Coming on strong

Is alcohol the key ingredient in your wine or a necessary inconvenience? The way wine drinkers feel about the most stimulating component in their beverage of choice probably depends on how wine fits into their lives. For those of us who are wine professionals required to taste hundreds of wines every week, and for anyone with a low tolerance for alcohol, wine’s active ingredient can be something to be feared rather than relished.

We professionals steadfastly spit during the working day, while someone with a history of bad reactions to really potent ferments presumably takes careful note of the alcoholic strength that has to be stated on all wine labels by law. An occasional, recreational drinker on a budget, on the other hand, may well actively seek out those bottles that promise the heftiest hit.

Alcohol levels in wine can range from as little as 5 per cent for a really sweet Moscato d’Asti in which much of the grape sugar remains unfermented into alcohol, to more than 20 per cent for a port whose natural alcohol level has been boosted by added spirit. When I started writing about wine 35 years ago, wines that naturally reached more than 14 per cent alcohol were rare, but now it is not uncommon to see alcohol levels of more than 16 per cent.

The two reasons most often adduced for a general increase in wine’s potency across the board are that yeasts have become more efficient at converting grape sugar into alcohol and climate change. The theory is that as the planet warms up, more sugar is produced in grapes and this is fermented into more alcohol. But it’s unlikely that this is simply due to global warming.

For a working paper published last May by the American Association of Wine Economists, tens of thousands of alcohol levels for wines imported between 1992 and 2007 by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which buys wines from all over the world, were analysed and compared with actual temperature increases in their regions of origin. The wine economists were able to show that the increase in average alcohol levels was much greater than could be explained by any change in climate and concluded “our findings lead us to think that the rise in alcohol content of wine is primarily man-made”. They cited in particular “evolving consumer preferences and expert ratings” as more likely to have driven up alcohol levels. In other words, wine producers perceive that wine consumers and authorities alike want wines that taste riper, have softer tannins and lower acidity (acid levels fall as grapes ripen) and have deliberately chosen to have grapes picked later than they once were.

Edmeades Zinfandel 2008 Mendocino

Like Grenache Noir, the Zinfandel grape has to be really ripe before it produces interesting wine. This delicious example from northern California (£16.99 Noel Young, The Wine Library, The Halifax Wine Co) is well over 15% alcohol but is beautifully balanced. See winesearcher.com for more stockists.

In their study, mean actual alcohol levels over this long period were highest in American, Argentine, Australian and Chilean wines (13.88 per cent, 13.79 per cent, 13.75 per cent and 13.71 per cent, respectively). The average for New World countries was 13.65 per cent, while the European average was only 13.01 per cent, boosted considerably by Spain’s 13.43 per cent.

What was startling, however, was the difference between the alcohol percentages that appear on labels and the actual alcohol levels as analysed by the Canadian retailer. “The label claims on average,” say the researchers, “understate the true alcohol content by about 0.39% alcohol for Old World wine and about 0.45% for New World wine”.

In conversation with winemakers, the economists found a general reluctance to admit quite how high alcoholic strengths have to be in order to achieve the imagined goal of gustatory fullness and roundness. It seems as though producers are aware of a general wariness of high alcohol levels yet wish to deliver a velvety texture that they reckon can be achieved only by prolonged “hang time” of grapes on the vine.

This under-reporting of alcohol is even easier in the US than in Europe. Stated alcohol levels can be up to 1.5 per cent less (or more) than the actual alcohol in wines of up to 14 per cent in the US, where the tolerance for wines of more than 14 per cent is still a full percentage point. Wines sold in the EU must be labelled with a percentage no more than 0.5 per cent different from the actual level. The study found that countries with the most notable understatements of alcohol content were Chile, Argentina, Spain and the US.

Although the average alcoholic strength of the French wines analysed was “only” 13.01 per cent, even France is home to some extremely potent wines in the hottest, driest southern regions. As I pointed out last week, some Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2010 was more than 16 per cent alcohol and I have been alarmed by comments from some wine lovers who say they have already stopped buying Châteauneuf because they find it too potent. Part of the problem in the southern Rhône is that the principal grape, Grenache Noir, needs an extended time on the vine before its full potential is realised. Vincent Avril of Clos des Papes argues, “There are now 15 days between sugar and phenolic [tannin] ripeness, so we are forced to make high alcohol wines.”

He illustrated this with a taste of the most sublime, spicy, even delicate young 2010 from a cask containing a blend of Grenache and Mourvèdre grapes that apparently notched up 16.1 per cent alcohol. Some high alcohol wines are marked by an uncomfortable burn on the palate or throat, but not in the hands of a master winemaker. Herein lies the problem. That wine was so delicious I would be tempted to drink it in quantity, but I would curse it the next morning.

Producers in Châteauneuf are aware that they are in a special position. They are allowed to use a wide range of grape varieties and there are signs of increased plantings of the lighter Cinsault, such as Counoise and Vaccarèse. Other producers are experimenting with pruning times, timed irrigation and leaf removal in an attempt to close the gap between sugar and phenolic ripening. And in Roussillon producers such as Gérard Gauby have seen biodynamic viticulture help cram more flavour into earlier-picked grapes.

I think we can expect even more discussion of this issue over the years to come.

For full notes on tastings see Purple pages of JancisRobinson.com

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Jancis’s picks

Wines that are naturally relatively low in alcohol

Brachetto d’Aqui 5%

Moscato d’Asti and other light, fizzy Muscats 5-5.5%

Sweet German Rieslings 7-9%

Lambrusco 7-9%

Hunter Valley Semillon 10-11%

English still wines 10-12%

Loire wines 11-12.5%

Riesling in general 10-13%

For further recommendations see JancisRobinson.com