The body of proof

My taste buds are in need of a rest from the big beefy red wines I have been drinking over the past few months. Last night with dinner I drank half a bottle of a (delicious) young red wine from the south of Spain. This morning I felt groggy and had extreme difficulty getting out of bed. This all seemed very unfair until I looked at the label – a young tannic wine with 14.5 per cent alcohol (which under EC law could mean 15.3 per cent ). I enjoy the occasional glass of big rich red, but the truth is I generally prefer lighter wines throughout the year. Once spring arrives this becomes a n imperative and I start looking anxiously at the alcohol level on every bottle I open.

Finding a lighter white wine is relatively easy. There are plenty of options from all over the world. Red wines are a different matter.

Scanning the shelves of several wine shops recently, I found nearly every red wine was 13.5 per cent and the majority 14 per cent or more. Fifty years ago the great wines of Bordeaux usually contained 12-12.5 per cent alcohol and sometimes less. Since then alcohol levels have been rising inexorably. Now it is not unusual to see a Bordeaux with 14 per cent or even 14.5 per cent. These levels are the norm in the New World.

The fundamentals of wine-making are fairly simple: add some yeast to sweet grape juice and it will ferment the sugars into a drier alcoholic drink. The more sugar in a grape, the higher the level of alcohol in the wine.

Producers argue that rising alcohol levels are simply the result of working with lower yields and harvesting fully ripe grapes. This is partly true, although that depends on your view of what is ripe – many now pick over-ripe grapes that produce rich, almost sweet wines with a velvety, voluptuous texture. Not surprisingly this style has proven commercially successful and popular with wine critics too.

Climate change also plays a part; producers in warmer regions find they are harvesting earlier than ever and many are finding it more difficult to judge when a grape is completely ripe.

The question of ripeness and alcohol is a little more complicated. It has always been argued that in hot climates if you wait for the best flavour maturity (known as phenolic ripeness) the grapes will also have very high levels of sugar. This will result in wines with excessive levels of alcohol.

The problem is the opposite in cool (generally European) regions where they often have to wait long into the autumn months (praying it won’t rain) to achieve phenolic ripeness. Either way, wines will taste very different depending on how ripe the grapes were when harvested.

As a general rule then, wines from cooler climates will be lighter in alcohol and those from warmer regions more powerful.

However wine-makers now have access to some controversial machinery that removes excess water from grape juice, a handy way of concentrating flavour and alcohol if it has rained before harvest. The same process can also be used to lower alcohol levels in wine. (Another method is to simply add water, which is illegal in most countries but not easy to police).

Using these techniques, producers can blend wines with different levels of alcohol to create a wine with a ‘sweet spot’, a perfect balance of alcohol, fruit and acidity. They can also determine the level of alcohol in the finished wine. So it should be possible to create lighter wines if the demand is there. It is difficult to know how popular this technology is, as most winemakers are reluctant to admit to using them.

Those who do are accused of manipulating or even doctoring their wine. However, their use is fairly widespread among larger producers in the New World and also apparently among some of the posh châteaux of Bordeaux.

If you prefer lighter wines, the place to look is in regions with cooler climates. In France, that means the Loire Valley, Beaujolais, the Northern Rhône and the south west. Elsewhere in Europe, Germany, Austria, northern Italy and northern Spain are all worth checking out.

Certain grape varieties, such as grenache, do not ripen until they reach high levels of sugar and therefor alcohol. Pinot noir may be elegant in flavour but it is frequently quite high in alcohol, particularly those from the New World.