Does wine just contain grapes?

The bottle should have an ingredients list.

Unless it is made from a different fruit (like “cherry wine”), wine is assumed to contain grapes only (unless you count yeast).

The “combines” you’re talking about is telling you what the batch of wine tastes like. It’s a complex beverage, in which people can pick up hints of a wide variety of flavors. Different grapes, different yeasts, and different fermentation conditions add subtle differences in flavor that have nothing to do with actual grass, gooseberries, or what have you, and this description is one taster’s attempt to describe the flavor.

Most commercial bottled wines will list the type of grapes and most of those will also contain sulfites which is a chemical used to preserve bottles wine.

Sulfites can be added, but many times the quantity of sulfites that naturally occur on the grapes is sufficient to preserve. “This wine contains sulfites” doesn’t break down for you the added vs natural sulfite content.

Yes, just grapes and sulfites. Varietals only need to have 51% of that type of grape though. A cheaper Cabernet or Chardonnay may consist of a significant amount of juice from Thomson seedless.

Yes and no.

I toured a winery a couple years ago, and they served two different wines, from the same grapes and the same year. The difference between the two was that one was aged in Stainless Steel, while the other was aged in Oak Barrels. The barrel really did add taste to the wine. Both were very nice, but I prefered the latter.
Also, different winerys use different grapes, and many wines are combinations of different kinds of grapes (a blend).

You are correct about grapes containing sulfites @laureth but in commercial and even home wine making sulfites have to be added if you wish to have a wine that will be able to sit in the bottle for any length of time as there is not enough of nor the right type of sulfite that naturally occur in grapes to provide both the antiseptic and preservative qualities required to have a stable bottled wine.

Wine Making Magazine has a decent article on sulfites and wines!

As stated above it is made from grapes (or other fruit – if so labeled) yeast. Sometimes sulfites are added. In addition, some wines have sugars added to maintain a specific residual sugar level as advertised. For example, Manishewitz prides itself on having every bottle taste exactly like the one before it. They add small amounts of sugar to keep every batch at the same level of sweetness independent of the vintage year. Their Concorde Grape taste just like it did 40 years ago. Yummy.

There are other kinds of wine, albeit not many you’d actually want to drink.

Dandelion wine comes to mind. Army worm wine wouldn’t make it to any of my tastings, but different strokes…

“In the 21st century there have also been some attempts by Chinese winemakers to make wine from fish. An American winemaker has also produced wine from army worms, which received favorable reviews from some wine experts.In Scotland, one winery has experimented with making wines from vegetables such as carrots and turnip. In the United States, recipes have been published online demonstrating how wine can be made from marijuana by adding winemaking yeast to a boiled mixture of marijuana, honey, lemons and oranges.

Dandelion is a Country wine having Celtic origins, and popular in regions across Europe and the Eastern United States.
There is palm wine from west Africa from palm tree, is is the same tree from which the red Palm oil is obtained.” Source

The combines is referring to the flavors you will experience when you taste the wine or smell the aromas it releases. All wines are different.