It was a wine kind of summer. Pandemic anxieties soothed by Lambrusco. Picnics made indulgent with sparkling ros. Tuesdays brightened by a cheeky glass of Gamay. I started to write about wine, too, and interviewed sommeliers, passing their wisdom to my friends, Oh, you should never leave the bottle in the ice bucket, Id say, newly enlightened. Crmant is every bit as good as Champagne. Wine brands even started to send me a few bottles.

One of them was Bask, a new line of three Ontario wines (a Sauvignon Blanc, a ros and a Pinot Noir). Basks big selling point: zero sugar per serving. Basks bottles also feature a nutrition label, a relatively novel thing for wine, and a reaction, no doubt, to our increasing embrace of all things wellness-adjacent and virtuously healthful. In a press release, Bask is described as something that can be enjoyed without undue compromise.

But is it really that simple? Just mind the sugar and finish the bottleguilt-free.

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Ick! is what author and plant-based dietitian Desiree Nielsen had to say about the concept of guilt-free consumption. It deserves its own column, she adds.

Sugar really isnt a big issue when enjoying wine, says Nielsen. After all, alcohol is created when yeast eats sugar during fermentation. Nielsen points out that most wines on store shelves classify as drycontaining less than 10 grams of sugar per litre. To put this in perspective, a quarter cup of actual grapes has six grams of sugar.

The one or two grams of sugar that separate a typical dry wine from one thats touted as zero-sugar are simply too negligible to be anything more than a marketing tool for wine brands. Plus, any wine that naturally contains less than half a gram can call itself zero-sugarjust like any brand can call itself clean without having to do much to back up this claim (Cameron Diazs recently launched wine comes to mind). Beyond these, some low-quality wines will have added sugar to smooth and balance out flavour or to help with viscosity (so that they dont taste thin). And its worth noting that dessert wines like Riesling or ice wine will have more sugar content by their very nature.

Aside from sugar, what will have a big impact is the alcohol itself. This is basic, and Nielsen believes that getting overly concerned with calories or grams of sugar distracts from the fact that we shouldnt be drinking a lot of alcohol. Alcohol, after all, can mess with your blood sugar and might stimulate you to eat more than you normally would, among a host of other health concerns.

Thomas Masmejean, owner of Toronto bar Ottos Bierhalle and a new, direct-to-consumer natural wine shop,Grape Crush, puts it bluntly: How good is alcohol for you, really? Masmejean grew up in France and wanted to bring greater accessibility to the citys wine scene. He imports hard-to-find bottles from small producers with sustainable, low-intervention and organic farming practices. So far, the demand is far exceeding his pandemic expectations. If youre going to drink a whole bottle, he says, go natural.

Were curious about what we put in our bodies and want transparency. It makes sense that wine is evolving

Natural wine is a deliberate move away from old-school, stuffy wine buying (picture monotone mahogany shelves of the vintages section) and it conveniently intersects with our embrace of wellness and self-care culture. It also helps that the labels on natural wine bottles tend to be cute. Were curious about what we put in our bodies and want transparency, reasons Nielsen. It makes sense that wine is evolving. People with sulphite sensitivity are going to need sulphite-free wines; vegans need wines without animal byproducts. If organic agriculture is important to you, youll want to support organic wines.

Masmejean points out that not all organic wines are labelled as such because the certification can be time consuming and costlyespecially for small mom-and-pop producers. He says his buyers get into natural wines for two reasons, Because its a trendthey might want to discover something a bit more funky or different. Or those that want the taste of classic wine thats pure and you know exactly whats in it. A standard nutrition label may not be the worst idea, but it wont tell you where the grapes came from or what additives are were used.

The health benefits of wine are a bit overblown

You cant discuss wine without getting into its oft-cited health benefits. Antioxidants! Anti-inflammatory properties! Nielsen bursts that Pt-Nat bubble. The health benefits are a bit overblown, she says. A single glass of wine has perhaps 0.3 milligrams of antioxidants per 100 millilitres. Research typically looks at 1- to 5-gram doses for benefit. Drinking enough wine for the antioxidants to kick in would bring about its own negative health effects.

And if there is any potential health benefits to wine, its in the phytochemical content such as resveratrol, says Nielsen. You wont find that information on any nutrition labels. And if its resveratrol youre after, which comes from the skin of red grapes and is the source of red wines good-for-the-heart reputation, it can be found in cocoa, berries, green tea and spices like turmeric.

Wine can absolutely fit into a healthy lifestyle, Nielsen assures me. But its misleading to conflate it with wellness cultureits not exactly green juice. Instead of obsessing over labels, Nielsen puts the focus on enjoying wine mindfully. Which, Im sorry to say, is just a fancy word for less.

Read the rest here:
How Much Sugar Is in Wine and Does It Even Matter? - The Kit