How Did Alcohol Levels Get So High?

Clark Smith, one of the brightest guys I’ve met in the wine world, has an interesting piece on why alcohol levels have gotten so high.

Intersting read. I wonder if the trend will ever reverse with US wines going more of the French route…

Terrific article. Love the writing style.

Type cast as blockbusters, California wines began a wet T-shirt contest, eventually morphing into cartoon caricatures of their well-balanced progenitors.



So there you have it. The real root cause is the consumer appetite we seek to serve. Just like Colombian coke dealers, we make high-alcohol wines because our customers have communicated with cash that’s what they want. Quoth Walt Kelly, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”



A month on the vine doesn’t substitute for a decade in the cave—what did you think? This is where the French have us. But we can make those wines too, and some of us will, because ultimately they will offer the best expression of our terroir.

Ugh. Reading these quotes lets me know I don’t need to read another polemic. Wines styles have fluctuated over time. Passing judgement on them will never end. Sounds like someone needs to enjoy their wine instead of viewing it as the fulcrum of the scales of the status of taste.

The second quote above is what I perceive is the crux. People buy high alcohol wines because they like the texture and sweetness of those wines. If they want it, people are gonna make it. That will happen until there is no demand for it.

There is a shift now in the other direction however IMHO. To me, this is totally due to demand for wines that go with food. FWIW.

There’s room for both.

You sir are one of the brightest guys I’ve met in the wine world!
I will spell it out: PLUS ONE.

Chris, the article’s tone is not nearly as negative as these three quotes imply. Much more history-oriented and somewhat optimistic. Worth reading, definitely.

I agree with Brady; Smith would certainly like California wines to continue to improve (according to his lights), but the article definitely isn’t a rant against the horrors of high alcohol wines.

So, i start reading and when I get to Paragraph 3 my bullshit detector turns on, “The trend toward riper fruit is even more drastic, since alcohol adjustment technologies now decrease 45% of California wines by an average of 1%, often to avoid the 50¢ tax bump at 14%.” – While I think he’s right, it is more drastic…the stats he quotes are groundless. He certainly isn’t the only one to offer such technologies, and many adjust by water additions. But why throw out a stat that isn’t backed up, when he could simply look at the CA Grape Crush Report and see what has happened to average brix at harvest, by varietal, by region…to really see what has happened to brix (which I assume he is equating with ripeness). Makes me question everything else after that.

Adam Lee
Siduri Wines

Great read. I agree there is room for both styles in the wine world and always will be.

Basically the same article as this from 2007?

Adam Lee
Siduri Wines

Adam,

In reading the “original” article from '07, the stat was that Conetech and Vinovation …take an average of over 1 percent alcohol from 45 percent of the California wines you buy. Still hard to fathom.

Haven’t read this article but did read the other one Adam pointed to in 2007. Clark is certainly an ‘interesting’ person with a good sense of humor . . . and a better sense for the flair. To throw around numbers like he does - with certainty - is simply irresponsible for someone who wants to be taken seriously. Of course, many WILL take him seriously because of the numbers he quotes - without quesioning them whatsoever . . .

Has there been a huge push by larger wineres to get large production wines under 14% to save tens of thousands of dollars in excise taxes? Sure has - and will continue to be. The government ‘allows’ this - kind of like a ‘tax loop hole’ in the Federal Income Tax situation. Want to squash this - look at the tax break given between under 14% (historically considered ‘table wine’) and over 14% un to 20% or so (historically considered ‘desert wine’) and perhaps make some changes there?

Will have to reread the article once more to write more on this - and I hope to . . . .

Cheers.

Agree with the first part, but not with the second. In Napa, my impression is that the ripeness curve is actually not “going the other direction.” I do not know of any $100+ Cab producers who have changed their direction the last two years and are intentionally picking lower brix. Has any powerhouse Cab producer suddenly started making wine like Cathy Corison and Mayacamas? None that I know of. The winemakers I know in Napa do not actually like to pick at 27 brix, and would prefer lower alcohol, but we are in a Mediterranean climate and we simply do not ripen here at the brix level of Europe’s Atlantic climate. You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole. If I could get nice fruit flavors and no green at 23 brix I would be all over it. But even this year, I find veggie flavors lurking in Cab fruit everywhere (without a single exception) if it came in under 24 brix, and this was a very cold year. If it did not happen this year, it is not going to happen, imho.

I do see those like Kutch and Rhys on the Pinot side resisting high alcohols, but Pinot is not Cab, and the Sonoma Coast and Santa Cruz Mountains are not Oakville. BTW, Kutch and Rhys are doing it “right,” imho, because their prime weapon to lower alcohol is by seeking out terroirs that are cooler and ripen flavors ar lower brix, unlike some here in Napa who seem to be lowering alcohol by simply picking at low brix. I actually think the trend to fuller ripeness is STILL underway here, not because people are picking at still higher brix (they are not) but because of demographics. The only thing that has stalled this dynamic is the cooling of the North Coast the last seven vintages. As more and more UC Davis, 1970s-80s trained, 23 brix winemakers retire and are replaced with those trained in the field under winemakers who prefer the flavors at 26-27 brix, you will see less, not more of the lower alcohol wines, at least naturally.

When most of the Rutherford and Oakville benches were picked this year the second week of October at 23-24.5 brix, every winemaker I know pulling that fruit (due to mold) was not completely happy with the flavors. Satisfied? Perhaps. Happy? No. Everyone wanted to have at least one more brix and preferably more than that, but there was no choice. Those in the mountains were very happy with 2011 because the brix came in riper and 2-3 weeks later in perfect weather. I can only shudder to think what 2-3 more weeks on the floor would have produced had mold not reared up. 2011 would have been the greatest Napa vintage of all time, and that is no overstatement.

