So Many Things Can Be Done to Wine — Added or Taken Away — and Often Are

TREE RESINS HAVE FLAVORED wine for 7,000 years; honey was added for sweetness in classical Greece; sulfur has been used for preservation since the first century CE; and, to clarify wine, at various dates vintners began to add milk, egg white, or isinglass. Today, acidity can be easily raised or lowered; alcohol can be removed. Altogether more than 60 substances can be legally added to wine in the US and EU. In the EU, since 2023 the additives must be listed as ingredients, which probably discourages their use, although they don’t have to appear on a label — a QR code or web address is enough. In the US, as a rule only sulfites must be mentioned. There are no statistics, but additives are common. They assist the fermentation or are used for reasons of taste, color, clarity, or preservation. The approved ones are all supposed to be safe, but I suspect minimally treated wine from organic grapes is less likely to give anyone a headache.