What happened to the super low abv Bordeauxs?

[Chris_Seiber]

@John Morris

Indeed, in many cases the ABVs on the labels were not changed year to year because of the 1.5% allowable of margin of error. So they really don’t mean much.

That said, there are more ripe clarets with higher ABVs than there were 20 or 30 years ago, to be sure.

Agreed on both points. People make too much of a big deal about the 12.5% number on French wine bottles, but all it really means is “14% or less” because of our labeling laws. But it is certainly true that the average Brix and ABV of Bordeaux has trended upwards over the last 30 years.

[Steven_Miller]

Surprised no one has mentioned the “consultants”. the rollands of the world. who were hired to get high Parker scores.

[John_Morris]

@Chris Seiber

@John Morris

Indeed, in many cases the ABVs on the labels were not changed year to year because of the 1.5% allowable of margin of error. So they really don’t mean much.

That said, there are more ripe clarets with higher ABVs than there were 20 or 30 years ago, to be sure.

Agreed on both points. People make too much of a big deal about the 12.5% number on French wine bottles, but all it really means is “14% or less” because of our labeling laws. But it is certainly true that the average Brix and ABV of Bordeaux has trended upwards over the last 30 years.

Rereading these posts, it occurred to me that there are reasons why the labels on bottles from the 60s and 70s may understate the actual ABV:

1. The ABV on the label may have been meant mainly to reassure buyers of the minimum alcohol. Given the many poor vintages in that era and the fact that people picked earlier in those days, producers may simply have opted to print their unvarying base labels with 11.5% (or whatever relatively low number). In other words, the figures on those old labels may indicate the bottom end of the range rather than the midpoint of a ±1.5% range, as we expect today. It seems odd with hindsight, but once upon a time minimum alcohol was an important quality threshold.

2. A slight variant on that thought: Since the ABV was only required on labels for the US market, they may simply have used the minimum figure set by the appellation rules.