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by Eckhard Supp - Wine adulteration? Once again ...? No, dear readers, no reason to panic! This time, we are not writing about the sort of miracles which were so popular, altough severely punished, in ancient history and the middle age! Not even about the transformation of water into wine known from the Christian mythology. What we have in mind, is the attempt to legalize an already widespread (in some countries) yet controversial enological procedure ... How that?

The facts: South Africa's governement is about to decide over a very delicate demand, coming out of the wine industry. In order to lower the alcohol degree of their wines, South Africas producers ask to be allowed to pour water into their musts. 15 % of the total volume, that is the idea. Their main argument is that lowering the alcohol in a more "natural" way is not possible as the desired physiological ripeness of their grapes occurs very often only when the sugar content has reached undesired levels. And the techniques used so far like reverse osmosis or the spinning cone column are far too expensive to be at the reach of everyone, even the smaller producers.

Cheating prohibited

European wine officials and the International Wine Organisation have already reacted, condemning the South African move, and their opposition against this kind of "artificial" wine making technique is not very surprising, given the fact that high alcohol levels are far more an issue in the New than in the Old world. European laboratories are ready to refuse any SA wine with too much water in it and, as the EU is the most important export market for South African wines, their refusal seems crucial to the decision of the SA government.

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... and if water came out of these hoses? (Photo: E. Supp)

But the question is more complicated. First at all, there is the fact that water in the wine from other sources than the grapes themselves is nothing really new. It is already there. This water stems from rain on the grape skins, from tap water used to dissolve bentonite, from wet tanks or from watered barrels. Obviously, we are talking about small amounts only, up to three per cent of the wine/must volume, which are already legally accepted in the EU.

Wine lovers who argue against these "unnatural" wine making techniques should know that many of them are already perfectly legal within the EU. Vacuum evaporators, reverse osmosis and others are alredy widely used, even if by law only accepted for "experimental" purposes ... as is, by the way, the addition of more than 3 % water, a fact which seems unknown to the most. Wouldn't it after all be just fair to accept the South African request? One could, in order to help the consumers distinguish between "artificially" and "not artificially" made wines - whatever that means - oblige producers to declare all techniques like chaptalisation, osmosis, addition of water on their labels, a proposition which would for sure raise the energetic if not violent opposition from all European wine officials and producers.

Are there any alternatives?

Of course, there are much more valid alternatives. One could start cultivating grape varieties which reach their physiological ripenes earlier, one could blend different varieties - already forgotten the Bordeaux recipe, oder the old rule that wines in colder regions are monovarietal, those from warmer areas blended? One could try to turn back the development of always more efficient, higher alcohol levels producing yeasts, one could choose cooler vineyard sites, harvest a bit earlier oder change the winemaking style.

All of these alternatives have one enormous advantage: they would not necessarily or at least not more than to a certain extent alter the wine quality negatively. Or does anyone really believe that adding 15 % water to the wine does just dilute the alcohol and not as well the flavoring substances?

Dreaming is allowed! One could, one could ... But, for sure, all of these measures would be much more demanding, much more costly than adding a bit of water to the must. And this is probably the reason why, climatic changes helping, even within the EU the resistance against pouring water into the wine will fade.