Weekend wine with Blake Creedon

YOU’LL occasionally hear wine fans joke that when faced with a choice they’ll opt for whatever wine has the highest alcohol level.

The truth, of course, is quite the opposite: anyone I’ve ever talked to dislikes the upward creep in alcohol levels in recent years. Apart from any other consideration, folks want to be massaged and not battered by the alcohol in their wine.

The increase in alcohol is a byproduct of improved winemaking methods: More efficient wineries and better strains of yeast are whipping alcohol levels up toward 15%, approximately the theoretical limit for unfortified wine.