Jay Christianson
Aug 8, 2017 · 2 min read

This is sadly a very misguided article. While I am a proponent of transparency to consumers there are boundaries that are simply not feasible, or necessary to cross. Nutrition labeling in wine is useless as calories from alcohol are metabolized at individual rates, and for a small producer (like the ones you are telling people to find) paying the lab work on every lot, then printing and reapproving labels (all labels have to be approved, a 30–60 day process) is a time and cost hurdle that is unjustified especially if they are not adding the things that you mention as bad. In essence, this would hurt the wineries that you want to buy from!

Now there is some objectively false stuff going on here.

  1. Sulfites occur naturally in both your body and as a byproduct of fermentation. Adding under the legal limit (350 PPM total) will cause no issue to anyone who does not have a diagnosed sulfur allergy, and if you have that condition, sulfites in wine is the least of your trouble.
  2. Acetaldehyde is a byproduct of decomposition of Alcohol in the body (as well as oxidation of alcohol) so if you drink, you are not going to avoid this one.
  3. Grape juice concentrate and Mega Purple are one and the same — they literally are just grape juice that has had water removed. They have a myriad of uses in wine production, they can even be produced “naturally” via freezing. Not sure what’s wrong here as the added sugar is “natural”, and can be fermented to alcohol.
  4. Commercial yeast — Is still yeast, it is just a strain that has been isolated from nature, or bread for its characteristics — not sure why that’s a bad thing.
  5. Tartaric Acid — naturally occurring acid in grapes — adding or removing some (Calcium Carbonate can do that) can just provide added antimicrobial characteristics and also balance flavor and produce better aging wine.

Really you are listing stuff hoping that people will be scared by what they don’t understand so you can justify your argument of finding “natural” producers that you then propose burdening their business by pitching for ingredient and nutritional labeling.

Finally lets address “natural”. Wine is not natural. Wine is a manipulated preserved fruit product that is intrinsically food safe by virtue of pH and Alcohol. The process of making wine is not a natural process by definition. Should you leave fruit on the vine alone and it magically collects, crushes, clarifies, and bottles it’s self — then I’ll go with natural wine.

Jay Christianson

Written by

Pioneer region winemaker and Founder of @tinsheets providing sober solutions for an intoxicating industry.

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