Pinotage

Fruit Wines (aka Country Wines)

Country wines are fermented alcoholic beverages made from a variety of ingredients other than grapes (the base of "ordinary" wine) and having a variety of flavors. Country wines are always called something wines (e.g., plum wine), since the word wine alone is often legally defined as a beverage made only from grapes. Country wine can be made from any fruit or, with addition of sugar or honey, from many plant sources. This term is utilized more commonly in Great Britain than elsewhere. In France and Germany, "vin du pays", or "Landwein" refers to standard grape wine.

Few foods other than grapes have the balanced quantities of sugar, acid, tannin and water to produce a stable, drinkable wine, so most country wines are adjusted in one or more respects. Enough natural sugar is needed to support a satisfactory fermentation and provide bacteriological stability through sufficient ethanol content, so the winemaker adds table sugar (sucrose) or sweet sap tapped from trees such as maple, birch, or palm; or honey. If a food is too tart, sugar and water may both be added to dilute the acidity, or additional tannin or acid may be required to round out the taste. These are added as chemicals or by adding a balancing fruit like crabapples, raisins or dates to an unbalanced base.

By adding the correct amounts of sugar, acid, tannin and yeist nutrient a huge variety of plant sources including fruits, flowers, herbs, vegetables, spices etc. Popular examples include elderberry wine and ginger wine and apple wine. A wine made from elderberry flowers is called elder blow wine.

If the flavoring ingredients are leaves or roots then the beverage is sometimes called a beer (for example, ginger beer). Beverages such as root beer, ginger beer and ginger ale are normally of much lower alcohol content than true country wines however, and in many cases alcohol free versions are commercially available.

Fruit Wines (continued)

If the sugar source is honey then the beverage is usually called mead; if it is apple or pear juice then the beverage is called cider or perry, respectively. Cyser is made from apples and honey.

The fermentation of country wines at home was particularly fashionable in the UK in the 1970s and was popularised in the BBC TV series The Good Life.

There are two approaches when making country wines: to imitate the flavor and appearance of grape wines, or not to. Some country wines that resemble grape wines are:

Other country wines made from fruits:

Country wines made from flowers:

Country wines made from vegetables and roots: