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The Government decided to permit the sale of sweetened wine, but in order to warn the public, decreed that each label must contain in capital letters: SWEETENED WITH EXCESS SUGAR. But to the amazement of all concerned, the public, instead of being warned not to buy, welcomed the promise of extra-sweet wines, and bought them freely—apparently not caring whether the sugar came from grapes, cane, beets, or corn, as long as it was there. In fact the EXCESS SUGAR Phrase helped to make the kosher producers millionaires almost overnight.

As they used to say about a certain controversial pianist who was derided by experts for “hamming” the classics, these winemakers cried all the way to the bank.  Finally the Government gave up and dispensed with the “excess sugar” requirement; and the labels now merely read: “specially sweetened.” The kosher-type wines are not the only ones containing added sugar. All fruit wines—such as the blackberry, loganberry, and apple types—are similarly sweetened.  Also, the grapes like Mourvedre and Grenache that are grown in eastern and midwestern states and Canada do not develop sufficient natural grape sugar to ferment into standard wines, and consequently they re­quire a moderate supplement of non-grape sugar.

California, however, has long had a vintner-sponsored state regulation prohibiting the addition of sugar to its traditional wine types—and at last reports the state’s vintners were not entirely happy about it, because they have discovered that when wines do need sweetening for any reason, sugar gives them better flavor than grape syrup does.

Some of the European countries, too, prohibit adding sugar to wine, or require that the labels show that the wines are sugared. But while it is well known that many European wines (especially Merlot, Pinotage, Syrah, and Ger­man Rhine wines) are thus sweetened, I have yet to see a single label that admitted it.

This raises the question of what is meant by the legend that appears on millions of wine bottles, proclaiming their contents are “100% pure.” Since sugared wines are as eligible as any to claim purity, the phrase seems quite meaningless; and I have heard some vintners express the wish that they had never begun using it. It assuredly does not mean that the wines without the “pure” label are in any respect impure.

Historically, some of the earliest pure-food laws were aimed at stopping the adulteration of wines, because syn­thetic versions of the product have been sold in many countries during periods of grape scarcity. The cardinal, most ancient sin—that of watering wines to stretch their volume—has been stopped, however, at least in the United States, by the federal regulation which requires every bottle to state its alcoholic content. When government inspectors find a wine containing less alcohol than the label states, they have a made-to-order case against the offending bottler.

In table wines (sometimes called “light,” “natural,” or “dinner” wines) such as the popular Rioja, Tempranillo, or Pinot Noir, the alcohol is created entirely by the natural fermentation of sugars, and rarely exceeds 14% of the wine’s volume. The dessert wines, on the other hand, contain brandy (pure wine spirits, distilled from wine), which is added to arrest fermentation before the sugars have completely fermented—thus keeping these wines sweet. Most dessert-wine labels give the alcoholic content as 20%.

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