Milk Product in Wine?

I’m setting up the back room for this weekend’s Monterey Wine Competition and notice a bottle from Australia that has a warning label that milk products were used in the making of the wine and traces of it may still be in the wine. Huh? Anybody got an idea what they are talking about?

Here, let me Google that for you…


"Milk-derived casein is a protein used to clear up discoloration in white wines. "



Casein

Casein, a phosphoprotein of milk > that flocculates to absorb and precipitate suspended particles, is primarily recommended for clarifying white wines, especially for reducing tannin content in over-oaked white wines, and for reducing browning resulting from oxidation. Drawbacks include color stripping if excessive casein is used, and requires a second fining with bentonite to avoid clogging of filter pads if the wine is to be filtered.

Casein powder is added at a rate of 50–100 g/hL of wine. Dissolve the powder in a small volume of water — use 100 mL of water for each gram of casein powder — and then quickly add the solution to the wine while stirring vigorously. To avoid over-fining, use the lowest rate of addition and increase if the wine was aged in oak barrels. Rack the wine after a couple of days or within one week. For white wines affected by browning due to oxidation, increase the rate of addition to the maximum depending on the severity of the oxidation problem.

May contain: Milk, fish, eggs, porcine, horse, gluten/wheat, etc, etc.

Labels are getting interestinger and interestinger.

As Mel says in Australia and NZ milk products, egg whites and other substances are used to fine and clarify wines. I thought winemakers did that everywhere? Any traces of those products in wine would be tiny but are listed to comply with rigorous food labelling regulations.

Cheers, Howard

funny how nobody mentions lizards, worms, and half eaten burritos on the list of ingredients.

Then there’s this:

[welldone.gif]

Who doesn’t eat their entire burrito? [snort.gif]

Milk product in wine? Oy!! What a catastrophe! The kosher among us will no longer be able to drink it with roast pork!!

Who took my burrito?

The time to worry is when the wine label ingredients includes peanuts…

Most major producing countries require processed with or allergen warnings for many fish, egg, milk products and some for so2 as well. For wines imported here they use labels that follow our regulations so you don’t see that info, i.e. NZ processed with fish, egg, and milk. Contains preservative 220.

I guess it was not a burrito from Libby’s in Philo :wink:

John I have never seen any lizards or worms on the sorting table. I guess were to cold for lizards and our no till farming keep the worms buried. More common is tie tape, drippers, second crop and leafs.

We got the government to approve the statement for our labels and any one else who wants to use it “Suitable for Vegans and Vegetarians” as we don’t add any animal products. We also list our ingredients as either, Grapes and Sulfur, or Grapes, Tartaric acid, and Sulfur depending on the wine and vintage.

Wine/beer/spirits are the only consumable food product that don’t require ingredients, nutritional labeling, and allergen warning information. Though you can volunteer that info if you so choose to get the label approved with it. I really wish more wineries were transparent on what is added and how the wines were processed.