Enobytes Wine Blog

As I was browsing through my daily RSS feeds for the week, I noticed a flurry of stories popping up (again) about the disclosure of ingredients on wine labels. This has been a heated debate amongst the wine community since the federal Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) issued a proposal of rulemaking (Notice No. 62) in 2006.

One feed that particularly caught my eye was Alder’s post, "Why Do Winemakers Hate Journalists?". This article touches on the investigative reporting and stories coming out of the woodwork, which tie into the TTB proposal. Many of these investigative programs allude that the wine industry adulterates its products with its copious amount of ingredients. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve seen the worst writing on this subject yet. Well, until now.

An [unidentified] Journalist wrote up an article on the subject and several publications, including the Indiatimes, a flagship brand of Times Internet Ltd. and Sify News published it. Interestingly enough, both publications ran the story but with different titles here and here. Both sites credit either IST and/or ANI as their source (who the heck are these companies?)

I have to say that this article was really entertaining until I figured out they were serious! I say they because I couldn’t tell you who wrote the article, which starts, "While a couple of glasses of certain wines can leave you with a bad hangover, others might just leave you unaffected, and the reason behind this difference is the ingredients". The investigative story continues with a lashing of blatantly inaccurate information. One can only hope this person misinterpreted information from their supposedly reliable sources:

Apparently, this investigative reporter reveals that, "Hardys add yeast to their merlot red wine". Interesting indeed! Winemaking 101 – yeast causes fermentation, so Duh! & Duh!

Then the article reveals that "…[Hardy's] use egg, milk and gelatine to fine their product and make it less cloudy". Wow, really? We could simply forgo this step and keep it cloudy for you if this is what you prefer! Seriously, though, Winemakers use a fining process to clarify an otherwise cloudy wine. All wines are cloudy until you either rack the wine (which removes sediment from the juice) or fine it (by adding agents like gelatin, milk proteins, etc) to absorb or react to the substance. These fining agents do not remain in the wine; they are simply used to remove the substance.

Which brings up an important comment stated in the TTB’s proposal of rulemaking (Notice No. 62, page 7), regarding the Labeling of Processing and Fining Agents. The TTB is proposing that fining and processing aids be labeled in the same way as any other major food allergens used in the production of an alcohol beverage. However, they are specifically soliciting comments on whether fining and processing aids should be labeled with a different statement, for example, "processed with" instead of "contains."

The investigative report goes on to say, "Blossom Hill accepted that they might add tartaric acids, enzymes and tannins to the grape juice". What else did they accept, to hang up the phone during this interview? In reality, all grapes contain tartaric [and malic] acid as do many other fruits (e.g. bananas), and tannins come from the seeds [and skins] through "crushing" the grapes. If grapes do not contain enough tannin, they may consider adding oak chips (or regular black tea) to the wine. Winemakers can purchase tannin additives, but many prefer to use the aforementioned product(s).

At last, the story uncovers, "[Blossom Hill] use[s] yeast nutrients and malolactic bacteria during fermentation of standard red wine". Hot digitty! The truth of the matter is wood harbors malolactic bacteria – because of this, malolactic fermentation will occur spontaneously in any wine stored in wood containers - almost all red wines go through ML. Benefits? It produces a microbiologically stable wine. If Malolactic Fermentation happens later in the bottle, you will get a cloudy, hazy, and possibly fizzy wine. Winemakers also ML to add flavor (it’s that buttery flavor you’ve tasted before which comes from diacetyl, a natural byproduct of fermentation). ML is also used to reduce the acid in a wine.

As for yeast nutrients – Duh! Basically, a "nutrient" is anything a wine yeast needs in order to survive, which includes things like vitamins, nitrogen, oxygen and micronutrients; a lack of these components will precipitate a stuck fermentation which can happen when fermenting wine or food!

So the next time you read a story, I beg you to consider the source.