The pressures and compromises of a profit-based approach

When comparing small-batch artisanal wines, like those made in Burgundy, with large-scale industrial production, a common sticking point is price. While the former are universally considered the better wines, the latter have the virtue of a much lower price, which is often a very attractive consideration.

But there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and what you save in dollars is often paid for in other ways. As we detail in our article on the pricing of a bottle of Burgundy, what goes into those wines is, among other things, high-quality and well-tended, low yielding grapes, sustainable farming practices, and passionate winemakers with a deep respect for grape, terroir, and tradition.

Primarily subject to the dictates of the bottom line, mass-produced wines are made with an entirely different philosophy in mind. As we’ll explore in this article, the pressures and compromises that characterize industrial wines affect every step of the winemaking process, resulting in a predictably different final product.

What Cost Cutting Looks Like

As you might expect, the first way that industrial winemakers keep their costs down is to reduce their expenses wherever they can. While some of these cost-cutting measures are relatively harmless, like plastic corks, screw-top bottles, and boxed wine, most of them have adverse effects on the wine’s quality.

Like most agriculture, winemaking is a land- and labor-intensive industry, and it's in these two factors that industrial winemakers have room to make the most cuts. In the field, this generally means lower-quality land and a more liberal use of chemical fertilizers.

As natural methods of pest control are pretty labor-intensive, cost-cutting also means a liberal use of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides because it’s much cheaper to spray in excess than to apply them judiciously only when needed. Cost-cutting also means less supervision over every stage of the process, from sorting moldy or unripe grapes out of the harvesting machine to adopting an automated and formulaic approach to pressing and fermenting the wine.

Quantity over quality

A second way for industrial winemakers to keep costs down is by producing as much wine as they possibly can. The more bottles they make, the more they can spread their fixed land, equipment, and administrative expenses. Plus, if they’re making even a small profit on every bottle, then it makes financial sense to maximize production.

In practice, this means boosting grape yields through vine spacing, choice of grape variety, physical and nutritional crop manipulation, and intensive irrigation.

But as we’ve written about in our article on grape yields, going past a certain point has a negative impact on the wine. Vines can only produce so much sugar, flavor compounds, and nutrients, and spreading these across too many grapes invariably means more diluted and under ripe fruit.

While this is partially offset by nutrient manipulation, this has the side effect of more or less erasing any trace of terroir, that unique aspect of where a grape was grown. Rather than drawing what they need primarily from the land, the vines are just absorbing the additives being fed to them. 

Adulterating the wine

Unless it's natural wine, pretty much every bottle you drink will have some sort of additive in it. Cultured yeasts are much more reliable than spontaneous ones, and a minimal level of sulfates is needed to make sure wine doesn’t go bad in the bottle. In cooler regions, winemakers will often add a bit of sugar to the grape juice before fermentation, a process called chaptalization that affects alcohol levels and mouthfeel more than flavors.

The difference between small-batch wineries and industrial ones, then, is more a question of degree and intent. Artisanal winemakers apply these practices sparingly, only where needed, because what they’re after is a nuanced wine full of character and complexity and a faithful expression of grape, vintage, and terroir.

It’s a bit of a different story for mass-produced wine. The aim of these commercial wineries is above all to make their wines passably drinkable and consistent, and when grapes aren’t as ripe or flavorful as they ought to be due to crop manipulation and overcrowding, it becomes necessary to tinker with the juice and paint over flaws to achieve a uniform taste.

In practice, this means the liberal use of sugars (both before and after fermentation, boosting both alcohol and sweetness), flavors, colorants, and an extra dose of preservatives so that wines can survive the bumps, bruises, and temperature shocks of standard shipping.

Conclusion

Considering the pros and cons of industrial winemaking in their entirety tends to paint a slightly different picture than looking at price alone. While they’re often more affordable, they also come with a long list of drawbacks. Poor-quality, under-ripened, and chemically doctored fruit, indiscriminate harvesting, and then liberal adulteration with flavors and additives to hide flaws and achieve mass-market fit. 

And that’s to say nothing of the harmful side effects on health and environment.

While it’s true in most cases that small-batch wines generally come with a bit of a higher price tag, they also come with character, complexity, nuance, and a purity of flavor that’s impossible to achieve without good fruit, careful harvesting, and adhering to quality as a guiding principle through every step of the process.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you to drink whatever wine makes you happy. We just hope you give the small-batch stuff a try before making your final decision!