US: Sutter Home eyes low carb craze
29 Apr 2004
Source: just-drinks.com editorial team

The US winemaker Sutter Home is looking into launching a super low carb wine, in response to the current trend for low carbohydrate eating, which has been fuelled by the likes of the Atkins Diet.

"The family is evaluating super low carb wine as something that may satisfy a consumer niche. But they will move forward only if the quality of the wine experience matches that delivered by our current wines," said Wendy Nyberg, senior director of marketing for Sutter Home Family Vineyards.

With beverages from colas to beer to vodka jumping on the low carb bandwagon, the company said it wanted adult consumers to consider wine as a low carb choice anyway.

"Many people are unaware that most dry wines are naturally low in carbohydrates. Sutter Home Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon each contain less than 7 grams of carbohydrates per five ounce serving. These wines can be labeled low carb according to the recent nutritional guidelines established by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau (TTB)," said Nyberg.

Isn't most red and dry wine low carb anyway? At around 4 carbs a glass?

Exactly what I was thinking. Unless you are planning to drink an entire bottle at one time, a few grams of carb isn't going to make much difference.
It's like the "low carb" ranch dressing I saw today...claims a 50% reduction in carbs over their regular ranch. Umm...true enough, but the regular has 2 grams of carb per serving and the "low carb" version has 1.

It's just a marketing ploy. Unless it is a sweet wine, like a white zinfandel or a piesporter, most wines are quite low in carbs.

If they're actually aiming to reduce the carb content, that's going to be a really dry wine. What they're probably doing is using a yeast strain that will eat up all those residual sugars that make the wine sweet (and add up in your carb count, unfortunately.)

I made cider once using champagne yeast. What most homebrewers/winemakers struggle with is keeping the cider sweet enough, ie stopping the fermentation when there's still some sugar left. My cider was great for my LCing purposes, but not exactly a tasty sipping cider like Strongbow. It was DRY!