Fruit wines are fermented alcoholic beverages made from a variety of ingredients (other than grapes) and having a variety of flavours. Fruit wines are usually referred to by their main ingredient fruit (e.g., plum wine) because the usual definition of wine states that it is made from fermented grape juice. This is sometimes broadened to include any fermented alcoholic beverage except beer. For historical reasons, some drinks such as cider, mead, and perry are also excluded from the broad definition of wine.

Raw materials:The other ingredients that give the wine its flavour and character can be fruits, flowers, herbs, etc. Examples are elderberry wine and dandelion wine. A wine made from elderberry flowers is called elder blow wine.[6] If the flavouring ingredients are leaves or roots then the beverage is sometimes called a beer (for example, ginger beer). (Note that the beverages known as root beer, ginger beer and ginger ale are often non-alcoholic.)

Nutritional value:Few foods other than grapes have the balanced quantities of sugar, acid, tannin, nutritive salts for yeast feeding and water to naturally produce a stable, drinkable wine, so most country wines are adjusted in one or more respects at fermentation. The amount of fermentable sugars is often low and need to be supplemented by a process called chaptalization in order to have sufficient alcohol levels in the finished wine.