Weekend wine with Blake Creedon
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.
There’s a fascinating insight into winemakers’ concern in a paper to be presented later this month by the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. The alcohol content of 129,000 wines from vineyards all over the world has been logged by the licensing authorities in Ontario over 16 years. And while average alcohol levels stated on the labels came to 13.1%, the average actual content was 13.6%.
It’s not that wineries are fraudulently or mistakenly understating the alcohol level, but rather that they’re persistently choosing the lowest possible stated within the margin of error allowed by regulators.
While I’ve yet to encounter a dealcoholised wine worth drinking (I’d prefer fruit juice) some of the naturally lower alcohol wines are a treat. And one of the best I’ve tasted among today’s highlights is a cracking Bordeaux blend from Australia.
There’s more on this — including a look at the ‘legs’ in your glass of wine — on my blog at blakecreedon.wordpress.com.
* Finally, a bit of pot luck. This month, Simply Wines is offering a mystery case of 12 bottles delivered to your door for only €100. With Simply Wines’ track record and an average bottle price of about €8 I reckon it’s well worth a punt. See www.simplywines.ie, phone them on (01) 2959730 or visit their retail warehouse in Dublin 18.
This (along with its partner white ugni blanc) is an excellent example of the great value to be had from the south of France: a delightfully aromatic red, followed through by a pretty palette of dark baked fruit.
I normally would shy away from a wine of this age at this price: the combination often suggests a bottle that’s well past its sell-by date. But not this tempranillo and cabernet blend: surprisingly tight with delicious earthy rubbery notes.
I was startled at how well this Catalan wine came across at a Dunnes Stores tasting session — even when compared to more upmarket wines from the posh Spanish appellations: another cabernet tempranillo blend, it’s a super lithe and bright red that’d be perfect with roast beef.
Dr Andrew Pirie remains the best known producer of fabulous cool climate wines on Australia’s most southerly (and coldest) shores, the island of Tasmania. This non-vintage chardonnay/pinot noir is an outstanding, fine lemony champenoise sparkler.
There’s an irresistible come-hither from the first sniff of this super top-class Rhône blend transplanted wholesale to Barossa Valley. But the new world immediacy — a fruitbowl full of ripe baked fruit — is followed through with gorgeous crisp, tart, dark savoury notes.
The white open for tasting at Curious’ store in Cork recently, this is excellent seafood-beckoning Bordeaux blanc blend. Its alert vibrant citrussy flashes delightfully balanced by warmer tropical flavours. Testament to that balance is how it seamlessly wears its 10.9% ABV alcohol.
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