Additives to Wine - innovation or contamination?

We touched briefly in class on the fact that there are an increasing number of wines with various additives in them.  This inspired me to dig a little bit into what those additives are, who uses them and how.  I'm curious whether people view these additives as innovations that are moving the wine industry forward or whether they are perversions of a time-honored process that should not be contaminated with chemicals.

Here are a few that I thought were interesting:

- Tannin: While I always thoughts tannin was just something that occurs naturally in wine (to varying degrees in different types), it turns out that in addition to the tannin that occurs naturally (in seeds as well as in oak barrels), many wine makers also add tannin through either tannin powder or oak chips. Do you think using oak chips instead of aging in oak barrels is a clever way of cutting costs (and potentially more environmentally friendly), or is it a perversion of the traditional wine making process?  What about tannin powders - is that less acceptable because instead of just changing the way the wine is exposed to oak, you are changing flavors that are "supposed to come" from the grapes?

- Sugar: It turns out that when grapes do not ripen sufficiently to create the appropriate amount of sugar (or a winemaker wants higher alcohol by volume), either cane sugar or sweetened grape concentrate can be added to the wine to increase the sugar content and thus increase the alcohol content.  Legality of this varies, indicating there are some qualms about how this should be treated.  Most of the food we eat has all kinds of additives (in particular sugar), so should wine be treated any differently?  Does it merely tarnish the romantic vision we have of wine-making as an art that depends heavily on the variability of the crop and the skills of the wine maker rather than a science where the wine maker adds whatever the grapes don't provide that year?

- Sulfur: Sulfites are often added to remove unwanted bacteria.  There has been some controversy about whether sulfites can be blamed for the "red wine headache" that some people experience and American producers are required to state on the label whether the wine contains sulfites.

- Stabilizers: Chemicals such as Acetaldehyde and Dimethyl Dicarbonate (DMDC) are also often used for color stabilization and sterilization.  DMDC is commonly used in other fresh produce products like orange juice and flavored ice tea.

What all this comes down to for me is, do we consider wine making an art or a science?  Is it about tradition or just making as much as possible?  If we are interested in increasing the consumer base with tasty, low-priced wines, are additives a key part of the equation? The answers are probably different for everyone and perhaps there is room in the industry for every type of producer and consumer.

More info here if you're interested: http://winefolly.com/review/wine-additives/