Can a wine ever be called 'clean'?
Credit: Haarala Hamilton
A bottle of wine that’s better for your health, your hangover and the planet. It may sound too good to be true – but that’s exactly what a new crop of “clean” wine brands in the US is promising. Offered up as a healthier, purer alternative to traditional winemaking, clean wine is usually vegan, made from organic grapes and free from pesticides, preservatives, colours, added sulphites and sugars – or, as clean wine brand Scout & Cellar likes to put it, “yucky stuff”.
Cameron Diaz and fashion entrepreneur Katherine Power, who launched their clean wine brand Avaline in 2020, said they felt “real anger” at the lack of transparency in the traditional winemaking process. “All these additives… we had no idea,” they said. Other such brands include Good Clean Wine, which offers “wine that pairs with a healthy lifestyle,” and the Wonderful Wine Company, which claims to make “clean wine for better living”.