The blessing over wine is made during a meal. Hamotzi doesn’t cover wine due to its importance. Does this include grape juice? Does a bracha have to be made over grape juice, or is it just wine?
Answer:
Grape juice has the same status as wine for this purpose. In a halachic sense, grape juice has the same status as wine, though it doesn’t share the ‘joy’ property of wine.
Note that some grape juices have water added, and authorities dispute their status. Furthermore, some are reconstituted, or made from concentrate, and for these the blessing would be shehakol, and they would be covered by hamotzi in a meal.
