Sugar In Wine

There is one simple equation in life that every wine lover must know: without sugar there is no alcohol. As previously mentioned in several posts, it takes sugar to make the alcohol that so many of us love and quite possibly live for. And thankfully wine grapes have plenty of it. The sugar in wine is converted to alcohol during the fermentation stage of winemaking. During the growing season the hanging grapes develop moderate sugar levels as a result of translocation. This is the transfer of sugars from one location (the leaves) to another (the grapes). Some grapes will have more sugars than others, depending on hang time, but the sugars are produced during photosynthesis in all cases. This is really interesting I know, but bear with me, it doesn’t get any more exciting. Really.