Welch’s Wine: Cheap, quick, and surprisingly good
Jul 6th, 2009 by Erroll
I just bottled this wine made from concentrated frozen Niagara grape juice – yep, wine from Welch’s grape juice. With good winemaking technique, you can turn this humble ingredient into a crisp dry white wine that’s surprisingly good and perfect for summer.
From a starting gravity of about 1.090, it fermented out to 0.992 and I did not sweeten. I know a lot of people will want to sweeten, but I advise against it. Mainly because it’s very good as a dry wine, but also because I’m afraid that sweetening will bring out a “grape juice” flavor. In fact, if you’re making fruit wine and want it taste more of raspberries, strawberries, or whatever you made it from, sweetening will bring some of the that fruit flavor out. That can be a good thing, but not in this case.
It’s acidic, with titratable acidity (TA) of 7 g/L and pH of 3. It may not look like it from the numbers, but this dry acidic wine is easy to drink – even at five months old.
How much does Welch’s wine cost?
From time to time, the concentrate goes on sale for $1/can. When it does I buy 12 cans, add about 6 lb (2.75 kg) of sugar and water to six gallons (23 liters). This gets me at least 5 gallons (19 liters) of finished wine. Here are the details:
| Quantity | Unit Cost | Total |
| 12 cans concentrate | 1$/can | $12 |
| 6 lb sugar | $0.50/lb | $3 |
| 25 corks | $0.35/cork | $8.75 |
| Total | – | $23.75 |
Less than $1/bottle! To simplify, I didn’t include the cost of yeast, acid, or nutrient. They would add a tiny bit to the cost. Using cheaper closures (bag in a box, crown caps) would push the cost down.
Every winemaker should make Welch’s wine
Keeping yourself stocked up on Welch’s wine means never having to worry about topping up. Come up a little short on today’s racking? Pop open one of these.
You can also use a wine like this to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth from other wine. Store bought or homemade, they all should pass this simple test. Is it convincingly better than this $1/bottle wine in a blind tasting? If not, then why spend $10 on that Chardonnay or $150 on that high end kit? Don’t get me wrong; some will be better, but now you’ll know which ones.
But it’s a good wine in it’s own right, and that’s the best reason to make it. Crisp but easy to drink, it’s a good simple wine that you’ll want to have on hand.
About the label
When I started making this wine the headlines were pretty dire. This wine went from fermentation to bottle in less than six months and it cost less than 1$/bottle – and that includes 35 cents for the cork. Throw in easy drinking good flavor and you’ve got the perfect wine for hard times. So I decided to call it “Bailout Blanc.”
To label a wine like that, I wanted artwork that conveyed the stress most people are feeling in a lighthearted way. There are lots of way to do that, but Ferrell McCollough’s photo Chris Overworked really stood out. The composition and the post processing come together perfectly, and he was gracious enough to let me use it on my label.
You see a larger photo of the bottle here.
Great and inspiring post (along with the earlier one). I’m thinking of trying this recipe, but the one “WineThief” posted here sounds interesting too:
http://www.winepress.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=5941&view=findpost&p=69805
Never having made either, I don’t have the experience to evaluate the options.
What do you think of upping the concentrate from two cans per gallon of must, as in your recipe, to three case per gallon, as in his recipe? For reference, the directions of the can indicate about 2.67 cans per gallon (48 oz. reconstituted).
Also, what do you think of adding a little oak in the primary?
Hello S,
S? Addressing someone as a letter seems a little odd. I think I’ll call you “Scott” for now.
Hello Scott,
Yes, my recipe does not fully reconstitute the juice. I experimented with the concord juice and found I preferred 2 cans/Gallon to fully reconstituted juice. The wine from fully reconstituted juice tasted of grape juice to me, so I’ve been using 2 cans/Gallon ever since. It has good flavor and body when made this way, but I encourage you to experiment – find the concentration that you like.
A more concentrated must will concentrate everything – sugar, acid, and flavor. So upping the concentrate would mean cutting down the sugar and acid.
I’ve oaked some of my mead, but I’ve never tried oak in my Welch’s wine. If you like oak in other white wines, then it might be worth a try.
How about making several 1-gallon batches? One at 2 cans/Gallon, one at 3, and maybe one fully reconstituted. Do some blind tasting and decide which one you like the best. Then make two more batches at that concentration – one with oak and one without. It’s worth the effort, because in the end you’ll have a recipe for Welch’s wine that’s customized to your taste.
Cheers!
Erroll
Erroll,
It was only after I’d posted that I went back and reread the comments in your other post and realized you’d already discussed the concentration question. The testing you propose would be a great future flourish, but I think I will try your recipe first and perhaps later test the higher concentrations and the oak. Thanks for the advice and for the ideas (great blog!).
I assume you recommend topping up only whites with this wine, or can it be used to top up reds as well? Any suggestions on a cheap frozen concentrate wine for topping up reds if you don’t recommend this niagara wine for reds? I would think you’d want to avoid concord.
Hello Matt,
It’s always best to top up with the same wine, but we don’t always have just the right amount of it handy. In cases like that I would’t bat an eye over topping up a red with white Welch’s wine (Niagara). That’s because we’re talking about small amounts that won’t be noticeable when you’re drinking the wine. Topping a white with a red can leave you with a faint but visible tint even if you don’t notice a difference in the taste, so I’d be more hesitant to do that.
Now it’s a different story, if you’v got a gallon jug half full of red wine and you want to “top” it. In a case like that, you’re really blending not topping, and you’re better off finding a smaller container.
So where’s the line between topping and blending? That’s really a question of how much work you’re willing to do and how much change you notice. With enough advance planning, you could manage with almost no topping. You’d have to have all manner of small containers: 1-gallon jugs, half-gallon jugs, 1.5 liter bottles, splits, beer bottles, those 8 oz coke bottles they sell around Christmas time, some 4 oz and 6 oz bottles that you bought syrup in. You’d also need all sorts of different sized bunges and maybe other closures, but it could be done.
I’ll do some of that, but I’ll also top with Welch’s wine.
Erroll
Erroll,
Thanks for the input!