As a good European, I aim to get through half a bottle of wine most days, though I occasionally abstain midweek, or when drinking beer instead. We in the UK are really blessed when it comes to wine, since, making little drinkable of our own, we import it from everywhere (by way of contrast, try getting a decent bottle of South African in France). Lately, though, I find my enjoyments somewhat diminished by the increasing alcoholic content of the stuff. Time was, 12 or 12.5 per cent was pretty standard for a bottle of red. Not any more. A trip to my local branch of Oddbins (about 40 yards) revealed that 14.5 per cent was very common (not far off some fortified wines) and that it was hard to find a decent bottle of red under 13 per cent. I guess that there’s some good explanation for the rising strength of the stuff – probably to do with New World techniques. But I’d like something a little less fierce to knock back in front of the Sopranos.
{ 30 comments }
Timothy Burke 10.09.06 at 11:25 am
It’s a style thing, to some extent: syrahs, zinfandels, cabernets and other red varietals that benefit from a “big” style that is alcohol-heavy are performing well in the market, or at least that’s what I hear. (You could probably blame that crack about merlot in Sideways for some of this).
SamChevre 10.09.06 at 11:35 am
Do what the Austrians do, and mix a little soda-water into the wine.
Jay Conner 10.09.06 at 11:36 am
IT’s more a question of style than technique. Modern winemakers have a different view of ripeness, it is no longer thought of in terms of sugar, or even sugar/acid balance, but rather of maturity of polyphenols/tannins. The winemaker is out there in the vineyard tasting for full-flavored tannins and looking for dry, brown seeds. To get to this level of maturity, you will have passed the period of maximum sugar, and the grapes will have begun to dry a little, further concentrating the sugar. Combine this late pick date with the efficiency of modern yeast, some of which can convert 61% of the sugar into alcohol,and you get a higher final alcohol content. A winemaker who bucks this trend will find his wines less full, less flavorful, less intense and less favored by Robert Parker aka Peerless Leader. Result: hard to sell in an already glutted market.
dearieme 10.09.06 at 12:40 pm
Riesling, from Rhine and Moselle: Majestic frequently have wunnerful stuff and it’s not even expensive.
Chris Bertram 10.09.06 at 12:42 pm
This is true dearime. But she with whom I must share the bottle has an aversion to German wine. I’m working on it.
eweininger 10.09.06 at 12:51 pm
I second dearieme: at least in the US, those gothic fonts scare a lot of people off, keeping the price low on some good Kabinetts. Fortunately, my spouse is all for it.
Adam Roberts 10.09.06 at 1:27 pm
Fly South African wine to France, when gazillion-gallons of fine French wine is being made all around you? Such craziness. I’m not talking taste; I’m talking your carbon footprint. I feel guilty enough restricting myself to European wines (which are, alas, mostly flown the short distance to Britain). But at least I’m indirectly pumping pounds, not tons, of carbon into the air.
Slocum 10.09.06 at 1:49 pm
Fly South African wine to France, when gazillion-gallons of fine French wine is being made all around you? Such craziness. I’m not talking taste; I’m talking your carbon footprint.
Surely wine (a heavy and long-lived product) is mostly shipped by sea (and train and truck) rather than by air? Perhaps (and as I say this, I think–hey–there probably is a market niche) some enterprising green vendors will start not only shipping internationally by sea but by greenhouse-gas free sailing vessels ;)
P O'Neill 10.09.06 at 2:12 pm
A somewhat related curse is rising alcohol content in beer, particular when a “cool, dude!” cachet seems to attach to those Belgian beers with content nearing 10 percent. Other than getting wasted quickly, which probably is the point, I don’t see what the point is.
Martha Bridegam 10.09.06 at 2:37 pm
You’re not alone in complaining. The San Francisco Chronicle, which I’m embarrassed to say has a weekly “Wine” section, wrote up the issue last spring.
Chris Bertram 10.09.06 at 2:47 pm
That’s a great article Martha, thanks.
James Maidment 10.09.06 at 3:00 pm
I concur, however, look in the french wine section. You tend to find two or three (£5-£7) clarets that are at the 12.5% mark. Eg. Calvet Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Waitrose) is 12% (awaits flames indicating undrinkability of above).
trotsky 10.09.06 at 3:46 pm
What’s embarrassing about the largest newspaper in the United States’ most prominent wine region (Northern California) having a weekly “Wine” section? Or are you suggesting it should be daily?
Tom T. 10.09.06 at 3:54 pm
Is this a Robert Parker preference, perhaps?
Eamonn Fitzgerald 10.09.06 at 4:32 pm
Hate that New World! Now it’s gone and ruined our wine. What’s next to be wiped out? French film? Italian fiction? Those bastard Australians and Canadians have destroyed our culture! But Europe is going to strike back with an airplane that can carry 600 people. That’ll show ’em. And the only wine on board will be European. So there!
