Grape Juice

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

grape juice is a sweet, clear, non-alcoholic liquid. Winemakers generally use the term to refer to must that has undergone clarification and stabilization. Preserved by holding at temperatures so low that any yeast or bacteria are inhibited, such juice was often used in commercial winemaking to soften or sweeten new, dry wines. Since the development of efficient juice concentrators, however, it has generally been supplanted in winemaking by grape concentrate, which can be stored much more cheaply, is inherently stable against microbiological attack, and dilutes the wine much less.