From Grape to Glass: Uncovering the Conventional Winemaking Process

It’s a Friday night. I finished all of my classes and work for the week. I’m ready to relax and uncork a bottle of wine. I journey to the giant alcohol section at my local Kroger, searching for the perfect bottle. I see signage designating sections of reds, whites, Merlot, Zinfandel, and Sauvignon blanc. The options are overwhelming for someone who turned 21 a mere year ago. With sparse labeling, I am left to my own devices when figuring out what is in each bottle. I could try something new, but the $3 bottle of Bay Bridge Moscato is just too tempting.

As a college student on a budget, I initially saw no problems with a $3 bottle of mass-produced wine. I can make any wine feel fancy by drinking it out of my hand-painted wine glass. However, I began to wonder how Bay Bridge can make their wines so cheaply. What was in the wine I regularly consume and was there a whole other world of better-produced wines that I was missing? As it turns out, I was missing out on one of the largest trends in the wine industry today: organic, biodynamic, and natural wines. Each category signifies a different process for making wine, but all of them involve fewer chemicals than conventional wine growing and making.

Some of your favorite wines probably do not come from oak barrels, but stainless steel vats where various chemicals are added to create the same-tasting wine, every time. Conventional winemakers like the high-tech process. The consistency of the wine pleases customers and wine critics who can make or break a winery’s reputation. However, this science-driven process has its critics as well, mostly winemakers committed to the natural and organic winemaking process. No matter what kind of wine you consume, the labeling on the bottle can be misleading, as conventional wine producers provide little information about their winemaking process. The information asymmetry leaves wine drinkers in the dark about what they are actually uncorking and ultimately works to the benefit of wine producers.

Deceptive process, deceptive labeling

To understand the growing popularity of organic, biodynamic and natural wines, you first need some background on the winemaking process.

According to the International Wine Club, a wine delivery service, the first step in the process is hand-picking or removing the grapes via machine, with the stems still intact. Natural wine grapes are often hand-picked. For non-organic wines, the grapes can be treated with a variety of pesticides or herbicides prior to being harvested. The grapes can also come from several different farms thousands of miles away. Machines handle much of the work in the second step, destemming and crushing the grapes. Red grapes are lightly crushed and go straight into a vat to begin fermentation along with the grape skin (International Wine Club, n.d.). The grape skin gives red wine its red color. White grapes go through a filtration process that removes sediment, or pomace before fermentation starts. With the skins removed, the white wine keeps its white color.

Science and technology play a key role in the fermentation step for mass-produced wines. The winemaker adds yeast to the vats of grape juice, which turns the sugar into alcohol. To age the wine, a conventional winemaker will most likely use tannin powder and oak chips to mimic the aging effects of oak barrels. There are many wine additives used by conventional winemakers, the most common being sulfites, which remove undesirable yeasts and bacteria. The United States has a sulfite limit of 100 parts per million (ppm) for organic wine, whereas conventional wines can contain up to 350 ppm. Additives stabilize the wine with various chemicals to create the desired taste, smell, and color. Every bottle will be identical. American journalist Rachel Signer toured a factory producing high quantities of wine and wrote about her findings in an article for the website VinePair. She was shocked to learn that the factory churned out about 137,000 bottles per day, while some European winemakers produced around 60,000 bottles per year (Signer, 2016). Signer was also surprised that the factory resembled more of a laboratory, with the staff wearing bright green lab coats (Signer, 2016).

Many wine labels show pictures of sprawling vineyards and oak barrels in a wine cellar; a very different process than conventional winemaking. The misleading iconography on a bottle of wine can be confusing for consumers who have little knowledge of where the wine comes from. Additionally, wine is not required to have a label listing the nutrition facts. In an article about the lack of nutrition labeling on wine, Vox writer Joseph Stromberg found that the average American who regularly drinks alcohol consumes 400 calories from alcohol every day. Winemakers are only required to reveal the alcohol content in their wine and disclose whether it contains sulfites or additives that give the wine color (Stromberg, 2014). This lack of labeling further leaves consumers in the dark about what they are actually drinking.

