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Will Ouweleen's avatar

I am the Vintner for O-Neh-Da Authentic Sacramental Wines and I want to address several points made in the article. Canon Law 924 and GIRM322 direct the production of valid and licit sacramental wine. The wine for the Eucharist must be natural, pure grape and not corrupt. While many claims can be made that wine is "natural" let me offer a clarification and insight. Grapes ferment into wine without any additions because there is a fungus/yeast present in the vineyard and on the skin of the grape. "Spontaneous fermentation" occurs without the addition of any dried bagged yeast, diammonium phosphate (DAP) tartaric acid, citric acid, non-grape sugars, mega red, mega purple, etc. Just like 'artificial insemination' of the womb is not allowed in married couples, inseminating the wine with yeast and nutrients is not, in our opinion, following the Canons strictly. O-Neh-Da grapes are grown without any herbicides, pesticides or chemicals and the wine is not 'made' it is grown, filtered and bottle. O-Neh-Da wines are truly pure and natural and have received continuous approbation fro the Bishop of Rochester since our founding in 1872. Not any wine will suffice as almost all wines have added sugars, bagged, yeast, stabilizers such as potassium sorbate and the like. Also wines can be ameliorated with water and may contain non-grape flavors. O-Neh-Da sacramental wines are simply Finger Lakes grapes which spontaneously ferment (slowly) into sacramental wine over many months. Great pains are taken in the vineyard and winery to assure that the wine is pure, natural, and of premium quality. It is sad to hear from Bishops that 'any wine will do.' That was not Bishop McQuaid's understanding in 1872 and it is not our understanding to this day. It is absolutely NOT a marketing gimmick at O-Neh-Da to label our wines as "Sacramental." Not only do we consider production of sacramental wine for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to be the second most important vocation on Earth (first being the priest in persona Christi), but we labor tirelessly to produce only the best wine in accord with the Canons.

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Katelyn Greenlee's avatar

I used to work for a parish that encouraged parishioners to donate wine for Mass. I received a number of eye rolls when I asked if we told them it had to be wine from only grapes, after I found an unopened bottle of wine that included other fruits in the sacristy.

People may think it's stupid to care about such specific detail but the fact is the Church has specified in the law to a level of detail, so we must obey. To do otherwise is traveling down the road to beer and pizza Masses.

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