Not much activity on the wine site so I'll ask here. I've seen a couple guys are growing concord grapes. Do you use them for wine or jelly? The concord grape juice in the stores don't make good wine in my taste buds.

We grow them for jelly and have made wine in the past but- I'm not a Mogen David fan, my palate may be hindered from MD 20-20 in my squandered youth. Not a fan for Concord Wines.

I’d forgot about MD 20-20…we called it antifreeze.

I think someone triggered PTSD from the mere mention of MD 20/20. One time is all it took.

I live in the grape belt of WNY and it is predominantly Concords
Worked in the grapes most of my life and live in the middle of a Concord vineyard.
Harvest is just getting started. There are more than 30,000 acres in this local belt.
Most are used for the juice and jelly industry, as stated MoganDavid and a few small wineries make wine.
Everybody and I mean EVERYONE drinks homemade Concord wine here.
If your trying to make wine from juice you buy at the store it's gonna taste bad. You need fresh squeezed to make a palatable wine. Making wine from a processed juice and making it taste good is like trying to make hamburger taste like porterhouse steak.

We called it Liquid Pants Remover- but I just get queasy thinking about it

I eat as many fresh off the vine as I can for about 2 weeks, I made jam one time.
I have 2 concord vines, one is 20+ years old the other is almost 30 years old.
Last year I froze 13 gallons of them for wine, it took 8 gallon bags to make 6 gallon batch.
It was my first batch of wine, I added some of my rhubarb and black raspberry to it.
This year I sold some grapes again,and froze I think 8 gallon bags

The wine store in Sioux falls told me to use a different yeast for concord grapes

I grew up in the grape belt here too. In the old days vineyards in this area were predominantly Concords and there still are quite a few growers around. Our concord acreage/production is smaller than your area or out in WA. In the the last 4 decades or so this area started growing quite a few classic wine grapes and there are a number of associated wineries so concord acres decreased. BUT all of the old timers make homemade concord wine and some make niagra also!

Gary--generally concords are used to make jam/jelly. The vast majority of them are grown in Washington, Michigan, and the northeast (PA, NY, Canada) and the supply/acreage in production is overseen by the National Grape Coop, In household names that is Welchs. But my family has made concord wine for ages. Honestly its not my favorite by any stretch but more of tradition

When I was a young man, I made wine out of Concord grapes. They were the only grapes I had free access to. I had two friends whose parents had concord grapes and an aunt, who had them. None of them did anything with the grapes. The wine I made was at best so-so. I made quite a few gallons of accidental vinegar too.

I much prefer making grape juice with Concord and Catawba grapes to making wine. I would drink grape juice several times a week, if I had enough. Diane prefers jam to jelly.

Keith