Muscadine Wine Recipe

The short answer: a classic 1 gallon muscadine wine uses about 6 pounds of ripe muscadine grapes, roughly 2¼ pounds of sugar and 3 quarts of water, plus pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, one Campden tablet and a packet of wine yeast. You crush the grapes into a straining bag, let the sulfite work for a day, raise the starting gravity to about 1.090, ferment on the skins for 5 to 7 days and then finish the wine in a jug under an airlock. For 5 gallons, multiply every ingredient by five.

Muscadines (Vitis rotundifolia) are the native grape of the American Southeast. They make a wine that tastes quite unlike European grape wine, and they also bring two problems that ordinary wine grapes do not: very high acidity and not enough sugar. This recipe is built around solving both, with measurements you take yourself rather than guesses. If you are new to winemaking, read our full guide to making wine at home first; this page assumes you know what racking and an airlock are.

What Makes Muscadine Wine Different

Most wine grapes can be crushed and fermented as they are, with nothing added. The NDSU Extension publication Getting Started With Home Winemaking (FN1638, reviewed in August 2026) makes that point directly: grapes are the exception to the usual fruit wine method of adding water to the fruit, because grape juice is normally used full strength. Muscadines break that rule.

High acid

The late Jack Keller, a wine judge and author whose recipes are collected in his Requested Recipes Collection (2020), describes muscadines as extremely acidic, needing plenty of sugar and real acid reduction to make a decent wine. He also warns that the acidity can irritate your skin, which is why the recipe card says to wear gloves while picking, crushing and squeezing.

Not enough sugar

The same high acid comes with modest sugar, so the must is diluted with water and sweetened. That is why this recipe uses 3 quarts of water for 6 pounds of grapes and why you check the gravity before adding yeast instead of trusting the sugar figure blindly.

A wine that needs time

Keller’s notes say muscadine wine is often drunk young but improves remarkably with 2 to 4 years of aging. Plan for at least a year before you judge it.

Ingredients and Why Each One Is There

Grapes: how many pounds per gallon

Keller’s first muscadine recipe uses 6 pounds of ripe grapes per gallon and his second uses 6 to 8 pounds. More fruit gives more color, body and flavor, and also more acid, so do not go above 8 pounds per gallon unless you are ready to reduce acidity. Use grapes that are fully ripe and sound; NDSU’s advice for any fruit wine is to avoid overripe, diseased or insect-damaged fruit, because a wine is only as good as what goes into it.

Sugar: aim for a gravity, not a weight

The sugar figure on the card is a starting point. What matters is the starting specific gravity. Both Keller recipes call for 1.090 or higher, and the Virginia Tech guide Wine Making for the Home Gardener (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2024) explains that a gravity of about 1.090 gives roughly 12% alcohol. NDSU gives a handy rule for topping up: 11 grams of sugar per liter of must raises the gravity by about 0.004. Our sugar calculator does that arithmetic for any batch size.

Campden tablet

One crushed Campden tablet per gallon adds sulfite to knock back the wild yeast and bacteria on the grape skins. NDSU puts this at about 50 parts per million of SO₂ and recommends waiting about 24 hours before adding the wine yeast, so the sulfite has time to act and fade. More on dosing on our Campden tablets guide.

Pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient

Pectic enzyme breaks down the pectin in the fruit, which makes pressing easier and helps the finished wine clear. The Virginia Tech guide notes that most fruit musts lack some of the nutrients yeast need, which is what the nutrient replaces.

Which Yeast to Use for Muscadine Wine

Keller’s recipes call for Montrachet yeast, sold today by Red Star as Premier Classique. Two Lalvin strains are also worth knowing, with figures from Lallemand’s own product pages:

• Lalvin 71B: alcohol tolerance 14%, fermentation range 15 to 30 °C (59 to 86 °F). Lallemand says 71B softens high-acid musts by partially metabolizing malic acid, which is exactly the problem muscadines have. A sensible first choice.
• Lalvin RC212: alcohol tolerance 16%, 18 to 30 °C (64 to 86 °F), selected for red wines and color stability. A good pick for dark muscadines if you want a deeper, more structured red.

