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Are you a fan of high-alcohol wines?
I found this story from insidebayarea.com entitled “California wines get alcohol boost” pretty intriguing. It dovetails with what some winemakers confided in recent visits to the Santa Barbara and Paso Robles winemaking regions of California, both of which have climates that allow winemakers and vineyard owners a lot of leeway as to how ripe they want their grapes to be at harvest. Many of them know their showy, high-extract, high-alcohol pinot noirs and syrahs and zinfandels won’t age well.
Here’s the portion of the insidebayarea.com story that caught my eye:
Grapes picked early require more time in the bottle, so they develop flavor and soften their acids and tannins. In contrast, the high-octane wines don’t improve with age, winemakers said. Instead, they can deteriorate — because acidity helps preserve wines, the low acid-high sugar wines may start to taste flat or “flabby” over time.
“They just fall apart,” said Jerold O’Brien of Silver Mountain Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, who said small, local growers favor lower-alcohol wines.
And because the super-ripe grapes tend to taste alike, there is a loss of distinction based on region, or terroir, Dunn said.
That’s Dunn as in Randy Dunn, who makes legendary cabernets from Howell Mountain grapes.
I suspect the backlash over high-alcohol wines has already begun, and consumer tastes are shifting slowly away from the monsters, much in the same way as consumers rebelled against overly oaky chardonnays and other wood-dominated wines.
A return to something resembling middle ground would be welcome.
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Comments
By Jan
January 6, 2010 10:02 AM | Link to this
I HATE high alcohol wines. I’m a petite woman and if a wine has more than 14%, I can only have one glass before I start to feel the effects. I would like to enjoy wine throughout my meal so I look for wines with lower alcohol. That frequently means I drink European wine. At a restaurant the other night, we started with French Champagne, then an Australian Semillion and finished with a California port. Guess what? All of us felt fine! The previous week, we were out with friends and one guest picked a big California Zin at 15.2% alc. One bottle-that’s all we drank and everyone wanted to go home after dinner because we all felt tired. As a restaurant owner-which customer would you like? A table that buys 3 bottles of wine or 1? If wineries/Sommeliers/restaurant owners would educate the public instead of getting on the Parker/Laube bandwagon, I think sales could increase. If women are the key consumers in most households, why aren’t wineries targeting them with this message??
By Robert O'Maoilriain Wine Critic
January 5, 2010 11:30 PM | Link to this
The ideal alcohol levels varies from region to region and varietal to varietal. There is no one magical number. Let the terroir decide when to pick the grapes. Sugar/alc doesn’t equal maturity. Worry about physical maturity in grapes not brix and potential alcohol. Wine is about flavor not lab test. All this talk of alcohol only leads producers to add water to their wine. It doesn’t change anything else. I’ll take a high alc wine any day over a wine with water and fruit concentrate added so that it reads 13.5%. I don’t want my Bordeaux with more than 13.5% but I don’t want my California Cabs with less than 14.5%. I agree it is all about balance and some wines can simply handle more alc and stay balanced. Harvesting immature grapes in a warm climate shows less terroir than mature grapes in a warm climate. All those wines just taste like a faint shadow of tart raspberry. Bottom line is California is not Bordeaux and vise visa. The climates are completly different as is the entire terroir. You can’t make apples into oranges. www.sonomasom.com
By Larry
January 5, 2010 9:53 PM | Link to this
I don’t know - I guess I’m just not very sophisticated. I drink what I like. I buy what I enjoy, which is mostly dry reds. I’ve got 50 to 60 bottles of one thing and another on hand and have to confess that I don’t know the alcohol content of a single one of them. Some have big fruit, some have layers of complexity. But I never think about the alcohol level. If I want something with more octane I’ll drink scotch. But the wines I have I selected because I enjoy their flavor and feel. Am I so far out of the mainstream?
By Smitty
January 5, 2010 4:20 PM | Link to this
It’s difficult to find a Bordeaux with more than 13.5% alcohol. Conversely, it’s hard to find a California red with a content less than 14.5% It all has to do with Americans affinity for over-indulgence. Americans don’t drink wine to complement food, they drink wine to get drunk. Nuff said!
By David Rossi
January 5, 2010 3:40 PM | Link to this
Consumers want balanced wines and don’t care about alc levels. They also do not care about ph, VA, free SO2, glu/fru or any other “inside baseball” measurements. If a wine has obvious heat due to high alc then of course it is a problem. Ageability is an elusive thing and is not directly tied to alc levels(the comment earlier on Port brings up a good extreme case of this). Acid, Tannin, Dry extract all have a role to play. I say enjoy the wine and forget the alc%!
By Gary
January 5, 2010 3:32 PM | Link to this
I am a winemaker and this brings me back to a class I had at UC Davis when the Professor stated that “people talk dry and drink sweet.” Peoples tastes change over time and you might become board with certain wines over time. Balance is key I agree, but what you are seeing in the wine industry are winemakers changing their style based on what is selling. Sometimes forcing the issue between balance and style. We all know how to make balanced wine this is not magic, but if the person down the road is winning by selling a certain style of wine, then the market is going to push the winemakers in that direction. If you are all tired of High Alcohol wines then we will see that in the sales, and the direction of winemaking will change. My personal feeling is that my Professor statement will still hold correct.
By larry schaffer
January 5, 2010 2:08 PM | Link to this
Balance is the key to any wine … period. Not alcohol levels; not acid levels; not pH … Everything needs to be in balance for the wine to be at its optimum … Does this mean that a high alcohol wine with plenty of acid will NOT age well? I don’t know for sure, but I would venture someone out there may … What I do know, and what I agree with others on, is that the concept of ‘ageability’ has changed radically over the past decade. It used to be that you would NEVER see anyone touching a 1st growth Bordeaux or high end CA Cab for at least 5 years … Now it is commonplace to see tasting notes of 2-3 year old wines from these areas … James Laube from WS did a great blog last year where he talked about enjoying many wines younger rather than older. He liked the ‘fruity’ component of the wines when young - something that certainly dissipates with age. And he was NOT referring just to big alcoholic fruit bombs … I just don’t think the answer is that simple - nor is the question with ‘ageability’ to some being 3 years and others a decade or two … Just another viewpoint this morning! Cheers!
By chiefwino
January 5, 2010 8:27 AM | Link to this
I agree with the age-ability comments on high alcohol wines. However, when young the real issue is balance. I have had some superb high alcohol wines that had a great balance of fruit, acid and alcohol and others that were like drinking bad grappa. I also tend to prefer high alcohol wines alone as opposed to matching with food. Now intentionally fortified wines (i.e. port) are another story!
By Nancy
January 4, 2010 7:50 PM | Link to this
The Kinkead Ridge winegrower is not a big fan of high alcohol wines, but sometimes you have to deal with what mother nature gives you, e.g. the 2008 Viognier/Roussane, and the 2007 reds.
By mel
January 4, 2010 3:52 PM | Link to this
I can’t help it, for my taste bring on the BIG zins. if they don’t age well drink them young!!