Over the years, there has been considerable debate regarding the bracha on grape juice produced from concentrate, and whether such juice is suitable for Kiddush and daled kosos.  As many consumers use grape juice for exactly those purposes, it is crucial that any certified grape juice be suitable for those mitzvos.  This document will review the highlights of the primary opinions regarding this issue.

Rav Auerbach

A major proponent of the position that reconstituted grape juice isn’t suitable for Kiddush and possibly doesn’t even deserve the bracha of borei pri hagafen, was Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Minchas Shlomo I:4).¹  He reasoned as follows:

1. Water that naturally occurs in wine or grape juice has the full status of “wine”. 
2. In the times of the Gemara, wine wasn’t drinkable until it was diluted 3:1 in water, and that water also took on the status of wine.  Rema²holds that even nowadays when wine doesn’t require dilution, water that is added to wine takes on the status of wine (unless so much water is added as to overly dilute the wine).
3. Grape juice is (at least b’dieved) considered “wine” as relates to the bracha of hagafen and its suitability for Kiddush and nesachim (sacramental pouring in the Beis HaMikdash).
4. The Torah describes nesachim as being “שכר ” (alcoholic) and Rashbam³ explains that although grape juice contains no alcohol it is nonetheless suitable for nesachim because it can ferment into an alcoholic beverage. 
5. Rav Auerbach suggests that since pasteurized or concentrated grape juice cannot ferment, maybe it is no longer truly “wine”.  He concedes that grape juice which earned the bracha of al hagafen when it was freshly squeezed (and able to ferment) doesn’t lose the status for the bracha during pasteurization or concentration.  However, he argues that such juice should possibly lose the ability to project a new wine status onto water that’s mixed into it (as in #2 above).⁴
6. Since reconstituted grape juice is a beverage which is one part hagafen and four parts shehakol (water) and the water isn’t given the status of wine, the bracha on the beverage is shehakol and it would be unsuitable for kiddush.
7. Rav Auerbach questions these conclusions from two separate halachos⁵ which respectively imply that the bracha is hagafen on mixtures where the minor but prime ingredient is hagafen, and where a non-fermentable juice is mixed into water.  
8. Although Rav Auerbach suggests answers to both of these questions,⁶ in the final paragraph of his teshuvah he acknowledges that the bracha on reconstituted grape juice may be hagafen.  However, he still argues that (a) while in the concentrated state, the juice is undrinkable and therefore (although it retains its hagafen status) it is not usable for kiddush, and (b) a source is required to prove that the concentrated juice can revert to being suitable for kiddush through the mere addition of water.

In summary, pasteurized or concentrated grape juice cannot ferment and therefore does not have the full status of wine.  As a result, the bracha on it is hagafen but water added to it doesn’t require that bracha.  Seemingly, the bracha on reconstituted juice shouldn’t be hagafen but even if it is, it isn’t suitable for Kiddush.

Rav Belsky and Rav Felder

In response to Minchas Shlomo, Rav Yisroel Belsky⁷ suggests a proof from Tosfos in Shabbos,⁸ which shows that reconstituted wine is suitable for Kiddush.  The Gemara⁹ rules that one who carries a kezayis-sized piece of congealed (i.e. concentrated) wine outdoors on Shabbos has violated the issur of hotza’ah since that amount of concentrate can be reconstituted into a revi’is of wine.  Tosfos explains that although the person carried the concentrate without the vital water needed for reconstitution, a kezayis of concentrate is still a meaningful amount because when the water is added to it the resulting cup of wine will even be suitable for a kos shel bracha.  Clearly, Tosfos is assuming that reconstituted wine can satisfy all the requirements of wine, including Kiddush, and the bracha on them is obviously hagafen.

Although this proof is ironclad, at first glance it seems to not address the question at hand.  Minchas Shlomo readily agreed that water added to wine takes on the characteristics of wine, and his thesis is that water added to concentrated grape juice which isn’t alcoholic and can never ferment, doesn’t take on the status of wine!  If so, what proof is there against Minchas Shlomo from a Gemara which is discussing concentrated wine?

