Yes, there is a wine ingredient called Mega Purple

And it's more common than you’d think.

Once you know how to spot it, you’ll taste it everywhere.

And you’ll never look at cheap red wine the same way again. 🧵🍷

Mega Purple is a thick, sweet, inky extract made from a grape called Rubired.

Just a small dose adds deep color, smooth texture, and a candied finish to otherwise forgettable wine.

It’s grape-derived—but that doesn’t mean it’s good.

It started as a way to rescue weak vintages. But now it’s everywhere.

If you’re drinking wine from a box, or paying under $15 a bottle, especially for jammy reds—there’s a good chance Mega Purple is in the mix.

Think of it as a type of pancake style makeup for wine.

You won’t find it on the label. Wine doesn’t have to list ingredients.

But there are signs:

- Over-the-top purple color

- Sticky sweetness

- Flavors like grape jelly, vanilla extract, and artificial chocolate

Mega Purple is often used to mask poor fruit—like overcropped vines, underripe grapes, or wine rushed through fermentation.

And if it’s in there, it probably came with friends:

Velcorin, powdered tannins, added sugar, oak flavoring, enzymes, coloring agents.

At that point, it’s more of a science experiment than wine.

Wine made with better grapes and fewer tricks costs more.

That wine tells a story. Real terroir, real flavors, real art.

But more importantly, Low Intervention wine will probably leave you feeling a hell of a lot better the day after drinking it.

What's that worth?

Most people have no idea what’s actually in their wine.

I’ll be posting more about how to find bottles worth drinking and how to see past the veil the industry hides behind.

If this helped you, it'd help me if you liked or reNOSTed the first post or followed along!

Cheers!

BREAKING: U.S. Credit Card Defaults soared to $46 Billion, the most since the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis.

Here's a view of the Columbia River Gorge.

I almost didn't post it because it's blocked by clouds.

However, just like many things in life we compare expectations to reality.

The reality is the view is still beautiful, therefore, I'm sending it! 🧡

Send your reality, not your expectations. 🤙

“Tariffs would only affect imported wine. I’ll just buy American.”

WRONG!

American wine depends on global parts:

Cork → Portugal

Barrels → France

Machinery → Italy

Bottles → China

You can’t untangle a system like that overnight.🧵

Cork comes from cork oak trees.

Over 80% of it is harvested in Portugal and Spain.

There are no commercial cork forests in the U.S.

Even if you planted one tomorrow, you’d be waiting 25+ years before it could be harvested.

Barrels are a winemaker’s spice rack.

French oak: tight grain, adds structure and spice

American oak: broader grain, gives sweetness and coconut

Hungarian oak: earthier, more restrained

You can’t just swap one for another—

and even if you wanted to, the trees they’re made from take 80–120 years to grow.

Most winemaking equipment comes from Europe—especially Italy.

Presses, bottling lines, destemmers—tools perfected over generations of winemakers.

You could build more factories here.

But the highest-quality tools will still be made abroad.

By 2018, China was producing around 75% of the bottles used in American wine.

Glass is heavy, energy-intensive, and slow to scale.

China had the capacity. The U.S. relied on it.

Then 25% tariffs hit.

Chinese bottle imports dropped 55% in a year.

The U.S. never recovered full capacity.

Most bottles now come from O-I and Ardagh, but lead times are long and prices are up.

Tariffs are set to rise again in 2025.

Capacity is still being built out—seven years after the first shock.

You can grow the grapes here.

You can ferment them here.

But if you want to bottle that wine,

you’ll need cork from Portugal,

glass from China,

and barrels from trees planted in another century.

That’s the global backbone of American wine.

If you found this helpful, please give this post a like or ReNOST so it can show up in people's algorithms.

Some of you have never lived through the collapse of an empire before and it shows.

Good Morning Nostr.

Up early, straight outside for some sun. Grounded myself on the grass, morning dew, too wet, just went for some instead.

Lovely start to the day.

What's your favorite city? 🏙️

#AskNostr

BREAKING: Canada says they will remove the tariffs if the U.S. does

wedding date set. April 31.

If you comment on this note you'll be invited. Expenses paid.

Our little Ocean pool. All grown up and finding two blocks in a row!!

We posted this on Twitter 20 minutes ago but nobody zapped it.

Maybe they don't know how? 😆

lnbc500u1pn73r7jdrjf96zqmtfva58ggrdv94k2grnv4h8xefqdf6hxapqw3hjqem9wss8xmmdv5s9kcn9v4e96grfdcsxxctnv5sxjapqvdshgcmgv4ejqmmw9cs0p8udhvnp4qgrr273d7g3j774zpggpvs2v6k4flzlwj0kyvp42sl82uz9wlnpqzpp5k6wszq47rht5dtqdlsdvklqc96qunz2xp9ux8xrmftf8lnvrtlvqsp592f0pa8xc7gprxw7u2qphsy0tejemzcgxw9xztfyuwphazy9gjks9qyysgqcqpcxqyz5vqrzjqvdnqyc82a9maxu6c7mee0shqr33u4z9z04wpdwhf96gxzpln8jcrapyqqqqqqp0f5qqqqqqqqqqqqqq2q5sjmp6ypkrpdem0p4mhcd0aw5g5tltnq7cjl8wcuefj5zuczmk3z767786lt45mnm5p26cdxpr3vejpjvl3fqa4tfgqjhjl3ma57y2gqqg8e0h

Not sure about that 72k. But coming back to the recent lows seems to be an option. Sad, the recent build-up looked promising.

What do you think of when you hear "Soak Quest"?

#stoopidline say, no boner candle for you 🤷‍♂️

We've been working on a redesign for the Fountain app over the past month - and I'm looking for a couple of people who would be interested in testing and giving some feedback on the new design - ideally you already use Fountain or have used it previously but switched away because you didn't like the design.

Please let me know if you're interested in helping out! (+repost for visibility)

#asknostr

Finally got round to watching Atlas Shrugged. I know, I’m a pleb, but I tried to read the book but I’m not a fan of long fiction - prefer to just to get to the point :-) Ideas are very applicable to the current west though. But what nuance and I missing from the books?

favorite noise canceling headphones?

If nostr isn't dead, react to this note.

Sunshine