SC - Grapes VERY LONG for the gentle who missed the thread

[ChannonM@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/15/99 10:20:55 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
ChannonM at aol.com writes:

<< So unless we are getting the addition of a yeast we will have a sweet vs 
dry 
 wine?
 
 Hauviette >>

Not exactly. :-) Some yeasts work better at converting sugars to alcohol than 
others.  There are also temperature factors and a myriad of other things 
considered by the vintner including ripeness of the fruit, whether it was 
harvested during a wet, cold or hot spell, what type of soils the vines are 
grown in, the age of the vines that produced the grapes, weather during 
blossoming and fruit setting stages, etc. Variety of grape and strains of 
yeast are only 2 things that effect the final beverage.

However, the strains of yeast used for the production of champagne tend to be 
vigorous and strong growers and consistently convert more sugars to alcohol 
than some other strains might. The more sugar that is converted the dryer the 
wine. Sweet wines are usually produced by either adding sugar to the must, 
using super ripe or late harvested varieties of grapes or, as in the case 
with sauternes, disease organisms that cause an unusually high sugar content. 
Also the production of sweet wines sometimes includes stopping the 
fermentation process at an early stage before all of the sugars can be 
converted to alcohol. A quick glance at the label of different wines will 
show that sweet or semidry wines usually have an alcohol content of 8.5 to 9 
per cent while dry wines tend to be in the 11-13.5 per cent group. Super 
sweet wines such as cream varieties have sugars added after fermentation is 
completed or, in the case of vermouth, aperitifs, sherries and ports, their 
alcohol content is increased by the addition of brandy or other spirits.

The entire study of viniculture and it's attendant beverage production is a 
fascinating study that would entail years of research.

Ras
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