Your Guide to Real Wine
Real Wine comes from Farms not Factories
There is a lot of talk these days about "Ultra Processed Food", defined as - "industrially formulated edible substance derived from natural food or synthesized from other organic compounds. The resulting products are designed to be highly profitable, convenient, and hyperpalatable, often through food additives such as preservatives, colourings, and flavourings". Now that is a mouthful!
Did you know that the same principle applies to wine?
The vast majority of wine in the world comes from a handful of huge corporations whose goals are very different to a small family winemaker who grows their own grapes, makes their own wine and bottles on the vineyard (ensuring complete control over the quality and style of the wine).
We've broken down the key differences between real wine and the mass-produced stuff below.
Real Winemakers:
Grow the best grapes possible each year in the vineyard so that they can make the best wine in the winery.
Mass Producers:
To create an even taste at the lowest possible cost by technicians skilled in the manipulation of chemical formulations.
Have you noticed those big brand wines taste the same year in year out, no matter what the weather?
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Real Winemakers are often family farmers, who know their land and their vines. This allows them to make the best wines with a true and unique character. Mass Producers usually employ Eonologists (trained winemakers) to produce a formulation devised by technicians in a lab. This formulation will deliver a specific taste following market research carried out by the Marketing Team. |
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Real Wine is usually made in a winery on or close to the vineyard. Some might only produce a few thousand bottles per year (the equivalent of a few dozen barrels). Mass Producers can produce hundreds of millions of bottles per year. Some of these facilities are so big they can be seen from space! |
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Real wine farmers tend to grow native grape varieties that naturally thrive on their land. Often from very old vines (which produce the best grapes). Mass Producers often buy tankers of grape juice or bulk grapes. These come from highly mechanised and chemically controlled "vineyards" striving to produce the highest yield at the lowest cost. |
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Real Wines often gently hand-pick their grapes to ensure they are the best quality. Care is taken not to damage the grapes before the winemaking begins. Mass produced wines use machinery. Bits of leaves and stems can make it into the harvester. The machines can also damage grapes. |
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The sun, water, air and soil provide nourishment to the grape - naturally contributing to the taste of the wine. Real Winemaker intervene as little as possible in order to showcase the unique character of their grapes. Mass producers will manipulate the grapes to deliver a specific pre-ordained taste. High levels of preservatives are used to ensure minimum waste and maximum profits. Note: there are hundreds of chemical substances allowed by law to be used in winemaking but only sulphites have to be listed on the label. Why not all ingredients? |
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Real wine makers will sometimes age their wines in oak barrels for months (sometimes years) to gently enhance the flavour and aroma of the wine and soften tannins. Mass producers often add artificial flavourings or dip bags of "oak chips" into large tanks wine to cheaply and speedily mimic the taste (but not the real effect) of barrel aging. |
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Real Winemakers usually bottle their wines in the winery, ensuring maximum quality. Mass Producers often use additional preservatives to pump the wine into giant rubber bladders the size of shipping containers. These are shipped around the world to industrial bottling plants, where more preservation techniques are used. Many US, Chilean, Australian or NZ wines that reach Ireland are bottled in the UK. |
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We just how much more we enjoy real wine.
In fact, it was this reason that Tony (our Chief Wine Taster) got interested in real wine. He suffer from allergies, asthma, sinus and digestive issues (the poor thing) but began to notice a huge improvement in how he felt when sticking with real wine.
Tip - It's "real" wine if you can trace it back to the vineyard it comes from because...
Real Wine comes from farms, not factories.
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