How much wine is in wine?

When talking about wine, we forget to ask how much wine is in the wine?

I’ll drop a bombshell right away. Did you know that wine is one of the last food products on the market where the producer DOESN’T HAVE TO list what’s inside on the label? That’s the truth. All they have to disclose is whether they’ve added sulfites. That’s all.

Most people think wine is just wine – some grapes, maybe water, and sugar. Nothing could be further from the truth. Wine, by the way, contains dozens of chemical additives, and winemakers don’t have to hide their identity! In Europe alone, 56 of them are legal, while in the United States, a staggering 76.

The fact that wine contains a lot of chemicals is often a shock to people. Here, for example, the author of an article in Eating#atfp_close_translate_span# Well is honestly surprised by the amount of chemicals in the drink of the gods. There are many articles like this.

Chemicals are added at every stage of winemaking. Right at the beginning of vinification, producers add enzymes to extract more juice. The enzymes produced for this purpose are chemicals. Chemicals are also added during fermentation. However, my “favorite” chemical ingredient is carboxymethylcellulose, which is often added before bottling to prevent the natural process of tartar formation in the bottle, which is in no way harmful to the body. Do you see where I’m going with this? We add chemicals to prevent what is natural! Of course, there’s a reason why this happens: AESTHETICS. We’ve accustomed consumers to clear wine, even if this clarity is artificial.

Wait a minute, some might say, the amount of positive chemicals is at such a level that it is not harmful to our bodies. For example, in#atfp_close_translate_span# this article, the blog’s authors list it nicely, and they’re right. However, in such discussions, we forget two aspects.

One is that no one keeps tabs on the winemaker, and no one actually checks how much or what chemicals they add. In my eight years of winemaking, I’ve never heard of the Sanitary Inspectorate measuring the sulfite content, for example, in wines sold. Of course, there are legal limits to how much sulfur can be added to wine, not only for organic producers but also for conventional ones, but I know from personal experience, because sometimes I buy wine in the store just for cooking, and after opening the bottle, the colostrum gushes out, making this area a free-for-all. It’s probably no different with other ingredients.

The second aspect is the cumulative effect. What we so aptly call “diseases of civilization”—cancer, autism, allergies—are, in my opinion, primarily caused by the chemicals we put into our bodies, which accumulate, and after a while, the body simply can’t handle it. This topic, of course, isn’t just about wine. We live in a time where chemicals are widely used in food production.

Not all winemakers are the same

Delving deeper into the topic, it’s immediately necessary to draw a red line between winemakers and supermarket wine producers. The latter, in my opinion, have long ceased to be winemakers; they are simply factories that produce wine. And it probably won’t surprise anyone that the lion’s share of positive chemicals can be found in these producers.

Let’s look at this from a more analytical perspective. In Poland, 90% of wines are sold for up to 40 złoty, with supermarkets leading the way. To sell a bottle for 40 złoty gross, we need to subtract 23% VAT (8.50 złoty), the supermarket’s margin, say 50% (16 złoty), and shipping (let’s say 1 złoty). Generally, a winemaker at the end of the chain receives perhaps 15 złoty per bottle, or about 40% of the final price.

But that’s not all. Such a winemaker has additional costs: purchasing or growing grapes, labor, growing equipment, fuel, vinification equipment, excise tax, the cost of the bottle, label, and cork. I suspect that ultimately, the winemaker earns perhaps 2-3 złoty on such a wine. In such a situation, it’s probably obvious that the only way to make money is through volume, meaning hundreds of thousands or millions of bottles. A smaller winemaker, with such calculations, would have gone broke long ago.

But what does this have to do with our topic? Yes, it does, and a lot of it. Such mass production simply necessitates the use of chemicals to stabilize wine. When producing thousands of hectoliters, there’s no physical way to control the enormous vats (often standing outside, too); the only surefire solutions are chemical stabilizers.

Moreover, supermarkets impose the pressure of consistency. If a consumer likes a particular wine, they want to buy the same one next year, even though it’s from a different vintage. If we think about it, wine comes from grapes, i.e., from an agricultural crop, and it’s impossible for it to be the same every year due to different seasons and weather conditions. In this case, aside from expensive blending (as with champagne), the only way to enhance the taste of supermarket wines is through chemicals.