Is wine only made from grapes?

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geek

Still lost.....
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I have this argument with someone who states that "wine" is only the alcoholic beverage made when using grapes.
She says an apple wine is not a wine, just like any other alcoholic beverage made from other fruits/stuff.

Can someone more knowledgeable share some feedback please.
 
Wiki: Wine (from Latin vinum) is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes.

Then it goes on to say: There are also wines made from fermenting other fruits or cereals, whose names often specify their base.

I think most will agree that the definition of wine is greater than just the juice of fermented grapes.
 
I have this argument with someone who states that "wine" is only the alcoholic beverage made when using grapes.
She says an apple wine is not a wine, just like any other alcoholic beverage made from other fruits/stuff.

Can someone more knowledgeable share some feedback please.

I've had this same discussion a bunch of times with friends, with little being accomplished. In some places, like Europe I believe, wine is legally defined as being made from grapes. Here, in the US, I don't believe a legal definition like that exists.

Convention is that if you tell someone you are drinking a glass of wine, the assumption is that it is made from grapes, as most fruit wines are usually referred to as "apple wine" or "blackberry wine".

Personally, I feel that fruit wines are indeed wine, after all, a grape is just a fruit, but we don't call it grape wine, just wine. It gets a little foggier when you start talking about "Skittles Wine" and "Candy Cane Wine". If it tastes good, drink it, and call it whatever you like, life's too short for semantics.
 
I have this argument with someone who states that "wine" is only the alcoholic beverage made when using grapes.
She says an apple wine is not a wine, just like any other alcoholic beverage made from other fruits/stuff.

Can someone more knowledgeable share some feedback please.


Traditionally and officially, wine is fermented fruit juice.

.. My definition of fruit juice, however, excludes the words concord or Welch's :)
 
To JohnT

Boo, I just finished bottling a Passion Fruit ( Welche's) / Mango chunks wine and have had good feedback on it.

Bill
 
To JohnT

Boo, I just finished bottling a Passion Fruit ( Welche's) / Mango chunks wine and have had good feedback on it.

Bill

Bill,
You are kind of new around here. Don't mind JohnT, he is our resident wine snob. :)

Stay thirsty and drink Welchs forever my friend.
 
Traditionally and officially, wine is fermented fruit juice.

.. My definition of fruit juice, however, excludes the words concord or Welch's :)

Ok, in all seriousness, you do realize wine made from concord grapes(not talking Welchs) falls into the wine category?
Concord, merlot, syrah, etc. are all grapes.
 
Wine in Spanish is 'vino', which she claims comes from the 'vid', which from biblical terms is the 'uva' in Spanish (grape) and way way back only they made wine from grapes.
She claims that fruit wine should be called liquor, apple liquor, peach liquor, etc.

Go figure.....
 
Wine in Spanish is 'vino', which she claims comes from the 'vid', which from biblical terms is the 'uva' in Spanish (grape) and way way back only they made wine from grapes.
She claims that fruit wine should be called liquor, apple liquor, peach liquor, etc.

Go figure.....

While I follow her thinking, here is one definition of liquor to throw(not literally) at her.

"a distilled or spirituous beverage, as brandy or whiskey, as distinguished from a fermented beverage, as wine or beer."
 
From the TTB: (Abstracted from here; I made a LOT of deletions of defining language for each category.)

Subpart C—Standards of Identity for Wine

§4.21 The standards of identity.
Standards of identity for the several classes and types of wine set forth in this part shall be as follows:

(a) Class 1; grape wine

(b) Class 2; sparkling grape wine.

(c) Class 3; carbonated grape wine. “Carbonated grape wine” (including “carbonated wine,” “carbonated red wine,” and “carbonated white wine”) is grape wine made effervescent with carbon dioxide other than that resulting solely from the secondary fermentation of the wine within a closed container, tank or bottle.

(d) Class 4; citrus wine.

(e) Class 5; fruit wine. Fruit wine is wine (other than grape wine or citrus wine) produced by the normal alcoholic fermentation of the juice of sound, ripe fruit

(f) Class 6; wine from other agricultural products. Wine of this class is wine (other than grape wine, citrus wine, or fruit wine) made by the normal alcoholic fermentation of sound fermentable agricultural products, either fresh or dried,

(g) Class 7; aperitif wine.

(h) Class 8; imitation and substandard or other than standard wine.

(i) Class 9; retsina wine. “Retsina wine” is grape table wine fermented or flavored with resin.
 
Although you cannot really win an argument about meaning via dictionary, let's also consult the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), if only for the etymology.

Etymology: Old English wín = Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch wîn (Dutch wijn), Old High German, Middle High German wîn (German wein), Old Norse vín (Swedish, Danish vin), Gothic wein < Old Germanic *wīnom, < Latin vīnum, the source also of the Balto-Slavonic (Old Church Slavonic vino, Lithuanian vỹnas) and Celtic words (Irish fín, Welsh gwîn).
Latin vīnum is primitively related to Greek ϝοῖνος, οἶνος wine, οἴνη vine, wine, Albanian vēne, Armenian gini, which according to some scholars are all derived from a common Mediterranean source, while according to others prim. Armenian *woiniyo (Armenian gini) is the immediate origin of the Greek, Latin, and Albanian words; the nature of the connection of the Indo-European words with the Semitic (Arabic, Ethiopic wain, Hebrew yayin, Assyrian înu) is disputed.

Not surprisingly, the OED has a primary definition referring to grapes, and a secondary definition referring to other fermented goods. It has been used in the secondary sense since at least 1398.
 
While I follow her thinking, here is one definition of liquor to throw(not literally) at her.

"a distilled or spirituous beverage, as brandy or whiskey, as distinguished from a fermented beverage, as wine or beer."

Yeah, but, as I suspect you know, liquor has wider meanings. In fact, the secondary definition of "wine" in the OED that I referenced above is:

2. In wider use, usually with qualifying word: A fermented liquor made from the juice of other fruits, or from grain, flowers, the sap of various trees (e.g. birch and palm), etc.: sometimes called made wine

And the relevant definition (among many that are NOT about alcohol) of "liquor" itself from the OED is:

3a. Liquid for drinking; beverage, drink. Now almost exclusively spec., a drink produced by fermentation or distillation. spirituous liquor, liquor produced by distillation; spirits. vinous liquor, liquor made from grapes; wine. See also malt liquor n. at malt n
 
Varis, Please don't bring your friend to my house. I wouldn't want to waste my Apple Wine, Peach Wine, Blueberry Wine, Blackberry Wine etc on her. You get the idea. We still haven't tried your wines yet, Dawn is still on the wagon. Hopefully next week after our annual check ups she'll be back to sipping. Roy
 
Traditionally and officially, wine is fermented fruit juice.

.. My definition of fruit juice, however, excludes the words concord or Welch's :)

So, my Jolly Rancher Watermelon Candy wine would be totally out of the question?:h

(just so you know....you are correct...it is not wine. One of the many things that make me wonder, what was I thinking? Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.)
 

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