If you like a dry wine, I would cut back on the grape concentrate. You can substitute frozen Welch’s grape juice from your grocery store for the wine concentrate. But you’ll need to double the amount of the frozen to match the concentrate. Actually, I like the taste of the frozen Niagra grapes better than the wine concentrate. This pomegranate wine ended up on the dry-semi-sweet side.

I’ve heard that prickly pear wine has a beautiful color. I’ve never tried it, but the Jack Keller website has some interesting formulas. One involves aging it in mesquite wood. Now that sounds interesting!

Having returned to my parents house for a Christmas visit, I noticed that a couple of ‘handles’ of POM brand Pomegranate juice were in our rather cool garage refrigerator. Their date, unsurprising to me, made it clear that they remained from the the last time I had visited – July 2006. They were unopened so, curious, I unscrewed one, poured it in a crystal glass and took a sip. The result was a still slightly sweet, but definitively (if mildly) alcoholic-tasting beverage with a light, pleasant carbonation. As a biologist, I’m aware of the disagreeable effects of wood-alcohols (methanol) and I can’t say just how much there was in my haphazard elixir, but I have yet to experience any ill effects and find I quite enjoy my little ‘sparkling wine.’ It is no proper wine, never mind a spumante or champagne, but I like it.

So, for the curious, stick a large container of Pom in a fridge (it happened ours was well away from sun) and let it sit unopened for a year and half. You might be pleasantly surprised.