The story of wine dates back centuries ago, when its production and culture was yet undefined. Back then, grapes were crushed and fermented in open clay vats, and after the separation of solid matter from the liquid, wine was ready for consumption. In those days, wine was made naturally. Of course, the result was so unbalanced and unprotected that – if not drunk – it went off within a few months.
It is unclear how early winemakers discovered the preservative qualities of sulphur, but it is well-documented that by 100 B.C., Roman winemakers often burned sulphur wicks inside their barrels to help prevent the wine from spoiling.
The year 1487 marked a turning point in the history of good winemaking. In that year, a Prussian royal decree officially permitted the use of the wine additive sulphur dioxide (or SO2) for the first time. In the 16th century, Dutch traders found that only wine treated with sulphur could survive the long sea voyages without turning into vinegar, and sulphite additions quickly became a universal winemaking tool in Europe .
For centuries, wine was thought to evolve through a mysterious practice with no real understanding of its true underlying science. French chemist Louis Pasteur, among many discoveries relating to his germ theory of diseases, first proposed and proved, in 1857, that wine is made by microscopic organisms, yeasts. This led to discovering different yeast types and properties and ultimately to better hygiene, less spoilage and greater efficiency in wine production.
Ever since, winemakers have learnt a lot about how to control the winemaking process to ensure better and more consistent results. The role of preservatives and additives is to ensure that the wine remains stable and tastes clean, fresh and palatable for its entire lifetime. Winemakers have been adding stuff to wine for ages. Cultured yeast, malolactic bacteria and several fining agents have become common practice for winemakers. Technology has continued to produce other additives dedicated to intensifying colour, flavour, aroma and structure.
Industry claims that wine is a natural product that contains nothing more than what comes from the grapes. The wine industry may insist that the wine available on supermarket shelves is wholly a natural product, but the fact is that many manufacturers make use of a variety of ingredients in wine production other than those juicy grapes that one sees in advertisements. In a bid to boost profits, some wine is apparently so industrially processed that one could call it an “alcoholic cola”. However, what differentiates “fine” wine from others are various facts and factors that go into its making. For winemakers and consumers, no one topic is more debated than wine additives. For the purists, to “adjust” any wine is a transgression. For the large winery, treating wine to produce “branded” results is unquestionably a matter of necessity.
Once upon a time, nobody worried much about what was in a glass of wine. All that was necessary to be declared was the amount of alcohol in it and while this was a prerequisite, it did not concern us too much whether it was 11% or 14%. If you go back as far as 30 years ago, the alcohol percentage was not even listed on most labels. As for all the other components of wine, most consumers were unconcerned. However, times have changed. A new generation of well-informed consumers have become interested in what is actually in the stuff they put in their mouths, and some have become downright obsessive about it. People want to know if the wine they drink is good for them and if it is made in an environmentally acceptable way. A handful of wine scandals, the most infamous back in the mid-80s involving some innovative Austrian winemakers putting anti-freeze in their product, have fed the obsession.
Currently, beyond the all-important grapes, there is a tightly controlled list of permissible additives and processing aids considered to be beneficial to wine quality and free of harm. The way these substances are used is strictly regulated and the penalties for transgression are quite severe. Overall, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) has allowed the wine industry to use more than 50 different flavourings, additives, preservatives and agents. In essence, additions to the list reflect advances over time in winemaking practices and technology. The procedures that lead to their inclusion to the list should ensure they are safe, are not “wine foreign”, that processing aids do not leave undesirable residue and that the method of removal does not alter the substance of the wine.
Each country has systems in place to monitor wine throughout the winemaking process. EU laws require wineries to keep records of all winemaking activities and to run analyses at the bottling stage. However, according to current EU directives, wine producers do not have to list ingredients on the label, and thus most of them prefer not to. For example, it is not mandatory to list on a label preservatives, antioxidants, flavourings and colourings in the wine.
It is acknowledged that climate, soil, fertilization, irrigation and time of harvest can yield different flavours from a single variety of grape. The flavour can also change according to when the grapes are picked, their ripeness and inherent amount of sugar and acidity and how they are processed at the winery. Factors such as special pressing processes where attention is paid to minimising oxidation and preserving the skins and phenolic bitterness, the length of fermentation and level of associated temperature, the amount of foreign additives required for clarification, stabilization and preservation of the wine. The more you get right in the vineyard, the fewer adjustments are necessary in the cellar.
However, it is also acknowledged that a number of winemakers add substances to their wine which they do not openly discuss because they are unique winemaking trade secrets that result in a particular style of wine. This leads to the thorny question that is at the heart of many of the most passionate debates in winemaking circles – just how much secrecy and manipulation is acceptable?
