Aldi Bushland Reserve Shiraz: Now with milk?

milltown

I've been a big fan of Aldi's Bushland reserve shiraz for a good while now. Nice flavourful, easy drinking wine, and at only €5.99 a bottle I needn't feel bad about going through a couple of midweek bottles

For the last few months though, it's been missing from the shelves, only to reappear recently with a slightly different label. Score!

So I cast my eye over the new label the other day and there's a section on it for allergy information:
Contains sulphites. Fair enough, all wine does as far as I know.
Contains Milk. I beg your pardon? What? While I have an interest in wine I had never heard before of wine containing milk. I wondered is this a Aldi/Bushland specific thing, or just the next stage of the "everything is bad for you" campaign, to stop the lactose intolerant from enjoying red wine.

Wikipedia offered the closest thing to an explanation I could find:

Malolactic fermentation
Malolactic fermentation occurs when lactic acid bacteria metabolize malic acid and produce lactic acid and carbon dioxide. This is carried out either as an intentional procedure in which specially cultivated strains of such bacteria are introduced into the maturing wine, or it can happen by chance if uncultivated lactic acid bacteria are present.

Malolactic fermentation can improve the taste of wine that has high levels of malic acid, because malic acid in higher concentration generally causes an often unpleasant harsh and bitter taste sensation, whereas lactic acid is perceived as more gentle and less sour.

The process is used in most red wines and is discretionary for white wines.

Jagera

I did a winery tour in Australia and was surprised at what they put in.

2 things I remember, condensed milk, and pieces of oak timber, literally 2 metres long bits of 4 by 4 - for that oaky taste.

Hasn't stopped me drinking it.

desk1

Casein, which is a milk protein, is used as a fining agent in wine so I would think that is where the milk 'ingredient' is coming from

oblivious

Malt acid is is not from milk it a product of fruit fermentation an found naturally in the grape skins. An its broken down to lactic acids which is less acidic and flavored by the wine industry.

A bacteria will brake it down very slowly but is not always present and favors the stat of spring to begin its work in the barrel