Yes, a grape is a fruit, but fruit wine not from grapes?

According to Webster’s, wine is “the fermented juice of fresh grapes used as a beverage,” and, for the most part, that is correct. But what about all those cherries and berries that somehow find their way into our wine glasses? It’s not that surprising, given that grapes don’t grow everywhere and humans have a natural desire to find things to ferment. Vineyards do not generally exist in northern Europe, for example, but mead was made by fermenting the sugars in honey into alcohol. One of the reasons that beer is produced in nearly every part of the world is that the necessary ingredients are dried and easily transportable. But wines tend to be made from locally grown fruit, including grapes, which is why, in the United States, we have seen wineries expand into regions never before considered as “wine” states. And, although numerous cold-weather-tolerant hybrid grape varieties have been developed, great berries, cherries, plums and peaches often thrive in non-wine-friendly regions of our country. Much of what is produced as we go north into colder climates is non-grape wine. In North Dakota, the Maple River Winery makes fruit wines from apples, crabapples, elderberries, plums, rhubarb, chokecherries, apricots, raspberries and dandelions – the only commercial dandelion wine that I have ever seen. The winery describes it as a “delicate and unique taste of the prairie.” Yum. South Dakota’s Prairie Berry Winery is appropriately named for its production of more than two dozen fruit and honey wines. Alaska Wilderness Wines has some exotic offerings such as Sparkling Rhubarb, Russian Salmonberry and a honey mead with Kodiak Island rose petals called Wild Fireweed Petal. But fruit wines aren’t limited to colder climes. In mid-June, I had the pleasure, once again, of being invited to the Illinois State Fair Wine Judging. Having judged for many years in Missouri, I am always surprised to see the eight separate categories of non-grape wine in Illinois, considering that we only have one at our competition. This shows the depth of attention paid to and range of fruit-producing wineries in Illinois. The best fruit wines truly capture the flavor of the fruit, a major reason they are becoming more popular, though they require a slightly different winemaking process. Grapes have very high natural sugars easily capable of producing stable wines of 12 percent alcohol or more, but other fruit doesn’t even come close. This is why fruit winemaking requires added sugar to raise the natural alcohol, typically around 5 percent, to the more stable 12 percent. Low alcohol may make a fun and early-drinking beverage, but not really a wine. This is why apple wine is called hard cider though apple wine does exist. On my drive back from the Illinois judging, I detoured over to Carrollton, about 45 minutes north of Alton, and stopped at the Mary Michelle Winery. I had hoped to see Lucian Dressel, who reopened Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta in the mid-1960s and is now the winemaker and general manager of Mary Michelle. Dressel happened to be out of town, but I had the great pleasure of spending a few hours with his son, Joe Dressel, who is the assistant winemaker for the winery. Although Mary Michelle produces fantastic Chardonel and Cynthiana wines, one of its biggest sellers is the Apple Wine. At 12 percent alcohol, it’s a fully fermented, semi-dry, easy-to-like Sunday-afternoon sipper. “That is what I take when I go to visit friends. Everyone likes it,” Joe Dressel said. The juice is processed by Eckert’s Farms at its cider-producing facility in Belleville and then transported to the winery for fermentation and bottling. Many Missouri wineries also produce fruit wines, mostly as an extension of their product line. St. James Winery’s New Zealand-born winemaker and my fellow judge on the Illinois panel, Andrew Meggitt, told me that St. James has expanded its fruit-wine selection with peach, cherry and strawberry; its blackberry wine is also still available. Tony Kooyumjian, who owns both Augusta Winery and Montelle Winery, offers raspberry and blackberry wine at Augusta, and raspberry, blackberry, strawberry and a fun peach wine called Peachy at Montelle. Montelle’s stunning Framboise Raspberry port also gets high praise and wins awards with its intense flavors and long finish. At his family’s Adam Puchta Winery in Hermann, Tim Puchta has been amazed at the huge following that the fruity raspberry flavor of his Jazz Berry has attracted. The real gem in our state’s fruit-wine portfolio is certainly the large selection of very well-made fruit wines from Elaine Mooney at her family’s Sainte Genevieve Winery. Her parents, Hope and Chris Hoffmeister, founded the winery in 1984. After earning her enology degree at California State University-Fresno, Mooney came home in 1999 to take over the winemaking from her father. Nearly a dozen wines are made from pure fruit – no concentrates – and Mooney makes every attempt to buy locally grown fruit, though that’s not always possible. “My dad is going to Paw Paw, Mich., to meet with a cherry grower,” she said. “We only buy directly from the producer.” A personal favorite of mine is Mooney’s Carbonated Cherry Wine. I had more than a few glasses at her wedding a few years ago and was reacquainted with it on a recent visit to her winery. I asked her how her customers react to fruit wines in the tasting room. “When someone says that they only drink dry wines, they are always amazed that they find sweet fruit wines that they want to take home,” she said.