Both are well inside the alcohol a 1.090 must can produce. For a side-by-side of more strains, see the best wine yeasts.

How to Make Muscadine Wine, Step by Step

Step 1: Clean and sanitize everything

Every bucket, spoon and jug that touches the must should be washed, rinsed and sanitized. NDSU recommends a sulfite solution or another sanitizer made up to the manufacturer’s directions.

Step 2: Crush the grapes into a straining bag

Destem the grapes, put them in a nylon straining bag inside the primary fermenter and crush them by hand or with a sanitized piece of wood. Keep the gloves on. The bag keeps skins and seeds together so you can squeeze and remove them later.

Step 3: Add water, sulfite and nutrient

Dissolve the sugar in the water, let it cool to room temperature and pour it over the grapes. Stir in the crushed Campden tablet and the yeast nutrient, cover the bucket and leave it for 12 hours. Then stir in the pectic enzyme and leave it another 12 hours.

Step 4: Measure gravity and acid

Float a hydrometer in a sample. Add sugar a little at a time until you reach about 1.090. If you have an acid test kit, Keller’s target is no more than 7 parts per thousand of acid, measured as tartaric. His methods for bringing it down are below.

Step 5: Pitch the yeast and ferment on the skins

Sprinkle or rehydrate the yeast following the packet directions. Twice a day, stir the must and gently squeeze the bag. NDSU suggests keeping a fermenting must between 65 and 80 °F. After 5 to 7 days the gravity should be near 1.030.

Step 6: Press and move to a jug

Lift the bag and press out the liquid, then pour or siphon the wine into a 1 gallon glass jug and fit an airlock. Keller lets it stand 3 weeks, racks and tops up, then racks again after 2 months and after another 2 months.

Step 7: Clear, stabilize and bottle

Bottle only when the wine is clear and the gravity has stopped falling. If you want it sweeter, stabilize it first and then add sugar syrup to taste. Our guide to bottling and corking covers the rest.

How to Lower the Acid in Muscadine Wine

If your acid test reads high, Keller describes three fixes. Each is a measured addition, so test before and after.

Calcium carbonate (acid of 10 ppt or more)

According to Keller, 2.5 grams of calcium carbonate lowers the acidity of one gallon by about 1 part per thousand. He treats half the batch, stirring hard because it foams, chills it for a few days, then siphons it off the deposit back into the untreated half.

Potassium bicarbonate (acid of 8 to 10 ppt)

Keller gives 3.4 grams per gallon for each 1 part per thousand of reduction, stirred into the whole batch and then chilled so the deposit settles.

Dilution with water

Adding water also lowers acid, in direct proportion to the volume added, but it thins the muscadine flavor too. Keller treats it as the last resort.

Scaling Up: 5 Gallon Muscadine Wine

Every ingredient scales in a straight line. The one thing that does not change is the target: you still adjust to a starting gravity of about 1.090, so weigh the sugar out but add the last part only after you measure.

For a 5 gallon batch you will want a 7 to 8 gallon bucket for the primary, so there is room for the grapes and the foam, and a 5 gallon carboy for the rest. Our carboy vs bucket guide explains the trade-offs. The Lalvin sachets in the kit box below list a 5 g sachet as enough for 4.5 to 23 liters, which covers both sizes.

Common Mistakes With Muscadine Wine

Skipping the acid test

Tasting the must is not enough: high sugar hides acid. An inexpensive titration kit tells you whether you need one of the reductions above.

Adding yeast right after the Campden tablet

Sulfite that has not had time to dissipate can stall a fresh yeast. Give it the full day before you pitch, as NDSU advises.

Leaving the skins in too long

Keller presses the grapes when the gravity reaches about 1.030. Longer contact extracts more bitterness and acid from skins and seeds.

Bottling too soon

Wine bottled before it stops fermenting can push corks or turn fizzy. Check that the gravity is steady over several days and read our page on how long wine takes to ferment before you bottle.

Want a different fruit? Our guide to making wine from fruit explains the general method, and the recipe collection has more ideas. Make and drink wine responsibly, and only if you are of legal drinking age.