There is no simple answer. It is a grey area and any attempt to alter permissible levels of manipulation is an impossible task. There is a lot of debate concerning the use of wine additives, particularly the newer ones like enzymes and tannins. Consumers want to find out what has gone into the wine, learn how they are used and to what effect. Producers seem hesitant to disclose exactly how their wines are made. Perhaps they are afraid to shatter the popular conception is that wine is a relatively “natural”, additive-free product. The winemaker’s tool kit is full of legitimate modern techniques.
Take yeast, which is needed to get fermentation going. In the old days, wineries relied on natural airborne yeasts to start the ferment. That was notoriously unreliable and often resulted in disaster. Most wineries today use a wide variety of cultured yeasts, specifically manufactured to help the winemaker control the ferment and get the desired results. The high temperatures in a number of countries often result in super-ripe grapes full of natural sugars. Without the addition of some natural acid, the wines would be sweet and flabby and lack structure and balance in such climates. Some ingredients that are added, like egg whites, activated carbon and bentonite used in fining, eventually sink to the bottom of the barrel and are removed in the winemaking process. The addition of sugar to raise alcohol levels in fermentation is a common practice in some countries, although most countries ban it, insisting only natural sugars from grapes is permissible.
The mission of the winemaker is to master the art of using the best help available to make the best wine possible. Even if you have great grapes, you can always make them better by ensuring a kind of balance to the wine and improve upon what the grape may provide. There are tools available in the hands of the winemaker to achieve his objectives. These can be classified in terms of first, the components from the grape itself – alcohol, acid, tannins, flavours, colours, traces of minerals and enzymes – and in second place, but of equal importance, are the additives and processing aids which facilitate the clarification, stabilisation and long-term ageing of the wine in the bottle.
In recent years, the label on a bottle of wine has undergone more regulatory and creative scrutiny than perhaps any label on any other commodity. Any new label must pass from the Wine Products Council that controls wine production as well as the various government agencies controlling importation and sale in every country where the wine is distributed. However, the pressing question is whether the compulsory ingredient labelling of wines actually removes the possibility of adding illegal substances?
It is apparent that producers who are adding illegal substances to their wine are unlikely to advertise the fact on their label. In addition, there are substances that are used for wine processing such as casein, bentonite, PVPP and carbon that eventually are removed or filtered out and do not have to be declared on the label. Furthermore, labelling of sulphur content as opposed to merely stating that the wine in question contains sulphites would not be practicable. Existing regulations are based on the total sulphur content, but it is the free sulphur which is offensive and this is measured at the time of bottling. However over time, the free sulphur component changes and by the time it is actually consumed, its quantity is reduced.
It should be clarified here that using additives in winemaking and adulteration and fraud are two different things. The wine trade has been marked with fraud throughout its history. The variability and value of wine have traditionally made it a target for unscrupulous operators, as catalogued in the literature of wine. The long human chain stretching from grower to consumer affords many opportunities for illegal practices. It is important to remember, however, that at various times the law has viewed the same practices differently, sometimes condoning, sometimes condemning them. What we today know as adulteration, our ancestors may have classed as a legitimate part of the winemaking process.
The simplest and most obvious form of adulterating wine is to add water. This is not necessarily fraudulent. In Ancient Greece, for example, no civilized man would dream of drinking undiluted wine, and even today, wine made from extremely ripe grapes may achieve better balance if slightly diluted. The practice becomes illegal when done surreptitiously to cheat the consumer.
Another means of stretching wine is to “cut” or blend it with spirits or other (usually poorer quality) wines. Bordeaux merchants in the 18th century cut fine clarets with rough, stronger wine imported from Spain , the Rhone, or the Midi to increase profits, but also because it was genuinely believed that the resulting fuller-bodied concoction was more to the English taste. Similarly, merchants in 18th century began to adulterate port with brandy. The systematization of this process by the Portuguese government eventually led to an accepted method of “adulteration” lawful to produce port as we know it today. One particular method of altering the nature of wine remains controversial; the addition of sugar during fermentation to increase the eventual alcoholic strength, known as chaptalization after the French minister Chaptal, who gave it respectability at the beginning of the 19th century.
Wines were also fabricated from raisins. In the 1880s and 1890s, the disease of phylloxera led to a serious shortage of wine in France . In response, a thriving industry manufacturing wine from imported raisins sprang up on the Mediterranean coast. During the American Prohibition in the 1920s, various methods were contrived to circumvent the law by producing wines at home from raisins, dried grape “bricks” and tinned grape concentrate (using techniques common to home wine-making today). Although other fruits were often the basis of these concoctions, “wine” was sometimes completely manufactured from a mixture of water, sugar, dyes, and other chemicals, as has reputedly (and mysteriously in an era of wine surplus) been known in more recent times.
