Tuesday, July 31 2007
High on Alcohol
The Sonoma Press Democrat's Wineblog had an interesting piece today. Randy Dunn, California Zin Guru and the winemaker behind some great Howell Mountain vintages is has written an open letter chiding wineries for letting alcohol content get out of hand.This is a very interesting development. Influential wine critics (like Robert Parker) are blamed for imposing their personal tasting preferences on wine. A Parker rating of 90 points will generate a hundred times the sales of a rating of 89, and it's well-understood that he favours very fruity, under-structured reds with very high alcohol levels. As a consequence more and more commercial wines are coming in at 15-16% alcohol. To achieve the sugar levels necessary to produce this much alcohol, grapes have to be left on the vine until they're nearly raisiny-ripe. This leads to soft tannins, low acid and cooked, 'jammy' fruit.
It also leads to the 'Pepsi Challenge' effect. Most folks will remember the advertising campaign which pitted blind tastes of Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola, where Pepsi always came out on top. This is mainly due to the fact that Pepsi is lower in acid, and sweeter than Coke. If they're only taking a sip, most people favour the sweeter, softer style. But if you're drinking a whole can that sweetness can become cloying, and tiresome. Same deal with big, overcooked fruity wines: if you're tasting thirty or forty wines at one, the sweetest, fruitiest, 'biggest' wine will stand out, while the more delicate and structured wines with more acid and more challenging tannins will seem (by comparison) harsh and less lovable.
I'm hopeful that Dunn will prod at least some folks to go back to making less overbearing reds, with 12.5-13.5% alcohol and rational levels of fruit and useful tannin structure. I've nearly given up on California reds because for the last ten years I always feel like I'm getting pickled--both on my tongue and in my liver.
Of course, lucky for folks reading here, kit wines still maintain reasonable alcohol levels, with the exception of specific styles like Selection Amarone, Luna Rossa and Luna Bianca and the Vintner's Mezza Lunas--hey, Amarone has an excuse, and the Luna's are all copies of--you guessed it--California wines.| Posted by Tim AT 11:58PM | 0 Comments |  |
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