Top 10 Winemaking Myths

As in many fields — health promoting and weight-loss diets come to mind — that have grown from unfounded beliefs and around traditions, with newfound scientific knowledge proving or disproving long-held theories, the field of wine and winemaking has its share of myths, misconceptions and sheer quackery. To the uninitiated, enophiles can seem snobbish, often rightly so. Toss biodynamic farming and “natural” (whatever that means) winemaking or whatever other controversial topic into the mix and you have a recipe for some of the most spirited debates. Here, we take a light-hearted look at a list of top 10 myths in wine and winemaking and a dead serious attempt at debunking those using fact-based science. #10 NATURAL WINES ARE MORE PURE AND SAFE Some people believe that natural wines are “purer,” safer and healthier. Their beliefs are founded on the notion that anything added, anything done to wine except to let it run its natural course, is simply bad chemistry. Ah! Those nasty chemicals; let alone that wine contains hundreds and hundreds of compounds, possibly more than a thousand. Of course