After a series of recent challenges, Smith is back to doing what he does best: creating eye-catching brands that provide quality
Charles Smith, founder of Seattle’s House of Smith Wines, has launched a new brand called Real Wine. The nationally distributed brand will feature wines that bear an ingredients label.
“Real Wine and putting ingredients labeling on it is the next step in transparency,” Smith says. “We want cage-free eggs. We want free-range chicken. We want clean water, but we’re willing to drink wine that’s a chemistry set. We should at least know.”
A look at Real Wine
Real Wine, which is already on shelves in some locations, will start with a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon with a combined production of 35,000 cases. Fruit for the wines comes from sustainably farmed grapes where no synthetic chemicals have been used.
At the winery, grapes are fermented using ambient yeast. During winemaking, no additives are utilized, and the wines have minimal sulfites. (Sulfites occur naturally in wine; many winemakers also add them during the winemaking process.) The Real Wine Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay will be offered at a suggested retail price of $20.
Smith has been making wine this way since 1999. However, with Real Wine, he is using the brand to drive a larger conversation with consumers and with the industry.
“It’s leading by example,” Smith says. “Somebody has to stand up and say something at some point.”
A long list of things can be legally added to wine or used during the winemaking process in the U.S. Many consumers would be surprised to learn that various types of manipulation occur both for entry-level and top-end wines. At present, there is no requirement that U.S. wineries list ingredients on the label.
“There should be no resistance to putting ingredients on the label, or at least in your QR code [leading to an ingredients list],” Smith says. “Because otherwise, what do you have to hide?” Going forward, in addition to Real Wine, all House of Smith wines will also have an ingredients label.
Writing new books at House of Smith
Smith also recently launched a label called Sex Rosé. House of Smith made
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Images courtesy of House of Smith.
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I was at a wine event at the Columbia Tower Club Monday and saw Charles there and wondered why. I didn’t go to his table – expecting more of the same mass-produced, ubiquitous Kung Fu Girl, etc… along with some of those confusing-to-consumer labels, but reading this explains his presence: a new wine line. Glad to hear he’s going the way of transparency (a la Randall Grahm) – long long long overdue in our industry. That we can dump bleach and hydrogen pyroxide in our wine & not tell the consumer… well I’ve been telling consumers this for decades, I share that whole long list with them. Makes selling the better stuff oh so much easier :)
This article makes it seem like this is an innovative idea….it’s not at all. Kudos to Charles for joining many great producers that have been doing this for years. Ridge has been putting ingredient labels on their wines for decades. Even Scout & Cellar, the MLM started doing this years ago. Maybe some better context and history would make this a better piece.
Eric, that was not my intent. I am aware of the work of Ridge and many others on ingredients labels. I have also written about Sokol Blosser’s recent efforts here in the Pacific Northwest.
As indicated by the title and subhed, this article is about the launch of this brand as well as recent goings-on at House of Smith. I agree that some historical context about ingredients on wine labels would have been helpful. However, I was reluctant to make what was already a 1,000+ word article into a 1,200 word article and decided to push that to a subsequent article. I appreciate the feedback.