 Meet your alternatives to conventional wine

Prior to my research, I assumed wine was supposed to taste the same every time and season. However, wine, like other fruits and vegetables, can taste different depending on the season, the harvest time, the grapes’ region, and many other factors. The natural wine movement embraces the inherent differences in every bottle of wine. Hannah Selinger explores the differences in natural, organic, and biodynamic wine in an article for Wine Enthusiast Magazine. Natural wine, as defined by Selinger, is wine fermented spontaneously with native yeast containing very small amounts of added sulfites. The native yeast adds to natural wine’s inconsistent taste. Natural“Anytime I taste a wine that has nothing distinctive about the place or the climate, I call that deception.” Roger Boulton  wine calls for as little intervention on the winemaker’s part as possible. Many wine enthusiasts believe that the low-intervention process of natural winemaking is how wine is meant to be created. A 2001 New York Times article captured the debate about natural vs. conventional wines. In the article, professor of viticulture and enology Roger B. Boulton commented, “Anytime I taste a wine that has nothing distinctive about the place or the climate, I call that deception,” (Feiring, 2001). In addition to a more natural taste, natural wine is also better for the environment (Selinger, 2021). The grapes for natural wine are not treated with harmful pesticides and herbicides. Natural wine can also be better for the land, as the grapes are grown not for quantity but with quality in mind and an appreciation for the soil.

Biodynamic wine growing involves no chemicals and a holistic view of the farm ecosystem. The biodynamic farmer organizes their work by fruit days for harvesting grapes, root days to prune, leaf days to water, and flower days where the vineyard is left alone (Selinger, 2021). Laura Cleary is the vineyard manager at Oliver Winery in Bloomington, Indiana. Prior to starting at Oliver in August, Cleary worked in a biodynamic winery in New Zealand. Cleary said biodynamic farmers believe that certain farming practices are more effective during certain lunar phases. Biodynamic farmers also use unconventional pest control and maintenance practices, like having dogs that sniff out grape diseases or sheep that eat weeds. Cleary said she had trouble trusting the biodynamic process at first but ultimately learned a lot from it. “I saw it to be very effective and it worked in the applications in those vineyards, so I think if it’s working for them, there’s no need to implement the use of conventional chemicals. They’re very costly and require a whole other level of studying and inspection,” Cleary said. Organizations like Demeter Association Inc. offer certification for biodynamic wines. Biodynamic wines are often also organic, so they may have the USDA-certified organic label as well.

Even though Oliver’s wines are conventional, Cleary said she still uses organic and biodynamic practices in Oliver’s Creekbend Vineyard. For example, Cleary implemented in-row cover cropping to prevent weeds and erosion in the vineyard. Cleary said erosion is an emerging problem at the vineyard. “We have some 40-year-old vines, but why are some of them not making it to that age?… Are organic and biodynamic vineyards more sustainable is the question I think a lot of people are asking,” Cleary said. Cleary’s approach is to ensure that the vines produce high-quality fruit and stay healthy for as long as possible.

A growing trend?

Natural, organic, and biodynamic wines are slowly becoming more popular in the U.S. and around the globe. Restaurant chefs often form connections with natural winemakers and Kourtney Kardashian recently published an article on natural wine for her blog Poosh. The growing trend can be quantified by a report done by the International Wine and Spirits Record, published in a Forbes article: “the global table wine market will reach 2.43 billion cases [in 2022];  87.5 million cases will be organic wine,” (Pellechia, 2019). With all of the benefits and popularity of natural, organic, and biodynamic wines, why are more Americans not uncorking these bottles? One reason could be continued misconceptions regarding organic and natural wines. New York Times Wine Critic Eric Asimov explored these misconceptions in his 2007 article “When the Wine is Green.” When organic wine was first introduced, it simply did not taste as good, turning many consumers away from it (Asimov, 2007). Natural wine faced consumer rejection as well, as it often appears cloudy and contains some sediment due to the less-involved winemaking process. The cloudiness can lead consumers to believe that the wine is not “clean,” even though natural wine is treated with far fewer chemicals than conventional. The growing popularity of organics has increased the demand for alternatives to conventional wine. While these alternatives may never rise to meet the demand of American wine drinkers, they can provide a good option for those seeking wine the way it is meant to taste.

