Alcohol percentages noted on lablels seem to be dropping after rising for many years.
Goldfarb’s Pressing Matters
Are Hot Wines Getting “Warm”?
Alcohol levels in U.S. wines have increased in the past decade. Look on the shelf of any wine store to see the evidence, as alcohol percentages noted on labels commonly stay above 14 percent. But those numbers seem to be coming down now. Well, maybe.
by
Alan Goldfarb
December 21, 2006
There’s been lots of chatter about “hangtime” or prolonged maturation of grapes, a topic promulgated by certain growers and thereby fostered by a small cadre of wine writers – yours truly among them. Thus, if my very informal survey is any indication, we may be witnessing the beginning of a trend that will see alcohol levels drop over the next few vintages.
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