Wine Savvy on September 30, 2014 29 Comments You’ve heard the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover.” When it comes to wine, with a bit of a twist — don’t judge a bottle by its label — the same principle applies. Alluring graphics and clever packaging aside, wine labels can often be misleading. Although they list important facts like grape varieties, region and alcohol content, unlike the food industry, wine producers aren’t required by any governing body or law to list the actual ingredients that make it inside the bottle on the outside. But isn’t wine just fermented grapes, you ask? Essentially, yes, but hold on to your barstool my dearly duped friend. In its most raw state, wine is nature’s best miracle. Grapes alone contain everything they need to transform into a glass of vino. Leave a vat of grapes in a container over time, and eventually the yeasts from the skins will work to convert the fruit’s sugary juices into alcohol. The end product is a delectable libation that’s been sipped and swirled throughout the centuries by oenophiles and armchair aficionados alike. Nowadays, few wines are still made with that simple process. To start, vintners have found inventive ways to manipulate the terroir and have made it both an art form and a science to control the way each tiny fruit matures on the vines. On top of that, modern winemakers have poured their lives into finding inventive ways to craft unique recipes by isolating aromas, manipulating specific flavors, and exploring different textures to create some truly remarkable wines. Aside from grapes, patience and passion, here are the top ingredients you may not have known were swirling around your wine glass. 1. Potassium Sorbate & Potassium Metabisulfite Both potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite are used as a protector in the winemaking process to ward off bacteria and prevent the yeast from spoiling. These ingredients are ideal to use together during the fermentation process, as they give the yeast a better opportunity to ferment efficiently, help prevent micro-organisms from spoiling your wine and improve the overall flavor while inhibiting enzymatic browning in white wines. 2. Calcium Carbonate Calcium carbonate is commonly used in the winemaking process to reduce the acidity of the final product. Typically, a vintner will add this ingredient before or at the beginning of fermentation, because it is less likely to affect the aroma of your wine. It is not unusual for calcium carbonate to be added when the grapes are having trouble ripening due to the climate in which they were grown. 3. Sulfur Dioxide As one of the most common additives in wine, you probably refer to Sulfur Dioxide (SO₂) as “Sulfites.” Acting as an antioxidant and antibiotic, Sulfur Dioxide is commonly used to preserve the grapes, stabilize the wine and prevent oxidation during the winemaking process. It is also commonly used to help sanitize barrels and other winemaking equipment. 4. Sugar You may think this one was a given since grapes themselves contain sugar, but oftentimes winemakers add even more sugar to the mix to help boost the alcohol content in their product. Known as chaptalization, adding sugar to wine is mainly done to assist the yeast in the fermentation process. Very few winemakers add sugar to sweeten the wine. Adding sugar to wine is often used in cooler climates where grapes aren’t able to ripen fully before harvest. 5. Grape Juice Concentrate Street names include Mega Purple and Ultra Red, but those menacing sounding names are really just types of a thick concentrate derived from Teinturer grapes. These wine boosters make the color of the red wine more intense while adding a bit of extra sugar to smooth out the mouth feel and make the wine taste a bit more velvety. 6. Water Yes, turns out it’s true that some wine may actually be “watered-down,” but it may not be for reasons you think. Never used as a ploy to fill a bottle, adding water is done early in the winemaking process to bring down high alcohol levels and even out a wine’s balance. 7. Flavors Oak has been used since the beginning of wine making to flavor a wine with strong notes of vanilla (like the flavors found in American oak barrels) or balance undertones of subtle spices (like those found in French oak barrels). Since only a small portion of the wine actually comes in contact with the barrel, many winemakers have taken to adding oak chips, powders or staves to a wine to evenly distribute those subtle flavors (i.e., leather, roasted marshmallow, cinnamon, cloves, etc.) before being strained out after fermentation. 8. Powdered Tannins Tannins are found in the skins of the grape, and can add complexity to wine. The catch can be a bit tricky to manage between crushing, macerations, maturation, climate changes, and more that occurs during the winemaking process. Powdered tannins (a.k.a. oenological tannins) have been used to help add bitterness or balance out the wine early in the vinification process to help boost grapes particularly grown in the warmer regions of the world. 9. Yeast In wine making, yeast is the key ingredient that separates a glass of wine from a glass of grape juice. When oxygen is withheld from the grapes early on in the process, it’s the yeast that works to convert sugars into alcohol. 10. Non-Vegan Materials Although these fining agents and clarifiers aren’t used in all wines, they mainly appear in the organic wine segments or by artisan winemakers who are opposed to adding enzymes. Some of these materials include fish bladders, egg whites, bentonite clay, mammal proteins and plastics. Luckily, all are filtered out before the bottling begins. Even though wrapping your head around the label that’s wrapped around the bottle may seem daunting — and a little “spins” inducing in itself — a bit of knowledge and research as well as plenty of taste-testing will go a long way in helping you learn what ingredients and flavors you enjoy most in your wine. Cheers!
