| Boozing it up |
| Thursday, 26 August 2010 | |
Why the rising alcohol levels in wine matterI recently received this note from a reader: "I have noticed a trend towards stronger wines (14-, 15- and even 15.5-per-cent alcohol content is no longer uncommon) and more 'wood' content as well. I am not too sure this is a good thing. If I could send a message to the wineries, it would go like this ... 'Please put more fruit into your wines ... if I want alcohol, I drink Scotch, and if I want wood juice, I do like one of my aunts ... I drink maple syrup!'"He's right on at least one of those counts: that alcohol levels -- of red wines, especially -- have been creeping up steadily. It used to be, only a decade or so ago, that the most common alcohol level for red wine was 12.5 per cent. Now, outside a few regions (like Bordeaux), 13-13.5 per cent is the rule, and 14 per cent isn't uncommon. The bruisers, like some high-octane Italian wines (Amarones, super-Tuscans) and especially California zinfandels, head even further north and top 16 per cent. Two questions: Why? And does it make any difference? To "Why?" there are various answers. In some cases, high alcohol is what you get from the grape or the winemaking. When grapes get super-ripe or are allowed to shrivel and lose water, they gain high levels of sugar that translate (during fermentation) into high levels of alcohol. The prominence of higher-alcohol wines on the shelves these days partly reflects the fact that more of our wines come from very warm areas -- like California, Chile, South Africa and Australia -- that produce grapes with more sugar. There's a reason why New World wines are stereotyped as being "fruit-forward." Reducing the alcohol level would mean intervening in some way, such as diluting the juice with water, as is sometimes done in California to keep the alcohol level of some zinfandels from shooting into space (they call the water used for this purpose "Jesus juice" -- water that's turned into wine). Or winemakers can intervene sooner by picking grapes earlier, when they have less sugar content. There are other factors, too. The yeasts that convert sugar to alcohol die when the alcohol level reaches a certain point, but that fatal point has risen steadily as new strains of yeast have been developed. Of course, that suggests intent to produce higher-alcohol wine. I'm sure there are producers who try to push alcohol up--my reader might not like it, but there is a market for it--because they want to make wines big in every respect: deep colour, dense flavours, high alcohol. Does it matter, this elevated alcohol? From a sensory point of view, it matters to me if it causes an imbalance. If you can smell, taste or feel the alcohol, it means it's a component that's not in harmony. Otherwise, the main objection is that, glass for glass, it affects you more quickly. It's a good reason to take note of the alcohol level when you're drinking wine (or any alcoholic drink). As for the wood in wine, that's another column. |