{"id":1379,"date":"2019-04-28T14:40:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T18:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techniquesinhomewinemaking.com\/blog\/?p=1379"},"modified":"2026-03-22T06:58:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T10:58:22","slug":"my-quest-for-top-quality-fruit-for-making-superlative-wines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techniquesinhomewinemaking.com\/blog\/my-quest-for-top-quality-fruit-for-making-superlative-wines\/","title":{"rendered":"My Quest for Top-Quality Fruit for Making Superlative Wines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 28, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m on a quest to make, not great, but superb wines from top-notch fruit (i.e., grapes). And therein lies my challenge . . . every year \u2013 sourcing top-notch fruit, juice or must (juice with grape skins). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I live in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) where purveyors of fruit and juice for winemaking cater predominantly to the older generation of cost-conscious winemakers and to those wanting to make tiny batches of good, early drinking wine (inexpensively too). I have resorted to driving hours and hours or paying premium dollars to get juice or frozen must that I can turn into superlative wines, wines with a bang of a wow factor. It hasn\u2019t been easy, but wholesalers and distributors are catching up and now sourcing grapes from not only California\u2019s Central Valley, but also from Oregon and Washington in northwestern US, as well as the Southern Hemisphere from Chile and Argentina and as far as South Africa to satisfy the needs of discriminating amateur winemakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WineGrapesDirect.com<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WineGrapesDirect<\/a>, operated by partners Andrew and Mikey Crews, is one such purveyor of high-quality juice and must from grapes sourced from premium vineyards in California, Oregon, and Washington. Crushed must (reds) and pressed juice (whites) are flash-frozen and then shipped by courier anywhere throughout the continental US and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have become partial to frozen must because the freezing process ruptures grape cell walls and release more anthocyanins (color pigment molecules) and increase color extraction. It had always been a challenge extracting color in the okay grapes from the Central Valley I was able to source locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So I decided I would try three 5-gallon (20-liter) pails of WineGrapesDirect<\/a>\u2019s best of the best for evaluation purposes, and since I live a short one-hour drive from the US border and there is no duty or taxes on (unfermented) frozen must, I had the pails shipped to a pick-up location just across our friendly border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I chose the following varieties, one white and two reds, from the 2018 harvest (prices are in US$ for 5-gal pails unless stated otherwise):<\/p>\n\n\n\n