Alcohol levels

Take care not to judge a bottle by its alcohol content, or you will miss some special wines, says Adam Lechmere. The issue is balance, not percentages

Scouring the shelves for a suitable bottle, do you find yourself checking the alcohol content more often now than you did a few years ago? Alcohol levels are on everyone’s agenda. After a decade in the ascendant, higher-alcohol wines (those that creep towards 15 per cent) have been in retreat in the UK in recent years, buffeted by government bombast, a vocal health lobby and critical opinion.

Many US critics, on the other hand, led by the hugely infl uential Robert Parker, continue to laud the ripe fruit, soft tannins and hefty weight of big, oaky blockbusters – a style that still goes down well in the States. In the UK, though, it seems we like to think our tastes are more refined.

The issue of alcohol in wine is far more complicated than ‘lower equals good and higher equals bad’. While too much alcohol can mean a hot, jammy concoction that overpowers food and scorches your tastebuds, it doesn’t necessarily follow that all high-alcohol wines are out of kilter.

The key criterion is balance. A wine may have 15.5 per cent alcohol, but if it’s underpinned by luscious fruit, ripe, tenacious but not dry tannins, and juicy acids, it can work like a piece of music in a major key. The superb Seghesio zinfandel below is a perfect example – each component is expansive but none dominates. Were it not balanced, it would collapse under its own weight.

Along with California, Australia also has a reputation for high alcohol wines, but winemakers will argue that the hot, dry climate of Barossa and McLaren Vale lends itself to rich grenache and shiraz and hence they are only refl ecting their terroir.

Low-alcohol wines can fall apart in the same way. If the grapes aren’t fully ripe (look at some of those rainy English whites), there won’t be enough sugar to convert to alcohol, and the wine ends up with no backbone. But if all the components perform perfectly in their lower register – the elegant white fl ower notes and delicate minerality of a German riesling, for example – you have a balanced and satisfying wine.

Many people argue that anything above 14 per cent will overpower the food with which it’s served. That’s true to a point – but it depends what you’re eating. A beef stroganoff will wrestle enthusiastically with the 15 per cent-plus alcohol of an Amarone or a zinfandel, while the lime and coriander fl avours of some Asian dishes prefer to waltz with a riesling kabinett – at 8-11 per cent, the lightest of the German styles.

Great German wines are still not readily available on the high street but, ironically, some of the world’s best rieslings are now produced in Australia, particularly in the Eden and Clare Valleys. Knappstein, St Hallett, Grosset and the superb Mount Horrocks are some wineries worth looking out for. Then there are the aromatic albariños and godellos of north-eastern Spain, vinho verde from Portugal, fine New Zealand sauvignon blancs, and prosecco – rapidly encroaching on champagne’s turf as Britain’s favourite sparkler, and which seldom goes above 12 per cent.

Choose carefully – and don’t think you have to stick within a narrow range of alcoholic strength or you’ll miss some very special wines.