Milk, eggs and fish? Just what is going into wine?

A labelling change for wine is disturbing customers three years down the track, says Terry Dunleavy, editor of New Zealand Wine Grower magazine.

From December 2002, all food products, including wine, were required to detail the use of milk, eggs or fish either in the product or production process, said John Barker, New Zealand Winegrowers manager of policy and membership.

Most wines were "fined" before bottling, using fish, egg or bentonite (clay) based products, to clarify them visually, he said.

About three-quarters of all local wine was white and released within six months of the grapes being picked but red wines and chardonnays took longer so the new labelling was only just starting to appear widely on shop shelves.

Mr Dunleavy, who owns the tiny Waiheke Vineyards winery on Waiheke Island, said: "It's only this year that people have started to ask,'what the hell is all this about?'

"Most wine is fined and the stupid part about it is that the likelihood of traces being found is so infinitesimal that it hasn't worried anybody before, but as an industry we can be blamed because we have failed to communicate to our customers the implications of what is simply a labelling change, but not in any sense a change of wine-making practice."

Many wine-makers said they had regularly fielded queries about traces of fining agents in their wines, but none had been able to detect any.

Mr Barker said that if traces remained in the final product then they had to be put onto the label.

"You cannot be sure there is nothing."

Ironically, sulphite labelling had been in place in New Zealand for decades.

Most organic wine producers used sulphur dioxide to prevent oxidation.

Sulphur dioxide would be labelled as "Preservative 220" on wine labels, while fish, dairy and egg products would be mentioned specifically if they were used.

Label etiquette

* Every bottle of New Zealand wine must mention on its back label that it contains sulphites.

* This may appear as "contains sulphites", "contains preservative (220)" or similar wording and it acts to alert highly sensitive asthmatics to the presence, albeit small, of sulphur dioxide in wine.

* Not all New Zealand wine has had fish, milk or egg products used in it for fining and clarification purposes; some wines use bentonite (clay) instead and some wines do not get fined or clarified at all.

* If a fining agent is used, many wineries use wording such as "fined with milk product, which meant that tiny traces might remain after wine-making".