From where I sit, there is no trend at all of it going the “other direction.” There is, as the industry grows with more startups, people ENTERING the business, mainly in non-Bordeaux varietals, who want to aggressively get alcohols lower, and this is creating the impression of it going the other way when it is not. I know many, perhaps most, of those in Napa who plan to make Cab the next few years as a startup and many who have just started but not yet reached the marketplace. I can’t think of a single person who plans to move up their picking date from those they are learning from. The next “hot” year we encounter (and I’ve never had one since arriving in 2005) you will see what you thought was going the other way, was just a blip caused by weather.

And Bordeaux might actually be on this bandwagon now. Starting in 2005, ripeness has gone up according not only to my own taste buds, but as told to me by the winemakers themselves, at least on the Right Bank. Since that year, my impression is that St Emilion and Pomerol have produced, in total, a HIGHER level of ripeness in flavor than Napa, and in some cases, as high a brix number as well. The fact is that British critics and French family winemakers have been pooh-poohing Napa ripeness for 20 years. Has it stopped the tide? Not at all. The Left Bank is now routinely touching 13.5% and the Right is 14.5%, at least before technology comes into play. Less than a decade ago it was 12.5% everywhere there. Not many know that they can legally water back in Bordeaux starting in 2011. Guess why they pushed that change through?

Most winemakers I have met have backed off from intentionally going to 30 brix, thank God. But it is easy to say that when we have had one year after another of cool weather here. We will see what happens when we have 9 straight days between 100-119F in mid-September, like they did in 2003. I suspect you will see many wines at 30 brix and lots of water adds and an acceleration of reverse osmosis machines rather than people scrambling to pick before the heat.

Every year we are guaranteed to have a week long heat spike in early September of 90+ temps. Cab can handle it, in fact it helps give them that final push. It’s the Pinot that’s worrisome during that time, which is why 2011 should be a great year for Pinot.

You haven’t experienced a hot year since arriving in 2005? 2006 saw multiple heat spikes during late July and early August of temps in Napa up to 115 degrees that lasted multiple days a piece. 2008 was also a warm growing year combined with a huge heat spike along the lines of 2004 at the beginning of harvest that shot everything that wasn’t already ripe into raisins. I remember as if it was yesterday bringing in some highly prized fruit and seeing nothing but the worlds most expensive boxes of raisins sitting on the crushpad. I’ll never forget taking 30 minutes to do a 15 minute pumpover because there was no juice in the tanks.

But hey, what do we know - 2008 Napa has received crazy scores from the critics. It’s one thing I’ve noticed - the hotter the year, the riper the fruit, the higher the score. Of course startups are going to continue with the elevated alcohol model - it all but guarantees a good score to sell their unknown/unheard of wine by.

Doesn’t blame Parker. Has to be wrong

I’ve heard most Pinot people are quite happy with 2011. I know Napa winemakers who source Chard from Sonoma think it is a really good year for Chard.

You haven’t experienced a hot year since arriving in 2005? 2006 saw multiple heat spikes during late July and early August of temps in Napa up to 115 degrees that lasted multiple days a piece. 2008 was also a warm growing year combined with a huge heat spike along the lines of 2004 at the beginning of harvest that shot everything that wasn’t already ripe into raisins. I remember as if it was yesterday bringing in some highly prized fruit and seeing nothing but the worlds most expensive boxes of raisins sitting on the crushpad. I’ll never forget taking 30 minutes to do a 15 minute pumpover because there was no juice in the tanks.

Compared to the temps of 2002, 2003 and 2004, all those vintages were nothing by comparison for heat. We have at least one heat spike every year but that does not make the wines overall ripeness that from “hot” years. The most devastating heat spike in my seven vintages was 2010 in August, which literally destroyed 1 in every 4 grapes in Napa in two days. But the year itself was cool. The raisins get dropped or sorted out and do not effect the final product in most cases. The nature of the whole vintage effects the ripeness of fruit that make the final blend. Temps are trending down since 2005 in Napa. It is actually starting to cause fear.

But hey, what do we know - 2008 Napa has received crazy scores from the critics. It’s one thing I’ve noticed - the hotter the year, the riper the fruit, the higher the score. Of course startups are going to continue with the elevated alcohol model - it all but guarantees a good score to sell their unknown/unheard of wine by.

Yep. High alcohol plus new oak equals a standout showing when you taste 100 wines blind in a day. At least initially. Sometimes the wines are legit with high oak and alcohol and sometimes it turns out they just show well because they are screaming loudest in a big crowd.

FWIW, I think it is pretty premature to jump on the 2011 bandwagon, or to condemn it either. I’d at least like to have a wine thru ml before I judge it one way or the other.

That being said, from a fruit condition at harvest POV, I had some really good stuff, some okay stuff, and some fruit that was much more challenged. So I am expecting a mixed bag, with stricter selections required.

Adam Lee
Siduri Wines

I know that’s the usual answer. But how do explain the magnificent Napa cabs from the 60s-80s (e.g., Inglenook, BV, Mondavi, Phelps) that clocked in at much lower alcohols than current wines? Has something changed (climate? replanting after phylloxera?) that has made it impossible to get a desirable flavor profile at a lower brix?

Stupid article. I initially considered pointing out all of the blow hard statements the author made, but soon realized that quoting every other sentence was going to get tedious. Drink wine that you like, make wine they way you like, but beyond that who really cares?