Have you ever considered which 'additives' are allowed by the EU in the production of a bottle of wine. Well here they all are, plus one disallowed rogue chemical...see if you can spot it..


A bit mind blowing isn't it. Gobbledygook to those of us who are not chemists. Some of the chemicals you will ingest when you slurp. Others will not be in the finished product.

I recently bought some Argentinian Malbec (which is extremely good value) only to discover that there was most probably an illegal substance inside it, the very one I have slipped into the list.

Wine making is mostly about non-disclosure as there is no obligation in the EU to disclose most of the 50+ approved flavourings, additives, preservatives and agents on the label unlike other food products. Much like Olympic athletes vying for gold medals, there are no ingredients on the vest. You will never see 'chicken nuggets' emblazoned across the back of Usain Bolt. I feel like I have been duped much like the Ben Johnson's 100 metre sprint in the 1988 Olympic Games. The Argentinian wine tasted like a winner, but was actually harbouring a banned chemical to help achieve its position.

The reason this is all coming to light is that Germany now 'has the technology' to detect this sinister substance in wine.

The chemical in question, that you most probably did not spot in the above list, is Natamycin, an antifungal agent allowed in some food stuffs in the EU, but not wine.

For you and me Natamycin translates as 'Don't Panic' in the 'Wine Drinker's Guide to the Galaxy'. The fact that we are already eating it in other food products, and the quantities found so far in wine are very small, add up to a great big storm in a wine glass. I am a big fan of Argentinian wine, and it certainly will not put me off.

What this does however highlight is the current drive to list ingredients on wine labels, which incidentally the Co-op do voluntarily. The FSA is said to be pushing for compulsory full disclosure across the board.

Will a list of ingredients be off putting?

That depends. The catalogue of E numbers written on much of our everyday processed food stuffs, like sandwiches and Coke for example, does not seem to put people off buying them. Most of us with busy lives do not have time to read labels in detail anyway. Additives are also mostly meaningless and the presumption by the consumer is that if it is not safe to eat it won't be on the shelves. However Bernard Matthews' 'Turkey Twizzler syndrome' struck, followed more recently by programs like 'Jimmy's Food Factory', and we are becoming more cautious.

The truth of the matter is that alcohol is probably the main ingredient that could do you some damage, the rest of the 'additives' may be harmless in comparison.

The worry is that the delicate illusion lots of us have of wine being simple fermented grape juice may well be shattered. We could start to see it as just another unromantic processed food on an industrial scale. Our wine buying patterns may change radically as the love affair becomes warts and all.

One question remains to be answered - why has the EU banned Natamycin in wine in the first place?

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