Before giving a possible answer to this question, it is worthwhile to consider a similar proof offered by Rav Gedalia Felder¹⁰ from a Tosfos in Yoma,¹¹ which must be introduced by citing two Gemaros.  Gemara, Succah 12a understands that the items suitable for S’chach are referred to in the posuk¹² באספך מגרנך ומיקבך , and in discussing that posuk the Gemara asks whether “wines” is limited to a specific kind of dried wine from S’nir that is as pasty and dense as dried fig cakes and is solid enough to span the top of one’s Succah as S’chach.  The second Gemara (Yoma 76a-b) is searching for a source which proves that the word “אכילה ” includes not only eating but even drinking, and cites a proof from a posuk which uses the word “אכילה ” to describe what one does with wine. 

On this proof, Tosfos asks whether the posuk is referring to the dried out, pasty wine described in Gemara, Succah which is clearly so thick that it must be eaten rather than drunk?  One of Tosfos’ answers is that while in the pasty form, the concentrated wine is inedible (such that the posuk can’t be referring to eating it in that state) and can only be eaten after being mixed with water and reconstituted to a beverage.  Rav Felder points out that Tosfos seems to have no issue with such a reconstituted beverage being referred to as “wine” by the posuk, and this indicates that reconstituted grape juice is considered wine for all halachos.

Rav Felder isn’t addressing Minchas Shlomo’s points, but can we use his proof from a case of pasty wine to discover what the halacha would be regarding concentrate grape juice?  It would seem that in fact we can, as follows.  Minchas Shlomo suggests that although raw grape juice is considered “wine”, when it can no longer ferment it loses that status.  The art of producing this pasty, dried wine has possibly been lost for thousands of years,¹³ but it seems rather clear that whatever method was used to remove so much moisture from the wine would have also caused the alcohol to evaporate.  If so, the dried out pasty wine is something that was once halachically considered “wine” but has now lost its alcoholic content and has no possibility of fermenting once again.  Yet Tosfos holds that if water is added to such an (inedible) product, the resulting beverage is, in fact, considered wine.  If so, the exact same should be true of pasteurized or concentrated grape juice; although they can no longer ferment, they retain their status as wine and can even pass on that status to water added for reconstitution.

We can consider explaining Rav Belsky’s proof in a similar manner, after giving some background regarding concentration.  The congealed wine described in Gemara, Shabbos is actually quite similar to the grape juice concentrate that’s produced nowadays in that 83-89% of their beverage’s moisture was removed (see the footnote)¹⁴ which is just a bit more than the approximately 80% which is commonly removed nowadays.  Secular sources indicate that in the times of the Gemara people performed this type of concentration by heating the wine until sufficient water evaporated or boiled out of it, and we have no reason to assume some other method was used.¹⁵ 

Let us now consider what happens when wine is concentrated in this manner.  It is well known that although water boils at 212° F (and begins to quickly evaporate at temperatures approaching that level), alcohol boils at approximately 173° F which means that as the wine is heated to evaporate/boil out the water, the alcohol will evaporate first.  Thus, if we accept the theory that the Gemara’s wine was concentrated through heating, by the time the product lost 83-89% of its moisture it would surely be 100% alcohol free!  As such, we can conclude the proof from Tosfos, Shabbos just as we did above; if Tosfos rules that a beverage reconstituted from such a concentrate is considered wine suitable for Kiddush even though the concentrate had no alcohol and couldn’t ferment, so too, grape juice reconstituted from concentrate that can’t ferment is also suitable for Kiddush.

Furthermore, once we’ve established that the Gemara’s concentrate was quite similar to ours, we can use Tosfos to resolve an issue mentioned at the end of Rav Auerbach’s teshuvah.  He suggests that since grape juice concentrate is inedible it isn’t suitable for Kiddush, and a proof is required to show that it can regain that suitability by merely adding water.  It would seem that Tosfos can serve as that proof because we’ve seen that the concentrate in Gemara, Shabbos had even less moisture than modern concentrate does and Tosfos still maintains that after reconstitution it can be used for Kiddush.

