Do you live in the South? If the wild grapes are dark purple, then they are probably "Nesbitt" muscadines. Ripe ones look almost black. Green muscadines are called Scuppernongs.
I made muscadine jelly/jam a few days ago. I learned the technique from my grandmother. You cover the de-stemmed muscadines with water, then boil until soft--skim off any scum. Be sure to use the whole muscadine--there are loads of wonderful vitamins and minerals in those hulls that you don't want to lose (as well as the beautiful purple color). While the juice and hulls are still hot, use a chinois or similar apparatus to strain the juice and pulp from the hulls. If you work hard enough, you won't have much leftover material. You can use the leftover hulls to make fried pies.
You can use the juice for a variety of things. Muscadine wine is popular. We used some of ours to flavor our water kefir. I saved the rest to make jelly using Pomona's pectin. Muscadine hulls can be bitter, so I chose local honey as my sweetener. I used the currant jam recipe from the box insert. The result was delicious and beautiful! The resulting taste is tart, but not bitter. We're going to give the jelly as gifts this Christmas.
