You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you buy at the
grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and will they make a halfway
decent wine?

Scott wrote on Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:04:43 -0500:

S> You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you
S> buy at the grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and
S> will they make a halfway decent wine?

Aren't they Thomson Seedless?

I don't think wine from them would be all that great but, as my
grandfather demonstrated frequently, you can make wine from the
right yeast and any sweetened fruit juice or even dandelion
flowers and elder berries. I've read that an uninteresting wine
can be made from plain sugar solution and grape yeasts.


James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

James Silverton wrote:
> Scott wrote on Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:04:43 -0500:
>
> S> You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you
> S> buy at the grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and
> S> will they make a halfway decent wine?
>
> Aren't they Thomson Seedless?
>
> I don't think wine from them would be all that great but, as my
> grandfather demonstrated frequently, you can make wine from the right
> yeast and any sweetened fruit juice or even dandelion flowers and elder
> berries. I've read that an uninteresting wine can be made from plain
> sugar solution and grape yeasts.


Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Thomson seedless uses the
sultana grape. I found this recipe for sultana wine:
http://home.btconnect.com/ntruman/wine/sultanawine2.htm

In article >,
Scott > wrote:

> James Silverton wrote:
> > Scott wrote on Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:04:43 -0500:
> >
> > S> You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you
> > S> buy at the grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and
> > S> will they make a halfway decent wine?
> >
> > Aren't they Thomson Seedless?
> >
> > I don't think wine from them would be all that great but, as my
> > grandfather demonstrated frequently, you can make wine from the right
> > yeast and any sweetened fruit juice or even dandelion flowers and elder
> > berries. I've read that an uninteresting wine can be made from plain
> > sugar solution and grape yeasts.
>
>
> Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Thomson seedless uses the
> sultana grape. I found this recipe for sultana wine:

> http://home.btconnect.com/ntruman/wine/sultanawine2.htm

The recipe looks good, but think you have things backwards. Sultanas
are raisins, and raisins in California are often made with Thompson
Seedless grapes. People don't want their raisins with seeds any more
than they want their table grapes with seeds.

>
> The recipe looks good, but think you have things backwards. Sultanas
> are raisins, and raisins in California are often made with Thompson
> Seedless grapes. People don't want their raisins with seeds any more
> than they want their table grapes with seeds.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(grape)

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 15:56:37 -0500, Scott > wrote:

>
>>
>> The recipe looks good, but think you have things backwards. Sultanas
>> are raisins, and raisins in California are often made with Thompson
>> Seedless grapes. People don't want their raisins with seeds any more
>> than they want their table grapes with seeds.
>
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(grape)

Wikipedia is NOT an authoritative source of information.

- Mark

"Scott" > wrote in message
...
> You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you buy at the
> grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and will they make a halfway
> decent wine?

Scott,

Yes you could make wine, now whether it meets the halfway decent category is
beyond my knowledge. Try the folks at rec.crafts.winemaking.

KW

Scott said...

> You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you buy at the
> grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and will they make a halfway
> decent wine?


They probably wouldn't be inexpensive if you wanted to make any decent amount
of wine.

Good luck,

Andy

On Jun 27, 11:35?am, Andy <g> wrote:
> Scott said...
>
> > You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you buy at the
> > grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and will they make a halfway
> > decent wine?
>
> They probably wouldn't be inexpensive if you wanted to make any decent amount
> of wine.

This is true... you'd need like 10 pounds per gallon. For home
winemaking I suggest dried fruit. You can obtain excellent quality
raisins in bulk for relatively cheap, from the Sunmaid site.

These are far superior quality than what you buy at the stupidmarket.
http://altapacific.com/secure/sunmai...pt_id=5&flag=1

I buy various of their products, all excellent... if you're a prune
lover their pit-in prunes are to die for, never seen more perfect
prunes. Their figs are excellent too... all their products are
wonderful

Sheldon

In article >, Andy <g> wrote:

> Scott said...
>
> > You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you buy at the
> > grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and will they make a halfway
> > decent wine?
>
>
> They probably wouldn't be inexpensive if you wanted to make any decent amount
> of wine.


They are Thompson Seedless, and are a table grape rather than a wine
grape. Some less expensive white wines from California use Thompson
Seedless grapes from the Central Valley, because they are very high
yielding when irrigated.

Some winemaking stores sell wine grapes. These are generally ordered in
advance, and come in "when it's time". The stores often rent wine
presses.

>
> They are Thompson Seedless, and are a table grape rather than a wine
> grape. Some less expensive white wines from California use Thompson
> Seedless grapes from the Central Valley, because they are very high
> yielding when irrigated.
>

I wonder if some wineries use this grape as a blend grape.

On Jun 27, 2:28?pm, Scott > wrote:
> > They are Thompson Seedless, and are a table grape rather than a wine
> > grape. Some less expensive white wines from California use Thompson
> > Seedless grapes from the Central Valley, because they are very high
> > yielding when irrigated.
>
> I wonder if some wineries use this grape as a blend grape.

Probably not... table grapes bring more money than wine grapes... wine
grapes are generally not very palatable eaten out of hand.

In article .com>,
Sheldon > wrote:

> On Jun 27, 2:28?pm, Scott > wrote:
> > > They are Thompson Seedless, and are a table grape rather than a wine
> > > grape. Some less expensive white wines from California use Thompson
> > > Seedless grapes from the Central Valley, because they are very high
> > > yielding when irrigated.
> >
> > I wonder if some wineries use this grape as a blend grape.
>
> Probably not... table grapes bring more money than wine grapes... wine
> grapes are generally not very palatable eaten out of hand.

Gallo was offering US$125 a ton for Thompson Seedless grapes:

http://www.avenuevine.com/movabletyp...es/001700.html

Quality wine grapes were running US$1800 to US$4800:

http://www.napagrowers.org/prices_06.htm

"Scott" > wrote in message
...
> You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you buy at the
> grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and will they make a halfway
> decent wine?

Thompson seedless and it won't make a very good wine, but it can be done.
Any fruit can be fermented.

If you want to make wine, you can buy various grapes, you can buy grape
juice, or you can make a fairly decent casual wine from apple juice. In a
carboy, put five pounds of sugar and six gallons of store bought apple
juice. Add one packet of champagne yeast. Let it ferment for six weeks.
Rack to another carboy, the age it a bit more or start drinking it. Now
what you'd call "fine wine" but very drinkable when chilled. Quality in the
range of the boxed wines.

In article >,
Scott > wrote:

> You know those inexpensive seedless green grapes that you buy at the
> grocery store. What kind of grapes are they and will they make a halfway
> decent wine?

Making wine can be a fun hobby, but it's hard to compete in price with
the commercial stuff. Here in California, we have "two buck chuck",
from the Charles Shaw company. It is mostly sold at Trader Joes. It is
sold in other TJs through the united states, but it's hard to call it
two buck chuck, since it's US$2.99 versus the US$1.99 here.

There was a front page article in this morning's paper:

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/articl...37/1033/NEWS01

Their chardonnay scored number one, out of 350 entries in the state fair
wine competition. This was a blind tasting, with no price categories.

Hey- you must be in the Santa Rosa area- I was born in Sebastopol! My
sister & I are planning on going down there at the end of July. Going
to the fair for horseracing, tacos & beer! Can you recommend any good
restaurants in the vicinity? TIA