No Sugar Added
Frey grapes on the vine next to our iconic water tower
All our wines are made with no sugar added during the fermentation process. Rest assured that the only ingredients that go into Frey wines are the grapes themselves! Because we are committed to making all of our wines “no sugar added” wines, we rely on the sweetness of grape juice alone to sustain fermentation into wine.
Periodically, we get asked on our social media platforms and on phone calls to the office about what our ingredients are and, specifically, if we add sugar to our wines. The truth is that the only ingredient in our wine is organic grapes. Sometimes, we use organic processing aids like organic yeast to produce our wines (if you’re looking for wine made with just the wild yeasts on the grapes themselves, check out our Biodynamic line). We never add any chemicals, we never add any sugar, and we never add any animal products to produce any Frey wines. This is part of what sets us apart. We are committed to making a clean drink that you can trust.
Our Vineyard Manager Derek Dahlen with grapes ready for pressing
Just Grape Juice
Grapes are naturally sweet. In Northern California, we experience a long growing season that allows our grapes to naturally ripen and mature on the vine. The grapes themselves provide everything needed to make an excellent fermentation into delicious wine.
Additionally, a great deal of the naturally occurring sweetness in grapes is used up during the fermentation process when creating wine. The flavor of the grapes and the high quality of the organic vineyards all come through our Frey wines without any additives, preservatives, or chemicals corrupting the terroir.
Each bottle of Frey wine is made with no added sugar
Chaptalization
No processed sugar is ever added during our wine fermentations at Frey Vineyards. The process of adding sugar to produce wine is called chaptalization, and it is the subject of some controversy.
“Chaptalization is the process of adding sugar to unfermented grape must in order to increase the alcohol content after fermentation.”
Chaptalization is actually not legally allowed in winemaking in California. It’s also prohibited in Argentina, Australia, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and South Africa. Sometimes, in large commercial operations, where wines are processed and manipulated to produce standardized results, grape must concentrates may be used to bring up the sweetness in these winemaking regions if their grapes cannot produce enough sweetness naturally.
However, in France, Germany, Oregon, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and New York, wineries are all currently allowed to add sugar through chaptalization. Commonly, this practice is attributed to places with cooler/shorter growing seasons where the grapes may not be able to get ripe enough and sweet enough on the vines themselves to have the proper naturally occurring fruit juice sugars to produce wonderful wine.
In California, we appreciate luxuriously long, hot summers where the grapes can fully develop the natural sugars needed to produce great wine. Here, we never need even consider adding sugar to our wine fermentations. It’s simply unnecessary here in Northern California, and because grapes have enough sweetness on their own, California winemaking has deemed “chaptalization” illegal here.
Organic vineyards where all the magic happens at Frey
Simply the Best
We focus on growing the best grapes possible and then fermenting the best wine possible. We value bringing you the highest quality wines possible. We produce wines that are made organically with grapes that have been grown organically. Every bottle of Frey wine comes from Frey Vineyards with the guarantee that your glass has no sugar added.
Sweet grapes ready for harvest on the vine
How Sweet?
Each bottle of wine can be placed on a spectrum of sweetness. On one end of the spectrum, there are “very sweet” wines, and on the other end of the spectrum are “bone dry” wines, meaning that the grape sugars have all been used up in the fermentation to alcohol. Most Frey wines naturally fall on the drier side of the spectrum. The only current exception is our special Late Harvest Zinfandel dessert wine, which is made with grapes that have been allowed to get very sweet on the vine.
If you’re looking for drier wines in general, among our reds, you can check out our Sangiovese or our Cabernet Sauvignon. Our Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc offerings are currently amongst our driest whites. Exact sweetness measurements change from season to season and vintage to vintage, but these grapes reliably ferment into dry wines. Uncork the organic and enjoy!