So I don’t want to spend a fortune on wine. How do I find a good bottle?

After diving into the world of natural, organic, and biodynamic wines, I embarked on a mission to explore the wine alternatives available to me in Bloomington, Indiana. I first journeyed to my local Kroger, sure that the huge alcohol section would have some alternatives to conventional wine. I looked through the aisles for twenty minutes and came up empty. A quick search on the Kroger website showed that the supermarket only sold five different bottles of organic wine, and I could not find any natural wines. Undeterred, I drove to Fresh Thyme, a grocery store focusing on organic and natural products. Again, I could not find anything. Even the organic wine section was slim, with some popular conventional wine brands like Barefoot mixed in with the few organic selections.

Upon further reflection, my search was disappointing but ultimately not surprising. I live in a small college town in the Midwest, where there may not be as much demand for alternatives to mass-produced wine. It can also be difficult to find natural wine in general. There is no official certification for natural wine and the wine community still argues over its exact definition. Organic and biodynamic certifications can be daunting for small family wineries, as the process can be expensive. If you want to start exploring the world of wine, Cleary suggested tapping into your local market by visiting a wine shop or signing up for a tasting at your local winery. “I think it’s really cool to see whatever it is that you’re drinking, where it’s made. I’m passionate about that because I’m in the field, but I also think being able to visit a local winery and then buying their wares is really cool,” Cleary said.

As a college student on a budget, I understand that trying new wine can be expensive. I would recommend educating yourself about the wine you drink and where it comes from. After a lot of Googling, I found very little information on my go-to $3 bottle of Bay Bridge Moscato. I did discover that it is produced by wine conglomerate The Wine Group LLC, which also produces wine under brand names like Franzia and Cupcake Wines. My cheap wine was likely not coming from the rolling vineyards in northern California I pictured every time I picked up the bottle. Although I wish there was more information available to consumers online, the lack of information about this wine said enough for me. The next time I head over to the grocery store after a long week, I will search for wine produced by local businesses or wines with the USDA organic label.

“I really feel like wine should be for everyone and there’s a place for everyone at that table.” Laura Cleary

Wine is more than adult fruit juice. It is reflective of the climate, culture, and labor of different regions around the world. We all play a part in the wine industry and can call for wine that is better for the environment, better labeling on bottles, and increased selections of wine throughout the U.S. The wine industry and wine itself can be intimidating with the lack of information available. Cleary noted that “wine has this air about itself that makes it kind of inadmissible for people,” and said, “I really feel like wine should be for everyone and there’s a place for everyone at that table.” Step out of your comfort zone and try a glass of organic, natural, or biodynamic wine. Buying one bottle can open your eyes to a whole new world of wine, and you may even find that you enjoy it more than your favorite cheap bottle.

REFERENCES

Asimov, E. (2007, April 25). When the wine is green. The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/dining/25pour.html?_r=1&.

Feiring, A. (2001, August 26). Business; for better or worse, winemakers go high tech. The New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/26/business/business-for-better-or-worse-winemakers-go-high-tech.html?searchResultPosition=6.

Pellechia, T. (2019, April 17). A recent report takes a look at the global future for organic wine. Forbes. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomaspellechia/2019/04/16/a-recent-report-takes-a-look-at-the-global-future-for-organic-wine/?sh=2b15834333b4.

Selinger, H. (2021, February 9). What’s the difference between organic and biodynamic wine? Wine Enthusiast. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://www.winemag.com/2019/09/10/whats-the-difference-between-organic-and-biodynamic-wine/.

Signer, R. (2016, June 9). Go inside a factory that churns out 50 million bottles of wine every year. VinePair. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://vinepair.com/wine-blog/heres-what-its-like-inside-the-factory-where-cheap-bulk-wine-is-made/.

Stromberg, J. (2014, November 12). This is why alcohol doesn’t come with nutrition facts. Vox. Retrieved December 9, 2021, from https://www.vox.com/2014/11/12/7195573/alcohol-nutrition.

The International Wine of the Month Club. (n.d.). Wine making process: How to make wine: Wine of the month club. The International Wine of the Month Club. Retrieved December 9, 2021, from https://www.winemonthclub.com/the-wine-making-process.