Mega Purple

Wines & Vines, March, 2006 by Dan Berger

What if someone told you there was a substance you could put into a red wine that made the wine darker than you could get naturally, covered pyrazine and masked some elements of brettanomyces, added a textural element that made the wine "sweeter" in the finish and was reliable because it made even mediocre wines taste more uniform. Would you use it?

Apparently, thousands of wine-makers around the world have answered this not-very-theoretical question in the affirmative. In interviews with a dozen winemakers and wine company executives, I learned that such a substance does indeed exist. Sounding much like a magical potion that improves many wines into which it is blended, Mega Purple (and its cousin Ultra Red and other similar products) are thick concentrates derived from Teinturer grapes, and are aimed strictly at filling gaps in red wines that have color deficiencies, a procedure that otherwise might be accomplished by blending in a darker wine.

Assume you have a Syrah that for one reason or another finished fermentation with a paler color than you believe to be desirable. (Assume the wine is aimed at the $30 price range, and that its color seems to indicate the wine is lacking in flavor.)

In the past, winemakers would use a dash of Petite Sirah or some other dark red wine to "plump up" the color. (A dollop of Alicante Bouschet has been used often for this purpose.) Now, instead of having to go to the extreme of buying a small amount of such wine from the bulk market, wineries are resorting to Mega Purple, which sells for about $135 a gallon.

That sounds expensive, but the substance is highly concentrated and a little goes a long way.

If you haven't heard much about Mega Purple, there's a good reason. It flies below the radar intentionally, because winemakers are reluctant to discuss their use of it. Indeed, many of them feign surprise that it even exists, though in face-to-face meetings with some of them, the reactions are nearly comical. "Mega-what?" one asked, with a faux-perplexed look and a sly grin.

The reasons they seem reluctant to mention it are many. A couple of them said, confidentially, that to admit using such an additive implies that their grapes are less than superior. That is, if a concentrate is appropriate for a wine, clearly their grapes are somehow deficient. And thus, the wine isn't "fine wine."

Two other winemakers admitted that they rely on Mega Purple only for those wines that somehow are a bit deficient in one area or another, and that they use only tiny amounts, but that their winery owners are fearful of revealing that such a substance ever crossed the winery's threshold.

Yet one Monterey County winery president confided, "Virtually everyone is using it. In just about every wine up to $20 a bottle anyway, but maybe not as much over that."

Another, a long-time Sonoma County winemaker, said, "Sure, I use it, but only very infrequently and only for some of my (lower-priced) wines. Look, Mega Purple has residual, so it adds a bit of texture, and that adds a little weight and it pops the fruit."

He said he uses no more than .06% of the final product. "Over that, and you run the risk of getting some over-ripe characteristics."

The Monterey County winery executive said, "You don't want to go above .2%, so you're below the sweetness threshold." He said his winemaker knows that "when you get it up to .3%, .35%, you're going to smell it. And at .45%, (the wine) comes out really sweet."

Mega Purple is produced by Constellation and sold by third-party vendors. It is made by concentrating the Teinturer grape Rubired, a cross between Alicante Ganzin and Tinta Cao. As such, say winemakers who use it, the concentrate has a distinctive aroma that smells a bit like what they called "Central Valley red," with hints of a foxy sort, not unlike a native American grape.

Napa Valley winemaker Scott Harvey was fascinated by Mega Purple. In an interview he said: "I don't use it, but any winery you talk to will say they don't. One reason I don't like it is it has a distinctive flavor to it that I think is identifiable.

"So you can see what's wrong with using it. If everybody uses it, they're adding the same flavor." Harvey said that if Napa Valley Cabernets are being criticized for having an over-ripe character, "I suspect part of that is Mega Purple, sort of a jammy taste, but with no fruit to it."

Harvey said he tested Mega Purple and noted, "It has a kind of richness, a kind of weight to it, and it's kind of, like, syrupy--that flavor you get from some (hot climate) Alicante Bouschet. Well, I'm getting sick of it. I wanted to get some pyrzines in my wines, and this (Mega Purple) seems to wipe out that character."

Winemaker Clark Smith, founder of Vinovation, a wine analysis and consulting firm in Sebastopol, Calif., said, "Sure, I'll admit to using it. It touches up color, and I think when it's over-used, it makes the argument that's in 'Mondovino,' that structure can interfere with, or cover up, regional character."

Smith said he uses Mega Purple only for wines that are truly deficient in some aspect that the concentrate would fix, but because it has 68% sugar, Smith believes that it is best used when added before fermentation, so the sugar ferments out.