There are several matters here surrounding this question.
1. The remark of the Emcee
Several commentators are of the view that remark of the "master of the banquet" about cheap wine coming out when all are drunk (see Ellicott, Meyer, Pulpit, etc) appears to be a common banquet joke. Whether is is correct or not, it shows that what Jesus miraculously created by superb quality, very expensive wine.
2. Time of Year
John 2:12, 13 suggest that the time of wedding was shortly before Passover, probably about March. Since the vintage is harvested in July-August, whatever the wedding guests were drinking before Jesus' miracle was not fresh grape juice.
The most prized wine was the rarest and most expensive because it was only available during and briefly after the grape harvest - fresh grape juice. At other times of the year, people resorted (much as today) to several other methods for having wine:
- fermenting
- creating very concentrated juice that was then sealed - juice could be recovered later by dilution
- Sometimes some spirit was added to kill the wine and prevent any fermentation; equivalently wine vinegar was added for a similar effect.
Barnes comments are useful:
The good wine - This shows that this had all the qualities of real wine. We should not be deceived by the phrase "good wine." We often
use the phrase to denote that it is good in proportion to its strength
and its power to intoxicate; but no such sense is to be attached to
the word here. Pliny, Plutarch, and Horace describe wine as "good," or
mention that as "the best wine," which was harmless or "innocent" -
poculo vini "innocentis." The most useful wine - "utilissimum vinum" -
was that which had little strength; and the most wholesome wine -
"saluberrimum vinum" - was that which had not been adulterated by "the
addition of anything to the 'must' or juice." Pliny expressly says
that a good wine was one that was destitute of spirit (lib. iv. c.
13). It should not be assumed, therefore, that the "good wine" was
"stronger" than the other: it is rather to be presumed that it was
milder.
3. What did Jesus produce?
Again, Barnes continues:
The wine referred to here was doubtless such as was commonly drunk in
Palestine. That was the pure juice of the grape. It was not brandied
wine, nor drugged wine, nor wine compounded of various substances,
such as we drink in this land. The common wine drunk in Palestine was
that which was the simple juice of the grape. we use the word "wine"
now to denote the kind of liquid which passes under that name in this
country - always containing a considerable portion of alcohol not only
the alcohol produced by fermentation, but alcohol "added" to keep it
or make it stronger. But we have no right to take that sense of the
word, and go with it to the interpretation of the Scriptures. We
should endeavor to place ourselves in the exact circumstances of those
times, ascertain precisely what idea the word would convey to those
who used it then, and apply that sense to the word in the
interpretation of the Bible; and there is not the slightest evidence
that the word so used would have conveyed any idea but that of the
pure juice of the grape, nor the slightest circumstance mentioned in
this account that would not be fully met by such a supposition.