One of the most common forms of fraud does not involve any doctoring or fabricating of the wine, but merely the label. Once a region made a name for its wines, others tried to steal it. From the 19th century, vine-growers have fought for the legal apparatus to protect their names.
Illegal practices frequently hurt the grower and merchant. Once the reputation of a wine has been jeopardized, economic hardship may result. The flagrant adulteration of port in the 18th century resulted in a rapid and dramatic fall in demand. The Portuguese government stepped in and formed a state company to control the trade.
Consumers, growers, and merchants are not alone in trying to prevent adulteration and fraud. Local authorities and governments have fought it. Regulations and legislation have been passed for many reasons: to protect the consumer, to preserve the good name of the local wine, or to facilitate taxation.
In medieval London , it was illegal for tavern owners to keep French or Spanish wines in the same cellar as those from Germany to prevent mixing or substitution. A vintner found selling corrupt wine was forced to drink it, then banned from the trade. German punishments of the time were more severe, ranging from beatings and branding to hanging.
In France , between 1870 and 1914, the business world was very concerned with the increase in “fraud” and “counterfeiting” in beverages and foodstuffs. Certain Australian estates had added tannins to its wines, blended red wines with unfermented grape juice and used silver nitrate to eliminate the smell of hydrogen sulphide. Although it appears that no health and safety implications are involved, the practice of adding tannins to colour wine is illegal. Australia ’s success in the market is in some respects due to winemaking “tricks” such as irrigation and the use of additives, both of which are considered illegal practices in the EU.
Italy produces more wine than France or Spain , yet has fewer vineyards than either country. There is speculation that the reason for this phenomenon – the very considerable amount of Italy ’s wine production – is that racketeers have bedevilled the country’s important wine industry by ingeniously simulating the taste, bouquet and appearance of every known type of Italian wine. Using a grizzly variety of waste materials and chemicals, wine is made in as little as eight hours. It is then sold as fake brew to unsuspecting Italians and tourists as the real “vino”.
In a recent investigation at the luxury end of wine, 600,000 bottles of vintage Brunello di Montalcino have been seized by investigators who suspect that Italian winemakers used grapes other than Sangiovese, the only ingredient allowed in the Tuscan wine. The mixing of other grape varieties into Brunello, while posing no health risk, could dent its reputation in valuable export markets.
In 2004, a winery in South Africa was found to have added illegal flavouring to their Sauvignon Blanc to enhance the aroma. Viticultural studies have focused on how aroma compounds develop in the grapes during the annual growth cycle of the vine and how viticultural techniques, such as canopy management, may contribute to developing desirable aromatics in the wine.
Although once rife, adulteration and fraud have been considerably rarer in the wine trade since the adoption of controlled appellation systems, however there have been examples of contaminants in wine, both deliberate and accidental. In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult and, just possibly, less rewarding as wine consumers become ever more sophisticated and more concerned with inherent wine quality than the hierarchy of famous names. Consumers may with justification feel that the wine trade has attracted more than its fair share of charlatans because fraud in any field in which expertise is difficult to acquire and viewed with suspicion (such as wine and fine art) attracts more media attention than most other types of commercial fraud.
Despite all the controls and regulations, as recent incidents have revealed, it is all too easy for wine to be less than natural. Wine bears the dual weight of romantic imagery and consumer demands for consistent quality. So while a range of additives and processing aids may be used to produce great wine, it is important not to lose sight of the end game. Winemakers aim to make the best wine possible and carefully consider each step of the process.
Wine laws exist in virtually all wine producing regions or countries that outline which sorts of manipulations are acceptable and which are not. The danger with too much technology is that it gives winemakers too many tools to manufacture their wines in such a way that all wines begin to taste alike, and variations in vintage and terroir expression could eventually diminish.
Grapes have a direct relationship to the soil and location they come from. Part of the appeal of wine is that it is a “natural” product, rich in culture and local tradition. Consequently, all additives and processing aids should be judiciously used and closely monitored. A sensible winemaking policy is only to add something if not adding it is going to compromise wine quality, and then only add as little as possible.
