Frankenwine

Tonight I watched Dispatches: What's in Your Wine?

Firstly - surely no one believes that wine is purely fermented grape juice. OF COURSE the makers add ingredients to enhance their product. Did anyone see the episode of The Simpsons where Bart travelled to France on an exchange trip and was placed at a vineyard where the winemakers put antifreeze in their wine???

Obviously, that's not a reality.

Only a few producers have ever been embroiled in a 'dirty wine scandal' (the words of Jane Moore) and have added dodgy ingredients.

Are we surprised that winemakers use additional flavour enhancers or pesticides? I'm not.

One big part of the program centred around flavoured yeast that was added to wine. So what? We eat yeast every day. Bread, beer... If you want pesticide free wine you can always buy organic. Or, better still, just find out from the producers what's in it.

I do agree, however, that consumers should have access to the ingredients of wine. But, this doesn't necessarily need to go on the bottle. Who exactly knows what sulphates are good or bad anyway? Would it put anyone off?

Half of the program was about Champagne too - seemed to me like a good half hour. Quite frankly, I've never really liked the taste of the stuff. I prefer sparkling wine. I'm sure many do too if they are honest. Perhaps it was a way to string out the program.

In essence, I saw little point in this documentary. It's yet another in a long line of scaremongering from another TV journalist who, quite frankly, looks uninterested in the topic - occasional head nodding, fake looking interested looks and some so called (barely) challenging questions.

Jane Moore should go back to appearances on Loose Women - at least then she seems to know what she's talking about.

If you're that bothered about what's in your wine, have a cup of tea instead.