Clean Wine – Is It Better? Or a Scam?

Wine Is Good. Clean Wine Must Be Even Better!

 

April 2021

 

 

I love wine. (Glass recycling bins love me – I keep them very busy). So when I heard about “clean wine”, I wanted to know more. Could clean wine be more sustainable than “normal” wine? If so, that’s great! Does it mean that other wine is “dirty”? Yikes!

So I researched it.

It took a while. (And some hands-on research, obviously).

Here’s what I found out.  (This might save several hours of your time).

What Is Clean Wine?

headache home remedies migraine wine triggerMany consumer products are called “clean”. It’s not regulated in any way. It’s simply a marketing term. You’ll probably have seen “clean” stamped on snacks, smoothies and more.

“Clean” IMPLIES that the product is more natural (yes, that’s another vague and unregulated term). It might imply perhaps that’s it’s free from artificial additives.

It may imply that, but it’s not necessarily true.

I could sell a bottle of petroleum, and label it “clean”. If I wanted to. Which I don’t. The label might say “clean”, but the contents certainly aren’t.

So, clean wine can be anything the sellers want it to mean.

The frustrating part is that it doesn’t help us consumers at all.

  • There might be transparency about ingredients (it’s not necessary to list the ingredients in a bottle of wine). That could be good – but even clean wine doesn’t always list all the ingredients.
  • There might be “no unnecessary additives” – but who decides which additives are necessary? Clean doesn’t mean that either.
  • And lots of additives are permitted in wine-making. (Although some additives are allowed in the US that aren’t allowed in Europe. Grape concentrate, for example, is added to some US some mass-market red wines e.g. Mega Purple, to give extra colour and sweetness. It’s illegal to add concentrate in the EU, where nothing can be added that changes the essential nature of a wine).

Does Clean Wine Prevent Hangovers?

That’s the implication!

Take a look at Clean Wine’s website and you’ll see “we won’t let anything pass our lips that we know will make us feel bad, today or tomorrow.”

That sounds great! It seems to imply that their clean wine won’t give you a headache or hangover. Perhaps because of supposedly lower levels of sulphides, I don’t know.

But wine is alcohol! And if you drink too much alcohol, you will probably become dehydrated and have a headache or hangover.

Maybe the after-effects might not be so bad if your “clean wine” has fewer additives, which MIGHT  make it easier for your body to process. But there’s little or no real evidence for this.

Is It More Eco-Friendly and Sustainable?

best fruits to eat grapesWell, compared to some mass-produced wines, yes – perhaps. Commodity grapes are mass-produced using the most efficient methods which are rarely environmentally friendly.

(But – with a glut of grapes in California now, commodity wines are often used to make “on-demand” wines for “exclusive” wine buyers. So “private label” wines may be made from commodity grapes!).

By comparison, “natural” wine (another un-regulated term) is normally (but not always) made from organically-grown grapes (i.e. no pesticides), with minimal additives. There’s also concern for the soil, and for people who work the vines. That’s the implication, anyway.

The better-known “clean wine” sellers make no mention of soil or people. So they don’t seem to go as far as natural or organic wine.

OK, but what about health and wellness?

 


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Is Clean Wine About Wellness?

it's not all organic wineSome 68% of American consumers will pay more for products if they’re free of ingredients perceived as bad. (It’s probably a similar number in other Western counties).

The wellness market is huge – and very lucrative.

The websites of many clean wine companies are lush with phrases that you will probably associate with health.

  • Wine that pairs with a healthy lifestyle”, “We’re living healthier and drinking better”(from Good Clean Wine)
  • Wellness without deprivation” (on The Wonderful Wine Co. website)
  • Full of natural goodness, free of unnecessary extras” (on Avaline’s website).

All very nice.

But wine is alcohol.

And excess alcohol is bad for your health. Wine is definitely NOT a wellness product, and I believe it’s wrong to market it as such.

Is Clean Wine About Transparency?

That’s what much of the marketing blurb says – educating consumers about the additives used in winemaking. That sounds good.

But oddly, for companies committed to ripping the lid off the wine industry, clean wine companies are surprisingly quiet about where their own wines come from.

Many wineries love giving encyclopaedic detail about the hill where their grapes are grown – yet the Wonderful Wine Company for example, simply says its white comes from “France”.

The Bottom Line

In summary:-

  • It’s good that some wines are labelling their ingredients and additives.
  • You can’t make any assumptions about what clean wine means. It varies from brand to brand.
  • You need to check the bottle label or the website for details on what that particular wine does or doesn’t do.
  • Clean wine is a marketing term that assigns a moral value to certain wines and IMPLIES that other wines are dirty or bad for you, which is not so.
  • Just because a wine is labelled “clean” or “no added sugar” or “vegan” or “natural,” doesn’t mean it will benefit your health. It’s still alcohol – and too much is bad for your health.
  • The wellness market is very lucrative. There’s a lot of financial incentive to imply that your wine is “healthier” than others.

I could be wrong, but perhaps the only “clean” thing about clean wine is the extra amount of money being cleaned out of your wallet.

What do you think about clean wine? Have you seen it? Tried It? Do you think it’s a move in the right direction, even if it’s not perfect? Let me know in the Comments below!

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Warm regards,

signature Clare

 

 

 

 

P.S.  Don’t forget to see what you can do to help slow climate change – click here (it’s free)

 


Tags

alcohol, clean wine, clean wine ingredients, health risks of alcohol, health risks of wine, is clean wine a scam, is clean wine better, what is clean wine, what is special about clean wine, wine


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