How to Make Wine from Supermarket Grape Juice (UK Guide)
Quick answer: Yes, you can make a decent wine from supermarket grape juice. Use about 4 litres of 100% grape juice with no preservatives, dissolve enough sugar to bring the gravity to around 1.085–1.090, add 1 tsp of yeast nutrient and a sachet of wine yeast, and ferment in a 1-gallon (4.5 litre) demijohn under an airlock. After 2–4 weeks of fermenting, rack it off the sediment with 1 crushed Campden tablet per gallon, let it clear, then bottle. You'll have about six bottles of wine at roughly 11–12% ABV in around two months.
Juice wine is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to try winemaking. There's no fruit to crush and no pressing. The juice is already pasteurised, so the main jobs are getting the sugar right, choosing a proper wine yeast and being patient.
Choosing the right juice
This is the one step you can't skip. Read the label before you buy.
- Buy 100% grape juice. Red grape juice makes a light red or rosé-style wine. White grape juice makes a white. Juice from concentrate is fine.
- Avoid preservatives. Potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate or sulphites are added to stop yeast growing, and they'll stop your wine fermenting too. Added vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is fine.
- Avoid "juice drinks". Anything with added water, sweeteners or flavourings won't make good wine.
What you'll need
For one gallon (4.5 litres), which fills about six standard wine bottles:
- About 4 litres of 100% red or white grape juice, no preservatives
- Sugar, to raise the gravity (see below). Brewing sugar or ordinary granulated sugar both work
- 1 sachet of wine yeast, such as Gervin GV1 or Lalvin EC-1118
- 1 tsp yeast nutrient
- Campden tablets: 1 per gallon at racking
- A 1-gallon demijohn with a bung and airlock
- A hydrometer and trial jar
- A syphon, a funnel, wine bottles and corks
- A cleaner and a sanitiser: VWP to clean (rinse it off), then ChemSan, a no-rinse sanitiser
Why you need to add sugar
Grape juice sold for drinking is usually less sugary than wine grapes, so on its own it tends to make a thin, low-strength wine. The fix is simple: measure the juice with a hydrometer and add sugar until the reading reaches about 1.085–1.090. That ferments down to roughly 11–12% ABV.
As a rough guide, 1 kg of sugar raises the gravity of a gallon by about 46 points (0.046), so 100 g adds about 4–5 points. Dissolve the sugar in a little warm juice, stir it in, then measure again rather than guessing. Our ABV calculator shows what strength you're heading for.
Step by step
- Clean and sanitise. Clean the demijohn, funnel, bung and airlock, rinse well, then sanitise with ChemSan and drain.
- Add the juice. Pour in about 3 litres of juice to start with. Leave plenty of space, because the first few days of fermentation can foam up.
- Adjust the sugar. Take a hydrometer reading, then dissolve sugar in some of the remaining juice and add it until you reach about 1.085–1.090. Write the reading down.
- Add nutrient and yeast. Stir in 1 tsp of yeast nutrient, then add the wine yeast as the sachet directs. Fit the bung and airlock, with a little water or sanitiser in the airlock.
- Ferment somewhere steady. Around 18–22°C is ideal. Once the foaming dies down after a few days, top up with the rest of the juice to the shoulder of the demijohn.
- Wait for it to finish. When bubbling has almost stopped, check the gravity. If the reading is the same over 2–3 days, usually somewhere below 1.000, fermentation has finished.
- Rack and protect. Syphon the wine off the sediment into a clean, sanitised demijohn. Add 1 crushed Campden tablet per gallon, dissolved in a little of the wine, and refit the airlock.
- Let it clear. Leave it somewhere cool for a few weeks. If it's still hazy after a month, a wine finings can help.
- Bottle. When the wine is clear, syphon it into sanitised bottles and cork them.
Do I need Campden tablets?
Supermarket juice is pasteurised, so you don't need to sterilise it before the yeast goes in, which saves the usual 24-hour wait. Campden tablets are still worth using at racking and before bottling, at 1 tablet per gallon. They help protect the finished wine from spoilage and oxidation. Our Campden tablet guide explains the dose and timing.
If you'd like a sweeter wine, don't just add sugar at bottling, because it can start fermenting again in the bottle. Stabilise first with potassium sorbate and a Campden tablet, then sweeten to taste.
Timeline
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Mix juice and sugar, add nutrient and yeast, fit the airlock |
| Days 2–7 | Lively fermentation. Top up once the foam settles |
| Weeks 2–4 | Fermentation slows and finishes. Check the gravity is steady |
| Week 4 or so | Rack off the sediment and add 1 Campden tablet per gallon |
| Weeks 5–8 | The wine clears. Bottle once it's bright |
| After bottling | Drinkable after a few weeks, and better after a few months |
Tips for a better juice wine
- Use a proper wine yeast. Bread yeast can work but often leaves off-flavours. Our guide to yeast nutrient and bread yeast explains why.
- Add a little body to reds. Juice wines can taste thin. A little wine tannin, used as the pack directs, adds structure.
- Keep the temperature steady. Big swings can stall the yeast or give off-flavours.
- Be patient. Young juice wine can taste sharp. A few months in the bottle makes a real difference.
If you'd rather start with something designed for the job, a 6-bottle wine kit uses concentrated wine grape juice and makes the same amount with even less guesswork. Our complete guide to making wine at home covers kits in detail.