SUMMARY:The concentration of eight free amino acids, total nitrogen, amino‐acid fraction nitrogen, and nonamino‐acid‐fraction nitrogen in the juices of 26 red‐ and 23 white‐wine varieties of grapes was determined at early and late stages of fruit maturity. Proline was the most prominent amino acid in 31 of the varieties at early harvest and in 45 of the varieties at late harvest while arginine was the main amino acid in 16 and 3 varieties at early and late harvest, respectively. “Salvador” and “Scarlet” were the only varieties in which α‐alanine was the predominant amino acid. The concentration of total nitrogen in the juices of the various varieties ranged from 44 to 256 mg/100 ml and the amino‐acid fraction nitrogen ranged from 26 to 171 mg/100 ml juice. The amino acid fraction and nonamino acid fraction nitrogen in the juices ranged from 53 to 76% and 23 to 56% of total Kjeldahl nitrogen respectively. Alanine, γ‐aminobutyric acid, arginine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, proline, serine and theronine accounted for 29 to 72% of the total nitrogen and 47 to 96% of the amino acid fraction nitrogen. Arginine contributed the most nitrogen of the amino acids, accounting for 6 to 44% of the total nitrogen in the jui