But that brings me straight on to the dilemma. Alcohol statements on labels are notoriously misleading, and because they are so misleading, they are next to impossible to use to draw a line in the sand of any meaningful value.

Here is why. In the first place, as you state so clearly, the amount of leeway offered to wineries is enormous. Even the under 14%/over 14% line which you rightfully point out is a legal barrier, is now not honored. 13.9% often means less than 14% but not always.

But even if 13.9% means close to that, it has very little bearing on how wines show up when tasted blind. That is because there are so many other factors that come into play. There are 13% labeled wines that taste both hot and fleshy and there are 15% labeled wines that are wonderfully balanced and energetic. Body is not determined by alcohol but by perception. Balance is the same way. Even sweetness can be hidden by other factors. Go look at Champagne. Wines with over 1% sugar taste tart to most of us because their acidities are so high. And that is before we get into discussion of winemaking techniques like reverse osmosis to reduce alcohol in wines that nevertheless smell and taste of desiccated grapes.

When a Riesling, my favorite grape by the way, arrives with a notation fo 11% alcohol, I ahve no way of knowing whether the wine is 9.5 or 12.5 per cent. It helps more to know the producer than the alcohol notation.

Thus, using alcohol as a determinant is simply not reliable enough for me to post it for my readers for every wine tasted. Better that I comment on balance, heat when perceived, fruit or prune juice, perceived acidity and balance, etc, than posting unreliabel alcohol numbers.

You may like Zins under 14.5%, and frankly, that generally puts you in the hands of certain producers whose names you already know and prefer. But, taking Ridge as the most obvious example, do you think that a 14.7% notation on a Ridge wine makes it out of balance or hot? Not in my experience. But, wineries like Rosenblum, now under Diageo, are going to make 14.7% stated alcohol wines that have very different ripeness, fermentation, acidulation and oak regimes and taste very different. They might also use alcohol statements differently. Neither you nor I know the truth here, and that is why, when we get to numbers like 14.5% alcohol in Zinfandel, the line in the sand is not worth the energy it took to draw it.

I would argue that words, not numbers are the things that wine reviewers owe their readers, especially since numbers are not reliable.

Thanks for letting me play in your sandbox. I think the day may come when we get reliable alcohol numbers, reliable sugar numbers, reliable acidity numbers and the like and we are then able to educate our readers/students to what those numbers might mean–knowing, for example, that a Chardonnay from the eastern part of the Russian River Valley is going to taste more open than a Chardonnay from the western, coastal part of that AVA even when the numbers are virtually identical.

You also mention that alcohol levels have been rising in recent years – certainly the case. They were sometimes as high, if not higher, in the mid-1800s. Check out Olney’s Romanee-Conti book about the alcohol levels in those wines in the mid-1800s and you see numbers in the 14 and 15+ alcohol range. Alcohol levels will come and go over the passage of time and as vines age I think you will see them get lower (because young vines can sustain higher yields and still produce quality wines. Higher yields lead to lower alcohols).

I’d also point out (as an aside) that while you say the Chenin Blanc is incapable of high alcohols the Joly Savennieres that came in first in the NY Times recent blind tasting had a listed alcohol of 15%. And, as another aside, that Randy Dunn picks as ripe as many, but uses reverse osmosis to get the alcohols where they are (and IMHO, over-ripeness is a problem in the taste of the wine – not necessarily related to alcohols).

My problem with listing alcohol levels in reviews is that, by doing so, it places undue emphasis on one part of a wine’s make-up, while ignoring equally important elements such as pH, TA, residual sugar, etc. People will focus on this element while ignoring all others (we have seen that with sulfites already which effect a tiny percentage of the population). Doing this does a disservice to wine consumers.

Adam Lee
Siduri Wines