What is actually in wine?

You can read what's in it on the packaging of all foods Only not on the label of wine. Is it really just fermented grape juice or maybe something more than that? Since December 2023, a European law has ensured that we can finally check this on the label.
Text: Petri Houweling | Image: Shutterstock

The book The New French Wine is in the spotlight this edition (check out the win action here). In it, there is a nice piece of history on how and why people ever came up with laws and rules when it comes to wine. Because these determine, among other things, which grape or blend of grapes goes into which wine. This has been the case since the late 1800s. The reason the laws were put in place was because there was massive tampering with this drink. It was mainly to make money. Back then, wine was also sold based on its origin. But there was no guarantee that what was on the label corresponded to reality.

The history behind the wine law

Trading houses had their own recipes for making the kind of wine that was easy to sell. This became especially evident during the Phylloxera disaster (see box) Because despite the fact that production had virtually ceased, the wine tap remained open. The wine, with some desirable flavour adjustments, turned out to come from areas that had not yet been affected such as Algeria. An 1889 law stipulated that wine had to be made from fresh grapes, but no word on the origin. In the year 1907 came an amendment that, among other things, required farmers to pass on the yield of their land. That way, they could not sell more than they produced.

Guidelines

Provenance was not really talked about seriously until 1908 under the influence of Joseph Capus, a French agronomist and pioneer of the concept of terroir. He declared that mediocre grapes or mediocre soils produced wines that, while guaranteed to have a provenance, were also equally mediocre in quality. This criticism was taken to heart and, since 1919, the AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protégée) has been a reality. This stipulates that wines originating from a certain region must be made from prescribed grape varieties. This involved looking at the characteristics of those varieties and where they would be best. Furthermore, legally defined production conditions must be met. For example, that a maximum number of hectolitres per hectare is produced, and whether or not irrigation is allowed. There are also guidelines for vinification, and so on. All this is strictly controlled. Only when these requirements are met are you allowed to put the AOP classification on the label.

Wine used to be a
excellent product to
hugely fiddly

Around the year 1890, phylloxera devastated almost all vineyards in Europe. The vines died off and only after years of research did they find out that Phylloxera vastatrix, or phylloxera, was responsible for this. This aphid makes tiny wounds in the roots, causing them to lose juice and no longer absorb water and minerals. Through the wounds, fungi and other infectious diseases invade and the plant dies. The phylloxera was found to be carried on American vines to England. After more than 20 years of research and 2.5 million hectares of devastated vineyards, they found the solution by grafting American rhizomes onto European grape varieties. This is still done today.

Want to read more? You can do so in WINELIFE Magazine edition 89. You can order this here. 

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