I see from an article in today’s Drinks Business that Robert Parker, speaking at the industry conference WineFuture Hong Kong, has criticised increasing alcohol levels in wine.
Parker (quoted by DB’s estimable editor, Patrick Schmitt) suggests that wines should not exceed 15% alcohol: “If you’ve made a wine at 16, 17, or 18% then that is not a table wine, and should not be sold as table wine; 15% I think is palatable, but above 15%, you start to get into a very grey area.” See the article here.
The term “table wine” is key: the wine world is rich in acclaimed wines at 16% and beyond, but they inhabit different categories and expectations. A Tawny Port with an alcohol level of 20% perturbs no one because the tension between sweetness, extract, acidity and oxidative ‘bite’ offsets alcohol. We also tolerate and expect that heady, sweet burn: that’s what Port is, and has been for some time.
Modern viticultural techniques and warmer conditions have made sugar - and therefore alcohol - levels possible in the vineyards of Europe, never mind Australia, that were unthinkable 40 years ago. These are heady possibilities to a vigneron. We are, I think, in the middle of a pendulum shift not unlike that which saw the gleeful adoption of new oak in the 1980s moderate with time.
For table wines, high alcohol levels (which I define as 14% and above) are in danger of becoming the new oak - a badge of unsophistication. I meet many sincere wine lovers on my courses who tell me they will not buy wine if the alcohol level is more than 13%.
There are pragmatic considerations for seeking out less alcoholic wines: a 15% Barossa Shiraz (of which I am a Saturday night devotee) is not an ideal school-night wine unless you can stop at one glass, or you have a high hangover threshold.
The distaste for overly high alcohol is literal for many: protruding alcohol makes for hot, jerky wines that can tell you nothing, but slur and collapse, falling off a bar stool and onto the finish. High alcohol and low acidity (or more correctly, pH) predispose a wine to rapid or premature ageing.
Higher alcohol carries an association with a less refined enjoyment, and the straightforward enthusiasm of the boozer. We wine lovers like to think we focus on the aesthetics of texture and flavour – the mark of a true appreciator is that alcohol is not the point. In the UK, importers can round up or down to the nearest 0.5 of a %. I’ve never come across anyone who rounded up. Maybe in Muscadet. The Guardian reported earlier this year on research that showed how importers into Canada routinely (and legally) understated alcohol levels to gain marketing advantage. Perhaps alcohol in wine is like sex in a marriage. Everybody tells you it’s not the most important element in that relationship. But if it isn’t right…
The problem is that wine is not made by numbers, and we do no service to pretend otherwise. This rather amusing tale (from Jancis Robinson MW) of swapped labels during a blind tasting of California Pinot Noir makes the point neatly of the risks of alcohol prejudice.
Many exceptional, balanced and very fine wines are made at high alcohol levels. Context is king (a point that Parker also makes). Perhaps, now, finally is the time for lightly alcoholic German white wines to sweep back, victorious, into our glasses and restaurants. Watch out for the delicious, fragrant and - oops – generously alcoholic Pinot Noirs, however.
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