Wine News and Information
Tina, Nancy and Frank Sinatra Jr. are banking on the fact that 2007 was a “very good year” (possibly even a classic one) for Napa Cabernet as they announce the launch of the Sinatra Family Estates Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, made in partnership with winemakers John Schwartz and Danielle Price. Unlike some other celebrity wine packagers (we’re looking at you, Rolling Stones and Savanna Samson), the winemakers have shown a rare level of restraint with the bottle’s label, choosing to print the phrase “Come Fly With Me,” rather than a clichéd image of the late crooner. The wine is only available in six-bottle cases, and each case includes a recording of Sinatra’s 1957 Come Fly With Me album. Eagle-eyed celebrity wine watchers will note that this isn’t the first wine to capitalize on Sinatra’s enduring legacy, though the Cab Frank Sinatra California 2001 (whose winemakers are not involved with the current Sinatra wine project) was rated just 77 points in a Wine Spectator blind tasting.
• On 3 October, Greenpeace volunteers will bare all in a Burgundy vineyard to raise awareness about the effects of global warming on winegrowing. According to the organization, each year vintners have to deal with increasingly early harvest dates, hailstorms and heat waves, all brought about by climate change. The symbolic event will be immortalized by New York-based photographer Spencer Tunick who has staged mass nude artworks worldwide over the past 15 years. The owner of the vineyard, yet to be publicly revealed, is fond of Tunick’s work and has even participated in one of his living sculptures in Lyon back in 2005. “As an artist, many of my experiences viewing art in galleries and museums have been connected to the party and social gathering, intertwined with the consumption of wine for pleasure,” said Tunick. “Bringing attention to wine will bring attention to other vegetation that is being affected by climate change in other areas.”
• Apparently, there’s a reason moderate drinkers are happy to have a glass or two of wine per night, according to a new study published in the medical journal Addiction. On the other hand, the research found that abstaining from alcohol is associated with an increased risk of depression. Scientists from health centres and psychiatry institutes in Norway and England looked at data from more than 38,000 individuals who provided information on drinking habits and mental health as part of the former country's Nord-Trøndelag Health Study. After looking over the information, the scientists noticed that non-drinkers were 34% more likely to report feelings of anxiety and 52% more likely to report feelings of depression than those who drink alcohol in moderation. Abstainers (former drinkers who have quit) are even more likely to get depressed, they report. The U.K.-based press release did offer some insight, theorizing “in societies where some use of alcohol is the norm, abstinence may be associated with being socially marginalized or particular personality traits that may also be associated with mental illness.”
Monolithos Monthly News
September and October are the busiest months for the wine villages of Cyprus . Many vineyards are in the middle of harvest season and all wineries are busy with receiving, crushing, pressing and fermenting the year’s fruit. As all volunteer pickers who kindly offered their help to our winery for this year’s harvesting will admit, this is a back-breaking, hand-intensive labour. However it is one of the most important factors influencing the quality of the wine.
The day starts just before sunrise. Harvesting is done when it’s cool. So, that means that the grapes are picked early in the morning by hand. Unripe and damaged fruit is left in the vineyard. The fruit is then transported directly to the winery as quickly as possible to avoid any undesirable oxidation of the grape juice that can occur once it has been exposed to air. They then go into a crusher/de-stemmer that removes the stems, leaves, etc. from the grapes. The winemaker makes sure that the grapes go through fermentation and that the whole process goes smoothly. It is a busy time, so it is typical to be working at the vineyard and the winery from early morning to past midnight. We at Monolithos are most grateful to the various groups of pickers for their valuable help, as well as for the social gathering which followed with talking, joking, laughing and, best of all, feeling fulfilled with the knowledge that we had accomplished a job well done.
Over the past 10 years, we at Monolithos Winery have established that the role of the grape grower and winemaker constitutes a synergistic continuum. Quality improvements can only be realised by a feedback loop between winemakers and growers. Hard work and experiments in the winery have informed growers about which are the most suitable varietals grown at different sites, resulting in a profound improvement in fruit quality and consequently wine quality. This communication has provided us with new options, such as our recent wine additions of Shiraz and Merlot. Of course, certain attributes depend on the vintage year. In a great year, the grapes, must and fermented juice are treated as gently and as little as possible and the job at the winery is less stressful.
However, independently of the year, it is widely acknowledged that the winemaker can have a great influence over the final product. This is easy to verify. If you ever taste five or six wines made from basically identical fruit from the same location, you will discover that differences can be profound. Style matters. All six wines can be equally good, but most likely you will have strong preferences based on winemaking style.
Concluding, next time you have a glass of wine, remember all the hard work that goes into cultivating, pruning, inspecting, weeding, spraying, managing a vineyard, harvesting, crushing, pressing and processing the wine until the final product is in your glass.
Currently, all tanks at the winery are full and fermentation is nearly completed. All wines of the 2008 vintage are available. If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or sample any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995.
Regards from all of us here at Monolithos and always remember:
"A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover."
Clifton Fadiman
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