wine listed at the link, what type of chocolate did it use and when?

 

[winemaker81]

The link to the recipe opens to Mangosteen Wine. I don't see a Strawberry Chocolate wine recipe there.

The link opened to page 87, the Strawberry Chocolate wine. Maybe you didn't say please?

It may be that your browser doesn't like the link.

@Peggy Billingsley -- the link is "This is" in the second sentence.

When I post a link I boldface it, as the style for this forum doesn't show links up very well. I knew it was there, but could not easily see it, so I hunted for it. I'm going to suggest a style change to management.

 

[Raptor99]

When click on that link, page 87 is Frozen Strawberry Wine

 

[keithv]

We actually drink very little wine. Right now, I'm more interested in the process. If/when I attempt a galloon brew, I will share my process and post updates.

The Apres kit looks good and is definitely on the radar as well. Thanks for the suggestions.