Caught this this morning twice:
I keep hearing that these wines are “catching on,” but I never hear that from wine shop owners, nor do I see real industry data to support that. The article really boils down to the fact that hipster and sweet wines are a “thing,” but interestingly the last three paragraphs essentially refute the article’s central thesis that these wines are gaining economic ground.
We see it here, especially amongst expat Brits but also amongst younger wine drinkers.
Whenever I get a wine under 11% ABV I just put a sign on it like this:
Sometimes you just need to
let the numbers do the talking:
10.5% ABV
Light, delicious, on sale…
I hear it all the time from professional buyers (wine shop owners and restaurant buyers). Admittedly I don’t sell to the broad market.
The last paras are just another opinion, from UCDavis to boot. The chap might be disagreeing but I’m not sure he’s refuting.
I think they’re catching on with wine geeks and certain urban elite types. I’m doubtful they’re particularly catching on with the other 95+% of wine drinkers, but that’s just from my limited experience.
I had a good friend over, someone who isn’t a wine geek but visits wine country, can somewhat talk the talk, and she and her husband drink pretty well. I served her a Rhys or something like that and commented once on how this was made in a lower alcohol style, and she gave me a weird look and said, “Wait a second, we want less alcohol?”
And this wasn’t some dullard, she’s a Harvard grad, lawyer, indie film connossieur, and so forth.
That story doesn’t prove anything, but it is interesting to look outside our little wine geek bubble sometimes at these ideas that seem like a huge deal to us.
Totally. I have a number of friends who I would identify as relatively serious enthusiasts, and who I can count on to have interesting and high quality wines to share, and I am certain that they have absolutely no idea that these abv battles are allegedly raging.