Your ideal alcohol level for a medium/full bodied red?

[Eric_Lundblad]

For a long time, the alcohol listed on a label of European wine had more to do with math than chemistry: WineAlcBoundry - WineLowerRange where WineAlcBoundry = 14% and WineLowerRange = 1.5%. Hence the prevalence of 12.5% on labels.

I think, excluding wines greater than ~15%, our perceived alcohol of a wine has as much to do with the amount of ‘higher’ alcohols and stressed fermentations as the actual ethanol level.

Some also assume that what’s on the label is an actual number.

And many don’t make that assumption. It’s not up to the consumers whether there is an accurate abv listed on the label – that’s up to the producers. The consumers have no choice but to go with what’s on the label, absent personal experience with the wine. The huge allowed abv labelling tolerances allowed in the US is annoying/frustrating, even though I do understand why some tolerance is allowed.

And, yes, Eric, some wines above 15% hide their alcohol well; in my experience, most do not; many folks (like myself) have zero interest in buying wines for which they have a 10% success rate. And, seeing as how I have never seen a label identify, or talk about, ‘higher’ alcohols and stressed fermentations, that’s not exactly a practical rubric to go by when buying wines – I don’t even know what you’re talking about when you say ‘higher alcohols’ – what did you mean by that?

I agree it’s hard/impossible for a wine to hide 15% alc. Barolo can be comparatively high in alcohol (14.5 to 15.5) and manages to pull it off, but nebbiolo seems to live in its own magical universe.

Higher alcohols are longer/bigger than Ethanol, so they’re all alcohols but with different characteristics. Fermentation mostly produces Ethanol, but also produces a generally very tiny percent of higher alcohols. You’re right, there’s no way of knowing how much is in a wine, or if the fermentation was stressed. But knowing they’re options that can affect the perception seems usefull…or perhaps not.

The big issue with the labeled alc is the lead time for labels means the decision needs to be made prior to the final blend. This can be an issue even at my small level. My chardonnay for example, ‘free run’ juice will have a higher brix, hence higher alc, than harder pressed juice…I barrel ferment, and these differences are preserved until the final blend is determined. Even so, my alcs are generally quite close. The larger producers live in a different world in this regard.

Having said this, I’m not sure I improved on anything