jivan beeharilall says April 26, 2017 at 8:03 am I got gout– is it permissable for me to drink red wine Reply
Marty says July 7, 2017 at 2:54 am whenever I drink wine, I develop a splitting headache after just half a glass, but I don’t get a headache when I drink an Asti Spumante, Why us that so, Is there something different in the wine that causes the headaches. Reply
Donna Stevenson says July 22, 2017 at 6:13 pm I’m allergic to aspirin in any form. If I drink red wine, I have the same reaction as if I had taken aspirin. What’s in the wine processing that could cause that? Reply
Carmen says February 22, 2018 at 7:28 pm 5 years ago I am not able to write ,because my hand shakes I do not have any medical problems. To make a long story short. When I drink red wine my hand writing is perfect , so I think there is some ingredient in the red wine the clames it What are the ingredients in red wine ?? Reply
Greer aSmith says April 3, 2020 at 9:45 am Carmen I believe the ingredient in red wine that helps you is the same ingredient that is found in Dark Chocolate. I believe it is the Polyphenols. POLYPHNOLS & Flavanols are POWERFUL and found naturally in antioxidients in foods like fruit, vegetables, tea, dark chocolate and red wine. Whenever I drink a merlot red wine or a Chianti red for a very bad feeling in my gut the merlot red removes it totally for that day and I believe it is the Polyphnols in the red wine. Do some study on this subject for yourself. Reply
Sam says March 21, 2018 at 6:24 pm I have to cut out wheat, eggs, dairy, soy, seafood and nuts for 8 weeks. Are there any of these known allergies in wine? Clearly not seafood but I’d have to cut out wine for 8 weeks! Reply
DP says July 21, 2020 at 11:16 am This is not true. Some vintners many years ago used to use egg whites to filter out sediments and then if was dithered out. I haven’t seen anyone doing this in 15 years. Most wines do not contain egg whites and I’ve never seen dairy in a winery ever. Reply
Ascospore says April 20, 2018 at 11:26 pm Hi there – just a couple of minor corrections if I may! Neither potassium sorbate nor potassium metabisulfite will be in your glass of wine! Potassium metabisulfite is added to the wine (as a powder) so that it will immediately disassociate into potassium ions (which are found naturally in grape juice in high concentrations, hence the need to remove them during cold stabilisation) and the all-important compound, sulfur dioxide. Like you say, it is the molecular, volatile form of SO2 (dissolved gas) that winemakers rely on to immobilise bacteria/spoilage yeasts and also destroy the oxidasive enzymes in grape cells that turn juice brown in presence of oxygen (and no, it doesn’t cause headaches in humans, that would likely be the ethanol). In the same way, when potassium sorbate is added to a wine it disassociates into potassium ions and the active compound sorbic acid which scavenges oxygen from the wine. Also, may I add – Potassium sorbate isn’t really used any more as an antioxidant for a couple of reasons. Firstly, sorbic does not repel microbial attack quite like sulfur dioxide does. For example, sorbic acid will gobble up oxygen during malo but it won’t inhibit the lactic acid bacteria as they de-acidify and stabilise the red wine over winter. Yes, this is a valuable property, but there’s a catch: Lactic acid bacteria metabolise sorbic acid during malo, and not only that, they produce an undesirable, flowery aroma compound in the wine as they do (geraniol). Furthermore, any remaining sorbic acid potentially undergoes further chemical changes in the wine after bottling (reportedly producing a celery flavour). Hence: if it can’t be added to a wine as an inert antioxidant, and it must be added to a finished wine in conjuction with sulfur dioxide (because it doesn’t share SO2’s antimicrobial properties) – plus it produces off-aromas – then you can see why winemakers avoid using it, especially when sulfur dioxide will solve all three problems. Finally – for the reason above, SO2 (potassium metabisulfite powder) is hardly ever added during the fermentation process; it will likely immobilise the yeast population, causing the ferment to stick (rescuing a ferment is an ugly business). Reply
Roymer says December 10, 2020 at 6:39 am I found this article interesting and confusing due to my lack of physics knowledge . However my problem is during my latter years I have developed drinking “cheaper “ red wine I suffer next morning with sneezing . I am advised that preservation of large Vats by some superstore providers is achieved by adding sulfite which into goes above the acceptable level which causes the SNEEZE ! Is this true and therefore would more expensive wine not over cook the Sulfite ! Reply
Melody Donovan says April 27, 2018 at 5:27 am I have always drank wine. Long ago it was a white spritzer and in the last 5 years red wines. I feel awful the next day after a party of say 4 glasses. We are all complaining about the bad effects wine is having on us and how quickly red wine makes us drunk. ( e.g. Half glass) Reply
Another Sentence For Good Morning says August 24, 2019 at 10:53 am we enjoy what you guys have posted here. don’t stop the super work! Reply
alex jacques says December 3, 2019 at 5:33 am what ingredients are added to making Australian wine Reply
chris says June 28, 2020 at 1:54 pm Ive been drinking 3 to 4 bottles of “Red Wine” a week for about 30 plus years without deviation, when all of the sudden I broke out into ( hives). It was a process of elimination to what my allergic reaction was. The rash look very similar to big” mosquito bites” spread out , and very itchy. I thought that’s what they were in the beginning, because they would appear the next day when I would wake up in the morning. Then I thought . I never felt being bit at night by any bug . After disinfecting my bed and all just to eliminate that possibility. I cracked open another bottle , and by the end of the day. Red blotches, my breathing started changing , and I was totally depressed knowing for sure it was in the Red Wine. How one could develop an allergy to it when for years I have been putting a few bottles away weekly. I will also note. I am guessing that it is the sulfates in the Red wine as my son had an allergic reaction to (Sulfa Antibiotics) which is somewhat synonymous to sulfates. which preserves the wine. One last note. I never had an allergy in my life until about 45 and I am 57 now. This is my second allergy . Next to being allergic to Wheat that started at 45. Im sure between Craft Beer and Wine they both have alot of ingredients. So there you have it. I find myself very limited. 🙁 Reply
kelly says July 29, 2020 at 12:38 pm i have a intolarats to wine wine! can i drink rose or red! Reply
David says November 30, 2020 at 11:58 am Ive been yearning to get the ingredients in wine making Reply
