The quest
for reduction of alcohol in wines due to global warming
continues with a Spanish winery deciding to reduce
alcohol levels to less than half by using alcohol
reduction techniques, despite the possibility of flavour
reduction as well.
Higher temperatures imply grapes
with more sugar and thus more alcohol, but wines which
are 'hot' are becoming less popular, in part because
of strict drunken driving laws and also the harm more
alcohol can cause due to higher intake. Same quantity
of wine in a glass with 16% alcohol implicitly means
about 3% more intake of alcohol than a 12.5% Burgundy.
Of course, droughts mean no fruit from the vines too.
The European Union is also seized
by the problem and understands the techniques evolved
to reduce alcohol and has devised a new category known
as "wine with reduced alcohol content" to
help such wineries market their product.
So winemakers in Murcia, in south-eastern
Spain have come up with a technique to bring out a
product that retains the characteristics of a classic
wine but with much less alcohol. They bring down the
level to 6.5% by volume, compared to 14-15% or even
more for many traditionally made Spanish wines.
Casa de la Ermita, near Jumilla is
perhaps the only winery which has come out with a
wine named Altos de la Ermita which has flavours
of classic wine but is lighter and fruity, more like
a summer drink with berry flavours and smokiness due
to the oak maturing of a few months, but with much
less legs due to lower alcohol of 6.5%.
"You can drink two good glasses
with your lunch and still be under the legal limit,'
says the chief winemaker, Marcial Martinez. The winery
claims there are no other producers making this kind
of wine but expects competition to emerge. It plans
to release 770,000 bottles of Altos in this the first
year and double it next year, with sales planned in
Spain and around the world.
Hot wines like those of southern
Spain, with levels at15% alcohol or more, are no longer
as popular as the 80s or 90s with people today preferring
lighter styles, like Bordeaux with 13% alcohol.
But rising temperatures and drought
continue to worry the grape growers in Spain as much
as any other hot weather vineyards elsewhere in the
world. Spain is experiencing its driest year since
60 years when they started keeping such weather records.
"We are getting higher alcohol
levels because of hot weather and excessive evaporation
from the grapes," said Jorge Garcia, manager
of a winery in La Mancha, the world's largest wine-producing
region, according to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization),
forcing producers to leave grape growing and get into
mushrooms and rabbit breeding.
The Ermita vineyard's technique uses
carefully controlled irrigation to produce grapes
with less sugar and thus less alcohol potential. The
finished wine is then put through rotating cones to
separate out alcohol molecules.
This technique is already popular
in California where the factories receive finished
wines and put them through a chemical process where
the alcohol level is reduced. However, this aspect
of wine making is not talked about in the open as
the producers suspect that wine lovers may not approve
of de-romanticised wines.
DelWine is committed to creating
awareness about global warming and the desirability
of keeping alcohol levels low, as much as a moderate
regular consumption of wine for health or other alcoholic
drinks and will focus on articles related to this
area, with more articles in this genre-editor
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