Wine was promoted as a form of alcohol made from abundant fruit (grapes, both vitas vinifera and indigenous varieties, and other fruits) in order to reduce use of precious food grains for alcohol production.

FORBES: Magazine Article

When rival producers in California, like Gallo and Italian Swiss Colony, began selling wine under their own national brands, Sands created Richards, concocting it not from the Vitis vinifera grapes used in France and California but the generic grapes grown in upstate New York.

FORBES: Up From the Gutter

There are exceptions, of course, and two of my favorites are both produced in New York: the Channing Daughters Tocai Friulano, a crisp dry white made from a Friulian grape, and a minerally white Rkatsiteli, a Russian grape grown by Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars in the Finger Lakes district.

WSJ: The Unique Charms of 'Miscellaneous Wines' | On Wine by Lettie Teague