<reply@grouponly> wrote in message
...
> Greetings,
>
> I'm really struck by the recipes I've seen for fruit wines, meaning
> wines made from non-grapes. Peach, plum,tomato,etc. The vinifera
> recipe at it's simplest is 15-16lbs. or so of grapes and yeast. But
> every other recipes needs SUGAR added. I ask myself, what's the
> yeast feeding on, coverting, etc. - The fruit or the sugar ?
> Answer: Sugar.


Andrew,

Grapes are very high in sugar content, higher than most other fruits.
Grapes can make a 'wine strength' must (one that will ferment dry to ~12%
alcohol level) without the addition of sugar. Most other fruits don't have
this level of sugar content naturally, and so sugar is added to increase the
sugar content to 'wine strength' for preservative reasons as well as balance
and others.

> Not to be blasphemous, but it seems that most fruit wines are just
> yeast, sugar and fruit- "flavoring". Is this true? What about before
> that advent of refined sugar?
>
> Andrew

Honey or some other substitute, or a low alcohol fruit wine. But don't
think that the addition of sugar makes a fruit wine a 'fruit flavored' sugar
ferment. Fruit wines can have enormous amounts of flavor, and fruit other
than grapes has the advantage of being readily available in many more
geographic regions and at many other times in the growing season than
grapes. You can also buy fruit juice in many convenient forms; frozen
canned concentrate, 100% 'varietal' fruit juice in natural food stores or
higher end grocery stores, in 100% juice mixes, etc. There are also dried,
canned, and frozen fruits available at most grocery stores. And most
homebrew shops will carry canned fruit for winemaking in addition to grape
wine juice kits.
For the home winemaker, fruit wines are an excellent alternative to
vinifera, and produce very rewarding results.


--
Cheers,
Ken