We received an email about the Dispatches programme on Channel 4 called “What’s in your wine”, which brought up a number of interesting issues. I thought it might be worth sharing the exchange with you. Back to the travelogue next time!
From T & A;
Hello, We are appalled to learn from Dispatches on Channel 4 of some of the chemicals used in well known brands of wine.
How can your independent buyers be assured of the cleanness of the products they suggest?
We feel we cannot now buy wine off the supermarket shelves or off-licence premises and would appreciate your comments.
Regards
T & A
Here’s my reply;
Hi T & A,
Many thanks for your email.
I can assure you we stand behind the quality of every bottle on our shelves! I didn’t see the programme and, from what I can gather online, it was under-researched.
You might find Jamie Goode’s Blog interesting:
www.wineanorak.com/blog/2008/09/channel-4-dispatches-whats-in-your-wine.html
The French have chaptalised wine since the 1920’s (adding sugar to raise the alcohol by 0.5-1%). Nothing wrong with this. The yeast turns the sugars in the grapes, and any added sugar, into alcohol. Chaptalisation was originally used to compensate for dilute, unripe vintages and is becoming less widespread in hot vintages like 2003 and 2005. In reality, it’s an essential part of why French wines taste and age the way they do.
The introduction of sugar (called a dosage) is what causes the second fermentation in the bottle in Champagne, without which there would be no bubbles. Every serious sparkling wine on the planet is made by introducing some extra sugar to cause a secondary fermentation.
Fish and meat products were often used to clarify wines, particularly in the south of France. Most people world-wide use egg whites, which attracts and drags all the bits of dead yeast and general gunk to the bottom of the tank or cask. The clear wine is then drawn off above. Totally normal.
www.answers.com/topic/isinglass
Just to pick up on your use of the word “cleanness”. My interpretation of the word “clean” in the context of wine carries negative connotations. Clean means sanitised, characterless, stripped of life. Good wine should be made hygienically but, were you to pasteurise it (which some industrial-scale producers do), it would cease to be of interest to us. It is dead. Inert. Boring and lifeless. Good wine is and, in our opinion, should be a living thing, capable of development in and out of the bottle, providing a sense of place, of culture and fascination while it is being consumed.
We don’t carry any of the brands largely because we don’t like the taste of commercial wines, not necessarily because we think they are making them technically badly. Often they are too squeaky-clean for us. We import direct from small, artisanal growers, many of whom make their wine Bio-Dynamically, which is several steps beyond organic.
Here’s a link about Bio-Dynamics:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodynamic_wine
You can’t get more natural than that!