Wine and health, it’s a trendy topic with marketing aimed squarely at our wishes for wine to be organic, gluten free, vegetarian, low in calories, or healthy. We can’t rely solely on label claims so I’ll briefly define and explain a few topics to aid in making informed wine purchases that fit specific dietary and moral preferences.
Dry farming means that only rainfall, no municipal water or stored rainwater, is allowed. This should, and usually does, mean the grower will choose the plot carefully to accommodate this restriction. Perhaps the land is flat to minimize run off, or on the correct side of a hill to maximize rainfall potential, or a foggy area to grab extra moisture. Definitions and regulations vary among countries and regions. As long as no municipal water is used, some areas allow for collection of either a limited or unlimited amount of rainwater to use later. Dry farming is about producing hearty and intense fruit. Not all grape varieties are suited for it, but the areas that require dry farming have adapted by using the appropriate fruits and the resulting wines can be absolutely gorgeous. Dry farming focuses on preserving the available water by minimizing runoff and removing weeds that use water. If you can’t add more, don’t waste what you have.
Organic farming regulations for certification vary wildly among countries and some regions are completely unregulated for this. Without regulations and inspections in place, the labels can state virtually anything. Consumers have varying ideas of what organic means. My definition of organic is no inorganic products added to the soil or sprayed on the plants and nothing but rainfall or collected rainwater to irrigate. (I prefer dry-farmed wines for their intensity, but water is not a factor in defining organic.) It can take pesticides 4---5 years to break down in the soil, so my definition includes that land either be left fallow (unplanted) for those years before attempting an organic crop of grapes or to grow crops adhering to organic standards for those years without terming them organic.
Organic wine is another topic completely. Truly organic wines do contain organic grapes, but organic grapes are not always processed into wine organically. While reviewing packaging, consider the country and its regulations, and that an organic stamp could mean either the full process or only the grapes.
Organic farming shouldn’t contain pesticides, but this likely means a few bugs are processed into the wine (or food) leaving a gray area since regulations often term that vegetarian, but many consumers do not. Grapes are vegetarian, without animal products or byproducts, by nature, but the processing of fining, clearing the wine of tiny particles, often uses egg whites, fish or animal bladders, gelatin, or bull’s blood, which was banned in EU and USA in 1997 in efforts to contain mad cow disease but is still in use in other countries and in wines processed before this date. There are ways to fine wine without animal products, such as clay and carbon, and many wineries do.
Gluten-free wine does exist but attention is needed if you have celiac disease (coeliac, British) and need to avoid gluten traces. Grapes are gluten free by nature, but storage barrels might have wheat paste binding their planks or wheat gluten might be used as the fining agent, which fits vegetarian standards, but is not gluten free. Gluten-free certifications vary by country. In the USA and EU, traces of gluten up to 20ppm are included in the definition of gluten-free products and this amount has caused reactions in celiac patients. Research is needed on your part before deciding if a marketed gluten-free wine is void of all gluten products.
Few things are trendier in the world of wine, and seemingly everywhere, than the search for a shortcut to health. Buzzwords include low-cal, sugar free, carb-free, skinny, or fitness. No wine is calorie-free. Calories in wine come from its alcohol and sugar. The percentages vary, but alcohol is a byproduct of the fermentation of sugar and this means that as sugar decreases alcohol increases, so the calories are there one way or the other. Yes, alcohol has slightly fewer calories by volume than sugar. Yes, some grapes have less sugar at harvest so the total achievable alcohol percentage is lower, but each of these scenarios presents variation by only 1 or 2 calories per ounce (average ounce of wine contains about 25 calories) and for a full glass of wine that equates to the calories in about ½ of a walnut. It’s virtually impossible to get every bit of sugar to ferment into alcohol. The standard definition of sugar-free wine, although loose and not regulated the same everywhere, still allows 1g/l. Even then, most wines are not made that dry since they aren’t very palatable at that point. No shortcut to be found here. Wine has calories, sugar, and carbohydrates.
Perhaps the most common subject regarding health and wine is the belief that wine is healthy due to its antioxidants. White wine does contain traces and red wine does contain a minimal amount of antioxidants, but wine is not high on the antioxidant chart and there are loads of foods and drinks higher in antioxidants that do not include alcohol.
Wine contains calories, carbohydrates, sugar, alcohol, and often animal byproducts. I’m not saying any of this is negative, as I’m pro wine all the way, but I am saying they are there. Many choose not to bring food dietary preferences into wine choices. For those that do, now you are aware of the leniency in these definitions and that research of label claims is required to determine if a product satisfies your preferences.
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