Barry 10.09.06 at 5:10 pm
Chris, if you knock back some heavy, greasy food with your wine, that will slow the absorption of alchohol. Fish and chips with white wine, of course :) I don’t know what would go well with vindaloo.
The advantage is that, after a year of doing that, you’ll actually *look* more like Tony Soprano. And the hot young chicks will stop hitting on you.
Timothy Burke 10.09.06 at 5:44 pm
Yeah, Parker is a goodly part of this, though by no means the only culprit.
Truthfully, I’m pretty partial to “big” zins and syrahs myself, so I don’t necessarily feel the alcoholization as a loss so much. I do wish there were some “warm”, spicy, lower-alcohol reds out there, I suppose. I just don’t like the soda-pop fruity “light” reds.
David Sucher 10.09.06 at 5:51 pm
Chris,
Another option besides greasy food is to dilute the wine. Add some water or — if you are into something more ‘elegante’ — use club soda.
Sunita 10.09.06 at 6:04 pm
I drink a lot of California wine, and 15% to 16% is really common in the zins and syrahs now. At the yearly zinfandel tasting/blowout in San Francisco a couple of years ago I ran across wines over 16%. And yes, people were making them on purpose. A lot of people like them; I don’t, because they taste way too huge and unbalanced to me. Parkerization is definitely one of the reasons for the trend (which I understand is now spreading past the Sierra Nevada). But it’s also because people want wine that is easily accessible when young, no matter how unsubtle. Just don’t try to cellar them for very long, and good luck pairing them with food. They seem to work the best with Indian, especially meats.
Armagnac Esq 10.09.06 at 9:12 pm
Understand your quandrary.
I find dry Rieslings, for example those from Margaret River or Tasmania, particularly amendable to watering down.
Their direct taste holds its own as the water opens it up.
nick s 10.10.06 at 12:14 am
The British absolutely get the best of the best from around the world. It’s remarkable to me that you’ll often find rare American wines in Oddbins that don’t find their way into most American cities. I think it’s a consequence of California makers having to deal with 49 other state laws, which makes it relatively non-migraine-inducing to stick a crate in a container ship bound for Blighty.
As for lighter-strength wines, you’re going to have trouble getting anything around 12.5% and below without a wodge of sweetness. (More here from SF Chron.) Alsace-styles are going to be your best bet, or perhaps Grenache in the redder hues. And a couple of other suggestions.
Harald Korneliussen 10.10.06 at 12:58 am
?
I must be a very bad european, then. Oh, well, it never meant much to me.
chris y 10.10.06 at 1:53 am
Most of the advice here seems to be to drink white wine, which isn’t an answer if red is appropriate to the occasion. Where’s that Davies when you need him?
Daniel 10.10.06 at 2:04 am
I’ve got an answer, but you’re not going to like it, because it’s “Beaujolais”. Fuck you all. No, fuck you all. That was good stuff in the 1980s when it was in fashion and it’s good stuff now. Oddbins has a couple of decent Chiantis that aren’t too heavy on the alcohol too.
I think the tide might be turning on the beer inflation thing btw; Beck’s have billboards up all over London promoting a new beer at 4%, with the 4% alcohol strength as a specific selling point.
(this might be a double post, sorry)
bad Jim 10.10.06 at 2:50 am
A quick assay of the contents of my cabinet, overstocked and under-consumed because of a recent party, all from Trader Joe’s and fairly inexpensive:
Californian:
13.5 Sangiovese
14.2 Syrah
13.6 Cabernet
13.5 Zinfandel
13.5 Viognier
French:
12.5 Bordeaux (Merlot/Cabernet)
Italian:
13.5 Aglianico
13 Montepulciano
12 Pinot Grigio
Spanish:
13.5 Tempranillo/Syrah
dearieme 10.10.06 at 10:43 am
If we’re going to mention Rieslings from Elsewhere, we’re drinking a lovely one from Martinborough, NZ. (Margrain, from Oddbins).
agm 10.10.06 at 8:30 pm
vino verdhe. Just sayin.
Dirk Zorn 10.11.06 at 3:13 am
Here’s an interesting “article”:http://www.newyorker.com/printables/critics/040906crat_atlarge by Adam Gopnik from the New Yorker taking a view that differs from the SFC piece referred to by Martha (10.). Gopnik thus argues that Parker’s reviews and wine rating system profoundly shaped the taste for higher alcohol levels in wine rather than simply reflecting an underlying change in consumer preferences.
abb1 10.11.06 at 8:09 am
We only drink Bordeaux, mostly Haut-Medoc variety and it’s always 12-12.5. Unless we drink absinthe (new Swiss variety) with orange juice, in which case it can be made as strong as you like.
Thom Brooks 10.11.06 at 2:57 pm
Diluting the wine may not be the worst idea. Of course, we all know that the ancient Greeks did exactly this. In fact, democracy is called by Socrates (or so we are led to believe by Plato) the “unmixed wine” of freedom—freedom is intoxicating if not “moderated,” by a bit of water…or lawgiver on hand. I confess that I agree!
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