High Alcohol wines

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Wycoff on November 20, 2008 at 1:50pm

In my experience, winemakers prefer to keep the alcohol % below 15 because once you cross that mark, you are presented with a greater possibility that the high alcohol content would be out of balance with the oak, fruit, tannins, etc.

Would love to hear other thoughts on this...

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Permalink Reply by Todd Hansen on January 13, 2009 at 1:52pm

Ryan,
Have you had much Amarone? I don't think I ever have (given the $100+ price tag for most of them, I'd probably remember).
I'm very intrigued by this high-alcohol wine after listening to an archived Grape Radio podcast while I was pruning yesterday.
http://www.graperadio.com/archives/2008/03/24/amarone-of-masi/
Gotta go find me some Amarone!
- Todd

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Permalink Reply by Amanda / Administrator on November 21, 2008 at 8:46am

Not sure if wine makers are motivated by Compliance Issues - BUT - many states change the Compliance classification of wines that have higher alcohol content. The boundary (varying from state to state) for such classification change starts around 14% +/- 1% to 15% +/- 1%.

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Permalink Reply by Steven on November 21, 2008 at 11:27am

I probably have the least actual knowledge about wines in general, but I do talk to a lot of folks and see a great number of wines pass by. I am hearing that there "was" a trend to the higher alcohol percentage wines, but now there is a reversal of that process.

As to availability, my guess is the "gallon wagon" wines made by the illustrious big few target mainstream consumers, the higher alcohol wines are made by the more boutique wineries and by definition are not as available due to the breakdown of the distribution system in the US.

I will run a report from our system to see how many wines over 15% are listed - as the pool is over a thousand wines and so it may give an interesting statistic.

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Permalink Reply by Steven on November 21, 2008 at 1:11pm

So I did a little checking and it turns out that there are 8.7% of the wines listed in VinoShipper that are 15% or greater. It would be interesting to measure this against your average retail store.

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Permalink Reply by Jose Manuel San Jose on November 25, 2008 at 10:29am

I dont know if american legislation tax high alcohol wines. In Spain alcoholic beverages above 22 have to pay more taxes, so its profitable not pass this %.
But answering your question about High Alcohol wines, In Spain we have wines called as "generoso wines" between 18 and 19º.
You could read more in http://www.winesfromspain >> land of wines >> winemaking & ageing >> generoso wine >> page 2

link: http://www.winesfromspain.com/icex/cda/controller/pageGen/0,3346,15...

I hope you will find useful.

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Permalink Reply by Todd Hansen on December 3, 2008 at 6:14pm

Many yeast strains used in fermenting wine can only tolerate 12-15 percent alcohol. There are some strains that can withstand higher alcohol, but generally speaking it isn't easy getting over 16 percent. In wines where fruit had high brix you might see 15.5 percent alcohol and then some residual sugar as the yeast wasn't capable of converting that last sugar to alcohol.

Personally I like to just drink more glasses of lower alcohol wines ....

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Permalink Reply by Amanda / Administrator on December 6, 2008 at 11:42am

I prefer low alcohol content as well - allows more to drink and extends my social time line.

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Permalink Reply by Denise (TheWinesleuth) on January 12, 2009 at 4:05pm

I agree. I never realized how high the alcohol content was in American wines until I moved to Europe. Lower alcohol and by that I mean 12% -14% wines, are much more enjoyable. The character of the grape really comes through and so many other characteristics as well. I went to the WBC in Sonoma this past Oct. and frankly found many of the wines undrinkable, how do you enjoy them with dinner? German rieslings are some of my favourites and they sometimes only top out at 9% abv or less!

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Permalink Reply by Todd Hansen on January 13, 2009 at 1:56pm

To my understanding if you're at nine percent you run the risk of things getting nasty unless you have some residual sugar as preservative (yeah, sugar, alcohol and salt are three things that do a good job of preventing spoilage - salt is usually only found in cooking wines). Germans can usually leave residual sugar without the wine seeming syrupy because of high acidity.

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Permalink Reply by Denise (TheWinesleuth) on January 13, 2009 at 5:01pm

yeah, you are right, the only reason the Germans could get away with it was because of the very cool climate in Germany. I think with global warming they may no longer be able to produce wines at such low levels of alc. I'm going to check with my German winemaker friend and ask his opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Todd Hansen on January 13, 2009 at 6:22pm

So, I guess you could say 9 percent can work for a riesling, but it wouldn't be too good in a cab or pinot noir!

I'm also curious about effects of alcohol on extraction and other impacts in the wine - using alcohol as a tool to affect flavor and other characteristics in the winemaking process. Especially after listening to the Grape Radio podcast on Amarone referenced above. I haven't seen much on this aspect.

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