What’s Actually in a Bottle of Violet Vines Wine?

What’s Actually in a Bottle of Violet Vines Wine?

At Violet Vines, we believe great wine starts with great farming, and that transparency matters. There’s a lot of confusion about what goes into wine. So, let’s make it simple.

Before we dive into the bottle, a caveat. We want to be 100% transparent. There’s a lot in this blog and some pretty specific things – admittedly its complicated – but we truly wanted to share everything that goes into the wine-making process and ultimately what lands in the bottle.

With that said, here’s exactly what you’ll find in a bottle of Violet Vines wine (and what you won’t find).

First – What You Won’t Find

Let’s start here, because this matters.

• We do not use glyphosate in our vineyards.
• We have no known arsenic contamination in our vineyard soils or groundwater.
• We do not add artificial coloring.
• We do not add Mega Purple.
• We do not add sugar or grape juice concentrate after fermentation to sweeten dry wines.

Our wines are fermented dry unless otherwise noted.

The Core Ingredient – Grapes

Wine is first and foremost fermented grapes.

That’s it.

Everything else we use supports fermentation, stability, and quality… not manipulation.

What May Be Used in Violet Vines Wines

Here is a clear breakdown of what we use and why:

Grapes

Starting with the 2026 vintage, 100% estate-grown and carefully farmed fruit.

Water

Used minimally for cleaning and sanitation, as well as for rehydrating yeasts and some additives. It is not used to dilute finished wine.

Tartaric Acid (Sometimes)

Naturally occurring in grapes. In warm vintages, small adjustments may help preserve balance and structure.

Yeast

We use cultured yeast strains to ensure clean, reliable fermentation.

Yeast Nutrients

Some products support healthy fermentation and prevent off aromas.

• Sterol Flash
• Stimula Products
• Fermaid O

These are nutrient blends that help yeast perform efficiently and cleanly. Yeast nutrients are essentially vitamins and minerals for yeast. Just like humans, yeast needs proper nutrition to stay healthy throughout fermentation.

When yeast are well nourished, they ferment more cleanly and predictably, reducing the risk of unwanted sulfur aromas or stuck fermentations and ultimately produce a more stable finished wine with cleaner aromatics and greater purity of fruit expression.

These nutrients are consumed by the yeast during fermentation and do not remain in meaningful amounts in the finished wine.

Malolactic Fermentation Bacteria

Always used in red wines (and often in our Chardonnay too).

This converts sharper malic acid into softer lactic acid, enhancing texture and complexity.

We use different “ML Bugs” based on what they add to the wines. For example, we use a ML Bug in Chardonnay that doesn’t add diacetyl, that buttered popcorn aroma and taste. We want our customers to taste the fruit more than anything.

Potassium Metabisulfite (KMBS)

KMBS introduces sulfur dioxide (SO₂), which protects wine from oxidation and spoilage.

All quality wines use sulfites, including organic wines. Sulfites are also naturally produced during fermentation.

Although we use KMBS (sulfites), we use it very conservatively. Because we manage oxygen carefully and maintain strict sanitation protocols, we require significantly lower sulfite levels than large-scale commercial producers (often eight times less than these large producers).

Red Wine Specific Additions

Tannin (Non-Pinot Noir Red Wines Only)

Rarely, but sometimes we use small amounts of tannin additives to enhance structure and mouthfeel.

These help stabilize color and build texture. Enological tannins are derived from grape skins or oak and are used in very small amounts to support structure during fermentation.

For the consumer, this means better texture and greater aging potential, not artificial flavoring. These tannins integrate into the wine’s natural structure and are indistinguishable from the tannins that come from grapes themselves.

Color Enzyme

A color enzyme helps extract the natural pigment found in the grape skins during red and rosé fermentations and is not found in the finished bottled wine as the fermentation process deactivates it and breaks down the protein.

White Wine Specific Additions

Settling Enzymes

Settling enzymes help clarify juice prior to fermentation and help with stabilization once in the bottle. Settling enzymes help gently clarify freshly pressed juice by allowing solids to separate more efficiently before fermentation begins.

Cleaner juice going into fermentation means:

• More precise aromatics
• Greater freshness
• Less need for heavy filtration later

These enzymes deactivate during fermentation and are not present in the finished wine. For consumers, this translates to purity and clarity without aggressive processing.

Cold Stabilization Enzymes

Cold stabilization products improve tartrate stability (so crystals don’t form in the bottle). Tartrates are natural crystals that can form in white wine when exposed to cold temperatures. They are harmless, but many consumers mistake them for glass shards.

Cold stabilization enzymes help prevent these crystals from forming in the bottle by assisting with early tartrate precipitation prior to bottling.

The enzyme itself does not remain active or present in the finished wine.

One Last Topic – Fining

Fining agents are substances added to wine to bind with and remove undesirable elements such as excess tannin, protein haze, browning compounds, and off aromas. After binding to these elements, the fining agent and the bound material falls to the bottom, settles out and are racked or filtered off.  We rarely add fining agents to our wines, but when we do, we use vegan-friendly agents such as pea protein or bentonite. In most cases, little to none of the fining agents remain in the finished wine.

What All This Means

Fine wine is not a chemical cocktail.

It is:

• Fermented fruit
• Carefully guided fermentation
• Stability tools that preserve quality
• A commitment to clean farming

Although it’s a very complex solution, once it reaches the bottle, it has essentially three ingredients that remain – grapes, water and KMBS (sulfites).

At Violet Vines, our goal is not intervention, it’s intention.

We farm thoughtfully.
We ferment carefully.
We protect what nature gives us.

And we bottle it honestly.