Eat This, Not That

Eat This, Not That is an American media franchise including the eatthis.com website, quarterly magazine, videos, e-books and downloadable pdf's, according to wikipedia.  We are familiar with them from scanning news aggregator websites where they post regularly.  They are kind of like a Consumer Reports for foodies.  

Sugar is definitely a hot button issue for them.  In their 2010 publication, Drink This, Not That, they focus primarily on the heavily sugared drinks Americans love.  We're interested in them today because one of our suppliers sent us the provocative October 19, 2022 article, 6 Wines Made from the Lowest Quality Ingredients.  Frankly, we were shocked, not that adulteration was going one - that's an open secret - but rather that someone had the guts to out the crooks. 

(Because there are no laws preventing adulteration of wines sold to a public and we shouldn't have to think of such a thing anyway; the term "crooks" isn't meant literally.)

90+ percent of the American wine business is controlled by the thirty largest companies in the world and they are overwhelmingly American.  To say they are powerful in this industry is to understate things just a tad.  They are the domestic wine industry.  They control the chain store wine business.  So why poke the bear?

Back in 2015 Constellation Brands, the second largest wine company in the world, purchased the Meiomi label from Joe Wagner of Caymus Vineyards fame.  Constellation is the well known long time owner of Mega Purple grape concentrate, since sold to Vie-Del.  Tintura grape concentrates have been around a long time and go by many different brand names.  Mega Purple is just the best known brand.

According to the Eat This, Not That article, Meiomi is the number one wine made with the lowest quality ingredients because of the use of the grape concentrate.  That's where they stop.  After all, they are a food magazine.  If a wine-writing muckraker had done the expose, they would have gone further.