Thank you for the information. Alachua was listed as cold hardy, along with other traits, which was why it was still on the list. Makes me wonder about their definition of cold hardy. Noble was recommended by another person as well. So it looks like I'll go looking for Noble and Ison. I'll keep Nesbitt in mind if I can't find those (I found some more info on Nesbitt that makes me think that I might want to get it rather than Noble. Just going to have to see what's available). BTW thank you for letting me know that Tarheel would be hard to find. My luck would have been to choose that one.

Just stumbled accross this while viewing fruit trees on another site. While I'm no expert on the subject I can recall my grandfather making fig wine in the barn back in the 50's. He was an Italian immigrant that spoke barely an english word but he was a master at grafting fruit trees and growing them. He had his own fig trees (not sure of the variety) and would make fig wine that was to die for! I don't recall all this science listed here. I know he had an apparatus that had hose running from one bottle to another to which he watched the bubbling very close. He didn't freeze the figs but instead would lay them out in the sun for several days before wine preparation. He did add sugar and I'm pretty sure yeast but what variety, I don't recall. It took far more than 24 hours, I would think it was weeks but again, that's a long time ago. When finished, he would put it in bottles......any glass bottles he had. Then he would lay it at about a 10-15 degree angle in a rigging he made and turn the bottles periodically until all the sediment was in the bottom of the bottle. We would drink the previous years wine while he made the current years. My grandfather died when I was very young so I don't totally recall the process. One of my uncles made it as well but would never reveal the technique......how selfish of him! I would love to make some now if I could find a recipe and the proper steps to follow. Fig wine is to die for but I also think the proper variety of fig is of as much importance to a fine fig wine!! I don't think back then they could purchase all the chemical listed here. I think they just used whatever they had in the kitchen pantry.

Hi. There was no crust on it. When they brought it, they brought out a large plate with the small brie on it. There was a sauce and the caramelized onions on it. The sauce tasted more to wine than any sweet jam. No, it wasn't really sweet. Can you eat the rind? This wheel of brie was just about 1-2" across. Come to think of it, the sauce was a little thick, reduction perhaps? Anyway, DH loved it. Marg

Best website for winemaking info: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/ If you want high alcohol content it largely depends on the alcohol tolerance of the yeast (high tolerance examples (17-18%): "Pasteur Champagne Yeast (Red Star)" and "Lalvin EC-1118"). HTH. :)