There is however, one question on the above.  There is a machlokes as to whether the bracha on cooked wine is hagafen or shehakol, and the crux of the question is whether wine is or isn’t negatively affected by the cooking.¹⁶  The halacha is that the bracha on cooked wine is hagafen¹⁷ which indicates that we assume cooked wine isn’t significantly ruined by the cooking.  Is the same true of wine or grape juice cooked until it becomes the type of concentrate we’ve been discussing?  We’ve noted that when one cooks wine, the alcohol boils out before the water, and the same is also true of what scientists refer to as the “flavor essence”.  The most flavorful portions of the juice are so volatile, that even in modern concentrators, which are carefully controlled to operate under vacuum and at relatively low temperatures, the flavor essence escapes from the juice long before most of the moisture does.  It seems clear that juice which is missing that flavor essence would be considered to have been “ruined via cooking” and its bracha would be shehakol.  In modern concentrators, this isn’t an issue as the flavor-laden vapors are captured, condensed and added back into the concentrate such that the reconstituted juice tastes reasonably similar to juice that isn’t from concentrate.  The taste is similar enough that Rav Auerbach and Rav Belsky both note that the concentration process doesn’t ruin the taste enough to affect the bracha.  However, if wine was concentrated in the days of the Gemara via heating and the bracha on the reconstituted juice was hagafen, must we assume they had developed a method of essence recovery?  If not, one would have to surmise that they had an unknown alternate method of concentration (e.g. freezing) that didn’t force the flavor essence or the alcohol out of the juice.  If so, there is no proof from Tosfos, Shabbos to the questions raised by Rav Auerbach.  This requires further consideration.   

In summary, Rav Belsky and Rav Felder cite proofs from unrelated statements in Tosfos which indicate that the bracha on reconstituted wine is hagafen and that such wine is suitable for Kiddush.  A careful analysis shows that although both Tosfoses are discussing concentrated wine they serve as proofs against Rav Auerbach’s position regarding reconstituted grape juice.

Another proof

Another proof against Rav Auerbach’s assertions comes from a halacha which Rav Auerbach himself cites.  Rav Auerbach contends that pasteurized grape juice is only hagafen because it had been fit for fermentation before pasteurization.  If this contention is true, it should follow that if grapes were cooked before they excreted their juice, the bracha on juice squeezed from those grapes should not be hagafen.  [In fact, if this was true, much of the kosher grape juice on the market wouldn’t be hagafen as the system described above is commonly used to avoid concerns of stam yayin].  However, Rav Auerbach himself cites Shulchan Aruch 202:11 who rules that in exactly this case where grape or raisins cooked in water until juice is extracted, the bracha is hagafen.   This leads to one of two conclusions:

1. Cooked/pasteurized grape juice can ferment. 

Pasteurization kills the yeast inherent to grapes, which makes fermentation more difficult, but in truth the juice will ferment if it is left out in the open where it can attract wild yeast from the atmosphere or if (grape skins or) fresh yeast are added.  [In fact, nowadays most commercial wine is made in this manner; the inherent yeast is killed off and specific strains of yeast are added].  Rav Auerbach considers such juice as “not capable of fermentation” because it has lost its inherent ability to ferment, but the above line of reasoning offers room for dissention.

2. Rashbam’s statement that grape juice is only wine because it can potentially ferment into an alcoholic beverage, is limited to nesachim, but for other halachos grape juice is considered wine even if it cannot ferment.

Summary

Rav Auerbach suggests that concentrated grape juice retains some characteristics of wine, but may not be able to project those characteristics to water used for reconstitution and is not suitable for kiddush.  Others have suggested proofs that appear to disprove some of Rav Auerbach’s assumptions, and after careful analysis there appears to be merit to their claims.

[In a reversal of a longstanding position], Rav Schwartz has accepted these proofs and arguments, and ruled that the proper bracha on grape juice from concentrate is hagafen, and that such juice may be used for kiddush and daled kosos. 

Postscript – Grape Juice that is Not from Concentrate

We have seen above that in the closing words of his teshuvah, Rav Auerbach suggests that even if the bracha on grape juice from concentrate is hagafen, it is not usable for kiddush because there was a time when it was inedible (while it was concentrate).  In this context, it is worth noting that potassium metabisulfite is a common preservative used in grape juice and a few parts per million of it is commonly found in all grape juice sold for retail consumption.  However, in order to store single strength (i.e. non-concentrated) grape juice for many months, many companies add as more than 100 times this amount of potassium metabisulfite to the juice to prevent spoilage, and that much potassium metabisulfite renders the juice inedible!  Although the potassium metabisulfite is safely removed before the juice is bottled for retail use, according to Rav Auerbach’s logic the juice should be unfit for kiddush since there was a time when it was inedible.  Thus, those who accept Rav Auerbach’s line of reasoning might also be restricted from using certain brands of grape juice that is not from concentrate for kiddush.