The Volstead Act also stipulated that the grape growers themselves could make juice and juice concentrate only if those products were used for non-alcoholic consumption. So the vineyards could still make non-alcoholic wine and that wine could theoretically be turned into alcohol by consumers as long as the winemakers gave clear warning that this was illegal, and they had no knowledge of the end consumers’ intentions. With these loopholes in place, the creation of “wine bricks” and, in turn, the ability for U.S. citizens to continue consuming wine came to be.
If you were to purchase one of these bricks, on the package would be a note explaining how to dissolve the concentrate in a gallon of water. Then right below it, the note would continue with a warning instructing you not to leave that jug in the cool cupboard for 21 days, or it would turn into wine. That warning was in fact your key to vino, and thanks to loopholes in Prohibition legislation, consuming 200 gallons of this homemade wine for your personal use was completely legal, it just couldn’t leave your home – something wine brick packages were also very careful to remind consumers. Besides the “warning,” wine brick makers such as Vino Sano were very open about what they knew their product was to be used for, even including the flavors – such as Burgundy, Claret and Riesling – one might encounter if they mistakenly left the juice to ferment.
The result of these wine brick was that many people, including the famous Beringer Vineyards, became incredibly rich. This is because the demand for grapes and these concentrate products didn’t fall when Prohibition hit, it rose, but there were fewer people to keep up with the supply, since several winemakers had already torn up their vineyards to plant orchards. By 1924, the price per ton was a shocking $37