No…wine is an essential element of the Eucharistic Sacrament and the Church is very specific upon this issue. The use of wine for Holy Communion is directly based upon Holy Tradition, Holy Scripture, and many of the Early Church’s most ancient texts. In addition, the wine used is to be a sweet, red wine made from red grapes (as opposed to white grapes or wines made from other fruits such as blackberry, cherry, elderberry, etc.)
Why is the Church so specific? Mainly because Christ used grape wine when He instituted the Communion ritual at the Last Supper in the first place; telling His disciples: “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt.26:27-28). Therefore, to do so, preserves the integrity of the symbolic function of this sacrament and expresses all our Lord was trying to convey. Grape Wine is also in keeping with many of the illustrations and parables our Lord used as teaching tools: such as the “vine and branches of the vineyard” (John 15:1-8), the “laborers in the vineyard” (Matt. 20:1-17), the “new wine in old wineskins” (Mark 2:22), the “vineyard and the unjust tenants” (Luke 20:9-18), as well as His very first miracle of turning water into wine! (John 2:1-11) These references, blended together with the Old Testament’s usage of “blood of the grape” to denote wine, and the Book of Revelation’s use of “blood of the Lamb” to signify Christ’s sacrifice upon the Cross, maintain the fact that we partake of Christ’s very Blood in our Eucharistic worship.
