jatoxico said:
How exactly would wood lose sugar? Nonsense.
Not really that nonsensical.
Stack a lot of freshly c&s sugar maple in a closed shed. Stick your head in there in a few days, and you might think you're in a winery, with the alcohol being given off from fermenting sugars.
Some wood tissues under the bark, phloem IIRC, serve to transport nutrients generated by photosynthesis down to the roots for use/storage.
My conjecture for some time is that once such processes are done, drying of the wood can make real progress.