The Wine Market Council surveys the U.S. consumer for insights on what they're thinking about wine. This data is from a survey in wellness and health as related to wine.
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This excerpt from the survey is a question about what information would you like to see on the wine label. The top response, alcohol percentage, is already almost always found on the label.
The second highest response is having ingredient labeling. This is something that's been talked about in the wine media for a few years. Alcohol producers aren't required to provide this information in the U.S., but many people would like to have it available. A few wineries are doing this voluntarily.
The third highest response is just a bit behind the second in the number of votes it got, and is a surprising result to me. Sugar is very much on wine consumers minds as part of their health. There is a lot of wine marketing that makes claims about zero sugar in their product. This implies most wines have sugar and many consumers apparently believe this. That is false. As likely is their claim to zero sugar. Most wine finish with a couple of tenths of a percent of residual sugar from fermentation. At this level you cannot taste the sugar. This isn't done on purpose, it's because that's a far as the yeast can go as they die out before getting every last bit of sugar.
The follow-up question is also concerning when these respondents are asked where they think the sugar comes from. The first graph, natural sugars found in grapes, is the correct answer. Adding sugar to sweeten a wine is done indirectly via grape juice in a few instances in American wine. Some of the most popular California brands like Caymus, The Prisoner, and Meiomi do this, but will never admit it.
The vast majority of winemakers are honest people that drink their own product and won't put anything in it that shouldn't be there.
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