Diary of a Shopkeeper, 18th February 2024

Heat stressed vines, Ribera del Duero, Spain

At recent trade events, alcohol was on everyone’s lips. I know what you’re thinking: ‘Of course it was: you were at a wine tasting!’ What I really mean is, the word ‘alcohol’ was on everyone’s lips.

For the first ten years of my wine-selling career – around 2000 to 2010 – no importer or winemaker mentioned alcohol levels to me. It was stated on the back of the bottle, and that was all the information you needed. Occasionally customers in the shop would ask for a lower-alcohol wine because they thought it reduced the chances of a sore head. A few others asked for a higher-alcohol wine because they liked big powerful styles. I’d turn a few bottles on the shelf to show them they had plenty to choose from, whatever level they preferred. And that was that.

Then there was a change. Over the next ten years – from 2010 to 2020 – winemakers started talking passionately about the effects of climate change. Universally, they were worried about it. Despite jokes in the media about it becoming warm enough to grow Shiraz in Sheffield or Merlot in Montrose, people who tended vines for a living knew it was no laughing matter.

The problems were many, not least that hotter weather brings riper grapes, meaning higher sugar levels, meaning more alcohol when the grapes ferment. Balance is all-important to winemakers: in white wines that’s a balance between sweet fruitiness and refreshing acidity. In red wines you have those two, plus mouth-drying tannins to factor in. They also want balance in their alcohol levels. There must be enough to provide a nice rounded ‘mouthfeel,’ and the relaxing buzz that many people enjoy from time to time. But there can’t be too much, or the wine burns like a spirit, and no one wants to drink more than a glass for fear of a hangover.

Winemakers developed various approaches to counter rising alcohol levels – a problem that, over many centuries, in traditional areas of France, Italy and Spain, they’d never had to worry about before, so had no established solution for. Leaf cover could be encouraged to proliferate on vines to shade the grapes from the sun (though not from ambient temperature.) Grapes could be harvested earlier, before too much sugar developed (though many worried that flavours had not developed properly either.) Vineyards could be planted at higher, cooler altitudes, and oriented away from the sun (but that was very expensive, and took years or decades to bear fruit. And in many areas – like Bordeaux’s Médoc, for instance, there was no higher ground to plant on.)

Since 2020 – and more than ever this year – two new conversations about alcohol levels have become common. Winemakers are still involved, but so are the commercial people – importers and wholesalers. First, health concerns are leading many people to moderate their alcohol intake. This is particularly clear in young people, where consumption is significantly down. Wholesalers want to satisfy that market, so seek low or even no alcohol wines that they can distribute. Second, in August 2023, the government introduced new rates of alcohol duty – one of the two taxes applied to wine (the other being VAT). Duty is now charged at a higher rate the higher up the alcohol scale your wine is.

Pity the poor winemaker, with climate change relentlessly pushing alcohol higher, and only a handful of semi-effective methods to try and bring it down! How are they going to satisfy the changing preferences of their customers?

To address the duty-escalator problem, importers now scour the globe for areas and grapes that naturally produce lower alcohol wines. Ideally 11% or lower, as a whacking tax increase of 53p per bottle kicks in at 11.5%. I’ve tried quite a few of those at tastings, and found some decent ones, especially if you want a light white to go with some seafood. A full-bodied red to go with steak? Not so much. You can’t get a full-bodied ‘mouthfeel’ without a reasonable amount of alcohol – I’d say 13% at least.

I’ve also tried the no alcohol wines our main importers offer. These can’t be produced in a vineyard, but only in a wine factory set up for intensive, expensive processes like Reverse Osmosis and Spinning Cone Columns. Did the wines contain 0% alcohol? Yes. Did I enjoy any of them? No. I’d rather drink H2O.

This diary appeared in The Orcadian on 22nd February 2024. A new diary appears weekly. I post them in this blog a few days after each newspaper appearance, with added illustrations., and occasional small corrections or additions.