Are we being duped by the Australian wine industry? There has been some discussion in the industry regarding the use of additives such as Mega Purple to bolster or enhance sensory attributes such as color, taste and mouth feel. It is reported that as much as 20% of the total production of such additives is related to wines. According to journal reports, Mega Purple or Mega Red is used by almost every low to moderate value wine producer ,below $20, to help standardise the bottled product ensuring a more uniform product.
Not only are they able to dilute their wines by up to 10%, thus decreasing the alcohol levels, they are also able to label alcohol levels on their wines with a tolerance of 1.5% compared to NZ and Europe of 0.5%.
I sincerely hope that New Zealand wine producers do not follow suit and start adding colourings to their wines, if they are not already doing so.
Wine for me is a natural product and although Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris are stripped of everything grapelike by some wineries, especially the larger ones, red wine should remain untouched. With food we have seen a shift to more natural/organic sources we have seen a trend in the opposite direction in the wine industry. As prices continue to drop producers are increasingly using underhand techniques to make wine. The amount of additives in wine would alarm most people. When one has poor fruit and it is machine harvested the amount of Sulphur Dioxide added to the fruit increases. Handpicked fruit requires far less additional Sulphur to be added and generally those that hand harvest look after their fruit throughout the year.
For better wines try and find wines where the fruit is handpicked and for those that suffer from Sulphur allergies this should make drinking wine more pleasurable.
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