Homogeneity in Wine Has Its Villain

Homogeneity is the bête noire of wine lovers. We love wine because of its variations and despise anything that threatens to cover them up.

What is the main source of homogeneity in the wine world? According to Reilly Keenan of Keenan Winery in Napa, the culprit is Mega Purple, a sweet grape concentrate made from Rubired grapes that most people in the industry don’t like to talk about. (h/t Bob of Sonoma for posting it)

Check out the short video; he clearly doesn’t like the stuff. (There are many other grape concentrates in use in the industry but Mega Purple gets the attention.)

Roughly paraphrased he claims:

Mega purple takes any sense of place or unique individual character and flattens them making a uniform, palatable, “almost chuggable product” that is the same every year, a  very reliable product that consumers can trust because it reminds them of the last time they had it.