I need to address something uncomfortable: I market myself as "clean wine," and that term has been completely bastardized.
Anyone can slap "clean wine," "low intervention," or even "natural wine" on their label. There's zero regulation about these terms in the USA and Companies are exploiting wine's unique regulatory gap. Alcohol is the only major beverage category that doesn't require ingredient lists.
That means many producers sell premium-priced "clean" wine while disparaging conventional producers. They're making bank off consumer anxiety about mysterious additives, often while their own wines come from the same bulk market they're supposedly disrupting.
How the Wine World Deals With It (Spoiler: They Don't)
There are people calling out this BS, but there's no grand solution in sight.
The regulatory gaps that allow this nonsense also exist for legitimate reasons - wine isn't a manufactured product with consistent inputs year after year.
Requiring detailed ingredient labels would crush small producers under bureaucratic burden. Many winemaking aids don't actually stay in the finished wine - do those go on the label? And ingredients lists won't tell you if the producer used pesticides anyway.
Meanwhile, there's a thriving "black market" where anyone can buy bulk wine, slap their own label on it, and compete aggressively because they don't have vineyards to maintain.
Unless you want government agents inspecting every winery (and trust me, alcohol regulation is burdensome enough), this wild west situation isn't changing anytime soon.
My Solution: Don't Trust, Verify
So why do I still use the term "clean wine"? Because when done right, it means something. But you can't rely on the label to tell you what that is.
Here's my two-part litmus test for evaluating any wine, including mine:
1. Meet the Producer (Or Get As Close As Possible)
High-quality wine producers are transparent because they're proud of what they do. They want to tell you about their vineyard, the growing season, why their location creates amazing terroir. They geek out over details.
If a producer is vague about where their wine comes from, that's your red flag. Marketing companies selling private label wine keep things mysteriously simple.
Ask questions. Where are the grapes grown? Who makes the wine? What's their approach to vineyard management? The answers (or lack thereof) will tell you everything.
2. Live in a "Don't Trust, Verify" World
After you've done your homework, there are only two questions that matter:
Do I like the wine?
How do I feel afterward?
That's it. That's your quality control.
Your body knows the difference between wine that's been manipulated to death and wine that's been crafted with care. Some people get headaches from certain sulfites. Others react poorly to high tannin manipulation.
The proof is in the bottle