How to make a Supermarket label wine - anywhere in the world

Ever puzzled why all those £7.99 - special offer this week £4.99 wines at Tesco / Sainsbury / Waitrose wines all taste alike ? Why that Chardonnay or Shiraz tastes the same whatever the name on the bottle, Hardy's , Stowells, Jacobs Creek, Lindemann ?

It's very simple ... they all use bog standard grape juice and give Mauri a call. Mauri who ?

Associated British Foods is a huge diversified international food, ingredients and retail group with sales of £6.8 billion and 85,000 employees in 43 countries.

The ingredients section has two organisations, AB Mauri and ABF Ingredients.

Mauri Yeast Australia manufactures active dried yeast and provides integrated fermentation solutions for the global wine and beverage market. One of the popular brands that many winemakers have come to associate with is maurivin™ active dried wine yeast.

Due to its ability to enhance varietal aroma, flavour and colour, Maurivin B is recommended for red varieties such as Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Pinotage, Grenache and Pinot Noir.

Maurivin B is highly recommended when wanting to lower a wine’s ethanol content, as the case may be when fermenting high brix musts and juices. Maurivin B is popular also with winemakers wanting to reduce L-malic acid levels during primary fermentation.

For example they will sell you a dried yeasts strain - Maurivin B - this is a medium vigour yeast with the capacity to consume high quantities of malic acid during primary fermentation .

You can view all the varieties available here

AWRI 796
Isolated from South Africa, this strain ( AWRI relates to - The Australian Wine Research Institute ) is used extensively for its ability to allow the full expression of varietal fruit and good palate structure. Popular for varietal red wines such as Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Merlot and varietal white wines such as Chardonnay, Semillon and Riesling.

If you want a simple guide to how these dried varietal yeasts enable Aistralian winemakers to provide those Jacobs Creek and Hardys plummy Shiraz wines try this fascinating article
Yeast contributes to Shiraz aroma and flavour - Anthony Heinrich Technical Sales Manager Maurivin Yeast, AB Mauri anthony.heinrich@abmauri.com.au
Thomas Walsh School of Science, Food and Horticulture,University of Western Sydney, Australia. Geoff Skurray School of Science, Food and Horticulture
University of Western Sydney, Australia

This chart will help you select the yeast to give you the spicey / blackberry / plummy taste you want you want

You can also use their expertise based on the grape variety you use ...

Choose your Grape - say ... Cabernet Sauvignon

This worldwide red varietal is known for its distinctive blackcurrant flavour with hints of mint and menthol. Cabernet Sauvignon also handles oak with relative ease, displaying cedar and pencil shaving-like aromas after barrel, along with excellent tannin structure.
The following are the yeasts we (AB Mauri) recommend for best results with Cabernet Sauvignon grapes:
AWRI 796
AWRI 1503
BP 725
Maurivin B
PDM
Sauvignon L3
UCD 522

Wood chips with everything

Like to add the flavour of oak barrels to your wine ? Easy peasy just use wood shavings .. everyone does it .. the French Government allowed vintners in France to do it from April 2006. " Wood chips can be added to wines to give them an oak flavor without using expensive wooden barrels. Such cost-cutting tactics are already common across the rest of the winemaking world, including Australia and the Americas. " . It had already been authorized for use by the European Community.

Wood chips are available in several types of oak (French, Hungarian, American), in several "toasts" and sizes ranging from sawdust to 1/2 in cubes.

We have to make wine for consumers, not wine that producers dream of," Bernard Pomel, the author of a wine report commissioned by the ministry, told le Figaro newspaper.

Sulphites / Sulphur Dioxide

This is labelled as a content on wines in the EU - it's use is universal. It is best known to most as the food additive 220 or 202 or chemically as SO2. Although it is naturally produced in small amounts by wine yeast during alcoholic fermentation, most of the SO2 found in wines has been put there by the winemaker. It is added at most stages of the white winemaking process, from crushing through to bottling. It is used less liberally during red winemaking, but with an almost mandatory addition being made following the completion of the malolactic fermentation of these wines. SO2 is added in the form of a powder, or is directly fed into the wine as a gas from a dosing gun.

Sulfur dioxide plays two important roles. Firstly, it is an anti-microbial agent, and as such is used to help curtail the growth of undesirable fault producing yeasts and bacteria. Secondly, it acts as an antioxidant, safeguarding the wine's fruit integrity and protecting it against browning.

One less known but important property of SO2, is its ability to bind with acetaldehyde. This compound has an unpleasant smell of bruised apple or rank sherry, and is produced when wines undergo some oxidation. When the SO2 and acetaldehyde molecules bind to each other, the resultant substance is odourless. The SO2 effectively strips the wine of its oxidative character.

Channel 4 Dispatches had Jane Moore with unfeasibly large breasts in a tight white blouse two sizes too small explaining very coyly without naming names what muck is in your wine . Their page is showing an error. You can watch the programme for 1 week. Free catch up here

Bone up on Italian wines - and their intricate labelling structure at this excellent website here ...eg

Italian wines are distinguished with the following labels in increasing quality order:
Vini da tavola
Vino da tavola (VDT)
Vino da tavola con indicazione geografica tipica (IGT)
Vini di qualità prodotti in regione determinata (VQPRD)
Vino a denominazione di origine controllata (DOC)
Vino a denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG)

Place names are based on Italy's wine laws. Within these laws, there are three main categories: DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata, roughly translated: protected place name)

DOCG (Denominatzione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, roughly, guaranteed place name)

IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica, typical place name.).

The DOC designation is given to over three hundred Italian wine growing areas. This designation governs such things as area of production, permissible grape varietals, maximum yield of grapes per acre, minimum alcohol content, aging requirement, and such vineyard practices as pruning and trellising. In addition, to be eligible for a DOC designation, wines must pass a taste test and a chemical analysis. DOCG has a stricter set of guidelines than DOC.
IGT wines must also meet geographic and grape varietals requirements, but the standards are less stringent for this designation. There are about 120 IGT areas in Italy.

Grape varietals are also found on Italian wine labels. Italy's unique climate suits grapes that are not often produced in other areas. Grapes such as Chianti's Sangiovese, Barolo's Nebbiolo, Corvina, and Arneis are most commonly found in Italy.

Some words found on labels indicate the type of wine produced, such as spumante (sparkling,) chiaretto (rose,) bianco (white,) dolce (sweet,) secco (dry,) or rosso (red.) Other words have to do with the winery: vigna or vigneto (vineyard,) tenuta (estate,) or produttore (producer.)

Labels can be forged of course. They often are.

If you want to read Jancis Robinson OBE , rave about Robert Mondavi, Woodbridge Chardonnay 2006 California on her personal website 16 Sep 2008 ... this is (read what she says very carefully) " almost certainly the most widely available wine I have ever made wine of the week." If you click on the Find this wine link you will see stockists all over the US and UK plus Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong and all over Europe. I just hope everyone gets the same blend as I have tasted (twice now) in the UK.

It’s cheapest in the US. Brits have to cough up about £7 for it chez Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Thresher, Waitrose and www.everywine.co.uk, the online outfit that tries to offer every single wine on sale in the UK.

It may not be wine as you know it - it may be a carefully made chemical cocktail- but, if it gets you there.........