Grape Juice: Ingredients, Blessings, and Use for Kiddush

When purchasing grape juice, I ensure it is labeled as pure grape juice. However, I've noticed additional ingredients listed, such as "Bisulfite" and "Sorbate." I am unfamiliar with these substances and would appreciate your guidance. Do these additives affect the blessing of hagafen? Are they permissible for use in grape juice intended for Kiddush?

Thank you for your question.
It is interesting to know the reason why different types of ingredients are added to grape juice, and then to understand the difference these make halachically on the bracha of the grape juice and whether it may be used for Kiddush on Friday night.
So let's start with the different ingredients that are added to grape juice and their purpose.
When making grape juice, after crushing the grapes, the juice is then poured into a huge vat. Now, if left in the vat, the juice will start to ferment and eventually will become alcoholic wine. Now, when the producer wants to stop the process of fermenting so it should stay non-alcoholic grape juice, he adds certain ingredients to the juice.
Pasteurizing the Grape Juice:
Pasteurization was invented not only for grape juice but as a way to make drinks like milk safer and to extend their shelf life without using any chemicals. First, the juice is heated to around 85 degrees; high enough to kill most bacteria and yeasts. Then, at this temperature, the juice is held for a brief period, usually about 15 to 30 seconds. it is quickly cooled down to halt the heating process. This rapid cooling helps preserve the taste and freshness of the juice.
Bisulfite:
Bisulfites are added to grape juice, which releases sulfur dioxid which stops the yeast from turning the sugars in the juice into alcohol. When the time comes to bottle the juice, the juice is heated to around 100 degrees so the bisulfite would evaporate.
Sorbate:
Potassium sorbate is used in winemaking as a preservative to prevent yeast from fermenting any remaining sugars after the initial fermentation process has been completed. This is particularly important in the production of sweet wines or grape juice where fermentation has been stopped before all sugars have been converted to alcohol.
What beracha do we recite when these ingredients are added?
The Talmud tractate Berachot 35b writes that wine is unlike other juices, like orange juice, that we recite the blessing of "Shehakol" before drinking, but since wine is satisfying and gladdens the heart, the rabbis initiated a blessing for itself, "Borei Pri Ha’gafen."
Now one may ask, so why when I drink grape juice do I say "hagafen"? It's not alcoholic and isn't like wine that gladdens the heart and is satisfying?
The Talmud Bava Batra (page 97b) writes one can squeeze grapes and then use the grape juice for Kiddush on Shabbat. We see from this Halacha that one can recite Ha’gafen on grapejuice since Since it is eligible for Kiddush. The Rishonim explain that since it is possible to become wine, one can still recite on it "hagafen". (The Mishnah Berurah adds (Siman 272,Se’if katan 5) that optimally one should use grape juice that has fermented and is considered wine.)
The question is, in our case through the process, the ability of the grape juice to become wine was removed, so does the grape juice still retain its Bracha of "Ha’gafen"?
Analyzing the three different processes above, we should have a clear answer. The first two, even though pasteurizing or adding bisulfite stopped the process but since the effect was either removed by opening later the bottle or by vaporization, so it would now have the ability to ferment and is considered "hagafen."
However, there are companies that add sorbate and as we explained, it kills all the possibility to ferment in the future. This is a big debate by the poskim. Some say that since it can't anymore ferment, the bracha is "shehakol."
However, le’halacha we say that since it had a time when it was able to be wine before this ingredient was added, so it retains this status and one can continue to recite on it "hagafen."
Even according to the opinion that by adding Sorbate one can’t recite "Ha’gafen," that is only when it is added to grape juice. However, if it was added to wine in order that the wine should retain its low alcohol level, then one can recite "hagafen."
For Kiddush using these types of grape juice: Even though we explained that these types of grape juice are "Ha’gafen" when it comes to Kiddush, one can say on this types of grapejuice Kiddush. However, there is an opinion of the Rambam, brought in the Shulchan Aruch Siman 272,8, that the wine one uses for Kiddush has to be eligible to have been used as a ניסוך היין על גבי המזבח, to be used as a sacramental pouring on top of the Mizbeach. So grape juice or even wine that is Mevushal (mevushel: is wine that was heated to boiling point and stayed at that temperature till some wine evaporated) would not be eligible. So, in order to include the opinion of the Rambam one can use ¼ wine not mevushael and ¾ either grape juice or wine that was mevushel, (this Halacha is based on the Shulchan Aruch siman 272,5)
Wishing you well.

Talmud Tractate Berachot, 35b

Talmud Bava Batra, 97b

 Mishnah Berurah siman 272, Se’if katan 5

 Shulchan Aruch, Siman 272, 5 and 8