"Stop the Presses!"

My roommate (Adam Stordahl) informed me last night that to produce grape juice you actually have to pasteurize it to prevent it from turning into wine! How has this fact escaped me for so long?! When grapes are crushed to produce juice, the juice will naturally ferment and create most of its alcohol content within 7 days! Not too many other fruits even compare to it; it's almost as if grape "juice" was meant to become wine. Another interesting fact: we all know that wine has existed from the earliest times in Genesis, but grape juice wasn't invented till 1869 by none other than Thomas Welch: "a devout Christian and staunch prohibitionist" (sounds like conflicting interests to me). (see article). And (according to the article) as surprising as it may seem, Welch actually created grape juice in an attempt to find an alternative to wine in communion. (I almost wish that whoever had invented the Twinkie would have done so to replace the bread in communion too . . . or maybe not.)

So how do we really justify using grape juice in communion? Is there a true biblical argument for it? Why did it take over 1800 years for someone to think of this? Why is America the only country that seems to be so "blessed" by grape juice?