Dump the tannin, yeast nutrients, campden, and pectic enzyme. Adding sugar adds alcohol to a point... yeast dies when exposed to excessive alcohol. Low alcohol content wines will ferment faster because they don't have as much alcohol to produce. Really roughing it to use straight juice with its natural sugar content but that was the way for thousands of years before refined sugar. Honey can be used... honey is the base for mead. Honey often carries it own load of wild yeast. Tannin is to give a dry woody taste. Yeast nutrient is basically fertilizer... nitrogen. Urine would be the only source of nitrogen so I'd hope there is enough natural nitrogen in the juice.... probably is! Other then being gross urine is normally a sterile fluid and soldiers far from help will wash wounds with it. Pectic enzyme is to break down starches so the wine is clear when cold. Campden tablets are the sulfides I like to avoid. They are sometimes used in small amount to kill any wild yeast in the juice for a taste true to the domestic yeast. I never use sulfides because I simply don't like them. Bread yeast can be used but who knows what it will taste like. Bread and wine yeast are basically the same yeast. Just differant "breeds" of yeast some know to make good bread and some known to make good wine. I'd give bread yeast a try if nothing else is available... dry yeast packets are light weight so maybe they can be mailed to a destination? Probably can substitute some citrus for the acid blend. Jailhouse wine is often made with bread and raisins! Hard part is going to be keeping it covered with an bubbler lock. It can be crock fermented which relies on the layer of carbon dioxide bubbles to keep oxygen out.. oxygen will allow bacteria to turn it into vinegar. Crock style is pushing toward jailhouse wine... a quick ferment of 10 days and drink up. Probably fairly rough stuff but I'll bet it is necter of the gods to someone that has not had alcohol in awhile. A "home" trick is to attach a rubber balloon over the opening of a narrow necked bottle... the balloon expands so the bottle does not explode while keeping the CO2 inside and the O2 outside.... probably best bet. Figure ancient man probably put juice in a bucket, watched it bubble, and gave it a taste. At worst the juice rots or turns sour. : ) lyra

Had a good evening and even a better meal...My sister is a great Italian cook (even if she is Irish) she learned as a teen from her boyfriends granfather who was born and raised in Italy...he taught her well!

Courtesy of the great World-Wide Web: "Any wine bottled after July 9, 1987, must have a label affixed that is a declaration of sulfites. Wine producers worldwide have been using sulfur for centuries, primarily to prevent spoilage from bacteria and oxidation and to improve color. The wine industry would readily accept an alternative that has the benefits of sulfur without the potential side effects, but no other compound has yet been found that provides all the beneficial effects of sulfur while being so relatively benign. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, approximately 1% of the population has some sensitivity to sulfur compounds and sulfites and about 5% of asthma sufferers can have adverse sulfite reactions. Asthmatics who depend on corticosteroids are especially prone to sulfite sensitivity and can have severe reactions. The maximum amount of sulfites allowed in wine sold in the U.S.A., to legally avoid affixing a sulfite disclosure statement, is only 10 ppm. The maximum legal limit for sulfites in wine in most countries is about 335-350 parts per million. In practice, the average amount of sulfites in bottled wine is between 20 and 50 ppm. This is a much lower level than virtually all sulfur-containing processed foods, which may range from as little as 6 to 6,000 ppm. The maximum legal limit for sulfites in dried fruit, for example, is 2000 parts per million. Some sulfur is naturally occurring in the environment and in grapes, as well as in nearly all fruit and vegetables. Even without the addition of sulfur, yeast fermentation produces a natural sulfur level of between 15-20 ppm, so it is virtually impossible to avoid this labeling requirement. There are no wines that are sulfite-free." Trekaren, since it's not all types of wines that effect you, it may have been the sugar content of the wine you were drinking giving you that headache.

I tried to email you this but it came back undeliverable... email me to continue this conversation, ok? Sounds like we have similar plans. My idea with the concords is to replicate a favorite wine of ours that's not sweet (not terribly dry but definately not a usual concord wine). It may never happen but I figure it will be fun to try. I've thought about muscadines too, but I hear they're THUGS. What part of MO are you in? The first year with the concords they tried to produce clusters. I left 1-2 on each vine to see what it would do. They were good, though small. This year (second) they've busted out all over and I'm not ready! I haven't permanently trellised them so they're just drooping all about. Its probably bad for them some how, but I just had a baby & can't get to that project right now. Maybe later in summer! I think most vines root very well, though I know concords are especially good rooters. Sounds like fun. The Fredonia is the only one that's puny (don't think it has any clusters on it), but that may be its site. It doesn't get much water at all. I figure they'll have to survive mostly on their own or be replaced, ya' know? What else do you grow? Sounds like you're a very avid gardener! :-) -Caroline Anyone else? Come on!