its all a bit fishy

Bill has just offered me a glass of Anniversary bubbly.... the label says "produced with the aid of milk, egg, fish and nut products and traces may remain"

WTF??????

It's explained here: Fish, Milk, Eggs and Nuts in Wine?

Of course I had to check the label of our favorite (cheap) wine. Doesn't say anything about any of that. I imagine they just didn't put it on the label. They have to use something. At $13 a bottle retail I can't imagine natural settling would be cost effective.

That statement seems to be an Australian & NZ requirement. In the EU, after July, 2012, wine labels must disclose use of milk and/or egg.

In the US, you cannot just slap on any old label. The complete label, exactly as it will be printed, including artwork, must be approved by the Feds. Allergen warnings aren't required, however, the label must indicate if there are sulfites in the wine, because according to the US FDA, "approximately 1% of the population has some sensitivity to sulfur compounds and sulfites and about 5% of asthma sufferers can have adverse sulfite reactions. Asthmatics who depend on corticosteroids are especially prone to sulfite sensitivity and can have severe reactions " There also must be a warning about potential health issues about consuming alcohol.

Hong Kong and South Africa, In Canada, allergen labeling is voluntary. A number of other countries require disclosure of sulfites. EU will require that in 2021, as well.

One problem for winemakers is that they may have already ordered the labels before final decisions are made about fining a particular wine. So they put the warning on the label, just in case. The final wine will bear the warning, even if none of the allergens were used. For that reason, proposals to require the warnings have been controversial in the US.

When I worked for a wine company we had to get labels approved to be able to sell wine. I'm kind of surprised that labels with allergens are not required in the US, considering how we tend to be about everything else. I mean, when a jar of peanuts has to have a warning on it that it may contain peanuts...

In 2006, the BATF proposed such a rule. Didn't fly due to winemaker objections.

The whole idea of finings is that they will be left behind and not get into the finished product. I really wonder if anyone has ever found enough milk or egg or isinglass in a bottle of wine to cause an allergic reaction in even the most sensitive person.

And I wonder if someone with a sensitivity to tannin wouldn't be just as sensitive to grape tannins as to chestnut or walnut tannins. And I wonder if there are enough of any other element found in nuts along with the tannin to produce an allergic reaction in anyone sensitive to that element. It seems unlikely -- if tannin is what the winemaker wants, she'd want to avoid anything that added any other flavor.

Sashac ...waddayamean????? $13 retail is a cheap wine???? thats a big night out where I come from!!!!!!

$13!.......................................... That's one classy bottle of wine where i come from!!

$13 is low average here.

We drink Chateau Cardboard around here!

Round these here parts, you can regularly get very good, everyday table wine for under $10. It's often a loss leader on the part of supermarkets. Our everyday Chard, Bogle, for instance runs about $8.00 per bottle. It recently won a double gold at the San Francisco Chronicle tasting, one of the most important tastings here. I find that the results of this tasting usually match my palate. I've been enjoying a Cupcake PInot Noir that won gold; it supposedly retails for about $14, but I'm finding it at $9.

Then there's always Two Buck Chuck. That one is a crapshoot, because different bottling can be of different quality. I've had some that was surprisingly good and some that was best used for descaling the tea kettle.

Plonk, goes for under $10 for a 1.5 liter jug. Super plonk goes for under $10 for a 4 liter jug.

For drinking myself, I'm happy with Gato Negro Malbec from Chile for $4.27 a bottle. I heard on Your Choice that in Ireland it sells for something like 12 euros.

It's funny how life is sometimes. The distributor I used to work was the one for Bogle wines in MD and DC. We drink Moscato Allegro. It's a rather on the sweet side but my husband prefers really sweet wines. I also like wines on the sweet side but I occasionally get slightly less sweet wines for myself.

In one of the episodes of Oz & James wine adventures in California, James said he was looking for a drinkable bottle of wine that would sell for about 10 quid in the UK, and did find plenty of them!

James is soooo much more credible in that lovely series thanhe is in the prat car show ..... the one on beer in England was also very entertaining

The distributor I used to work was the one for Bogle wines

I can drive to Bogle in a fairly short time and occasionally buy a case or two there. They are actually one of the largest California wineries in terms of cases produced. In fact, they are the 14th largest in the country.

I like James and Oz together, i quite like it that James does play the down the earth guy, who tries to humanize Oz the wine snob a bit, very enjoyable shows indeed. But i do find Jeremy Clarkson very much a judgemental, overbearing, self opionated, smart arse, and leaves that he is the star of the show in no doubt.