Wine Enthusiast Magazine
SubscribeNow, this was unusual. A communication from Dunn Vineyards. If I’ve ever gotten any kind of PR outreach from the winery of Randy Dunn on Napa’s Howell Mountain I can’t remember it. So it must have been an important topic to spur Dunn, an individualistic Cabernet maker who in another time could have been a trapper-trader like John Colter or Jim Bowie, to go public with anything.
“It is time for the average wine consumers, as opposed to tasters, to speak up. The current fad of higher and higher alcohol wines should stop,” Dunn wrote in an email that went out to Wine Institute’s media list. “Most wine drinkers do not really appreciate wines that are 15 to 16+ % alcohol. They are, in fact, hot and very difficult to enjoy with a meal. About the only dish that seems to put them in their place is a good hot, spicy dish.”
(I digress to disagree with him on the hot, spicy dish thing. For my palate it just piles heat on heat. Really spicy food needs really fruity, fresh, un-tannic wine.)
“I don’t believe the average person is so insensitive to flavors and aromas that they must have a 15% Cabernet, Chardonnay, or Pinot Noir to get the aromas and flavors. Influential members of the wine press have led the score-chasing winemakers/owners up the alcohol curve and now I hope that it soon will lead them down,” he continued.
Dunn, the founder of Dunn Vineyards who worked at Caymus in his early years, urges consumers to take the lead if they want wine alcohol levels to come down. It’s a topic that’s finally heating to the boiling point after simmering for many years. Wine merchant Darrel Corti in Sacramento has, I understand, stopped stocking most high-alcohol wines. That story has been zipping around the blogosphere for a couple of months. Sommeliers and a good percentage of wine writers have been whining about the issue, too.
“So I would like the consumers to take the lead for a change, rather than being led. Ask for wines that are below 14% when you are out to dinner. The reactions are fun, but the results are not good for United States wines. The sommelier usually comes back with a French or New Zealand wine. On the restaurant level, high alcohol wines have reduced the number of bottles sold. It is very simple arithmetic; % alcohol times volume equals satisfaction. If % alcohol goes up, volume must go down for satisfaction to stay the same – or else we all get plastered.”
Dunn touched on the alcohol issue, and his conviction that high-alcohol hides any taste of terroir, in a revealing interview with Alan Goldfarb for Appellation America last summer. In there, he said, “I don’t believe in high-alcohol wines, period. It’s the dumbest thing that the wine industry ever did. But, you get better press the higher the alcohol.”
His email yesterday suggested a simple tactic that’s rarely used. Reviewers should publish the alcohol content of the wines they review along with descriptors, price, etc. Very few do. But it was one of the characteristics I thought important when I launched my own website, CaliforniaWinePost.com last year. I started tracking the alcohol levels stated on the labels, and they show in the reviews. It’s not difficult.
Dunn can have the last word: “Consumers, wake up and get active. Reviewers, please at least include the labeled alcohol percentage in all your reviews, and try to remember that not everyone is spitting.” I’m with him on this. If people vote with their wallets then we’ll start seeing more lower-alcohol wines for sale.
Filed under: Industry Issues, Varietals
6 Comments
July 26th, 2007 at 2:01:49 PM
The argument that wine should be below 14% in alcohol shows a lack of understanding of the buying public. Most wine is consumed within days of purchase, and only a small percentage of wine drinkers cellar wine for any length of time. More importantly even fewer have the facilities to correctly store wine for years; no, a cupboard in the kitchen is not the correct place. Its not surprising that most wine sold is rich and ripe in style, and its even less surprising for those wines to have high alcohol.
To appreciate (non-dessert) wine of of different alcohol levels all you need is a little commonsense. Earlier this week I drank a 1998 Cape d’Estaing Cabernet Sauvignon (Kangaroo Island, Australia). A beautiful wine that will live for many more years. The alcohol? Below 14%. Last night I opened a 2003 Carlisle Sonoma County Zinfandel that was bursting with flavors and palate appeal but not the 15.8% alcohol.
I wonder if any of the anti-high alcohol league have put their proposals (such as “Most wine drinkers do not really appreciate wines that are 15 to 16+ % alcohol.”) to the test? Has Dunn taken a group of wine drinkers and let them blind taste wines below 14% and above 15% to see which wines are favored?
Darrell Corti’s store claims to “specialize in rare and unique gourmet foods and fine wines”. Does Corti have a program of educating the buying public by showing how the wines he sells match with the foods he sells?
The fate of high alcohol wines in such contexts would be a useful contribution, as opposed to trying to force personal preference on the wine buying public.
Mike
July 27th, 2007 at 4:42:53 PM
I agree that you can’t simply say that wines above 14% are bad and below are good. There are good and bad wines in both camps. Having said that, I have complained about high alcohol wines for years, and now, I definitely perceive a backlash against them. This is true among consumers as well as the trade, including restaurateurs, sommeliers and merchants, and most critics. I think the reason the pendulum is swinging back is because wine is fashion, and the fashion of high alcohol is wearing thin; also, because of the recent string of relatively cool vintages in California. But this problem of high alcohol may be replaced by another that’s just as troubling: residual sugar.
July 30th, 2007 at 5:01:17 PM
Hear Hear, Steve!!
I am not a big fan of high alcohol wines, but am even less of a fan of too much RS in a wine. The thing is…many times you need that RS to tame the high alcohol…meaning that one problem supports the other.
July 30th, 2007 at 6:18:44 PM
I’ve tried to find evidence that consumers do purchase based on alcohol content. There does not seem to be much data out there, although I did find the following from the (Wine & Spirit Trade Association) WSTA.
Over 1 in 3 women (35%) and 1 in 4 men (27%) believe that lower alcohol wines are becoming more fashionable according to the May Consumer Intelligence report issued today by the Wine & Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) and Wine Intelligence. (Mike: Which implies that 65% of women and 73% of men believe that lower alcohol wines are not fashionable.)
WSTA also noted that:-
59% of all UK regular wine drinkers claim to read the alcohol content of a bottle of wine before purchasing, but only half of those say it is important when deciding what wine to buy. (Mike: If that means half of 59% then less than 30% of these consumers consider alcohol important in their buying decision.) They consider seven other factors more important when choosing a wine including grape variety, promotional offer, brand, country of origin, recommendation by friend or family and region of origin. (Mike: I don’t see the wine press listed there. And that’s strange because Randy Dunn points the finger directly at the wine press: “Influential members of the wine press have led the score chasing winemakers/owners up the alcohol curve……”)
Consumers also link higher alcohol levels with better quality and better value for money.
http://www.wsta.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=217&Itemid=74
I don’t see any of the information from the WSTA as evidence that lower alcohol wines are preferred – and let’s face it in the UK they have access to a LOT of cheap (supposedly lower alcohol) European wines.
Mike
July 31st, 2007 at 12:47:10 PM
I was surprised to see recently some Australian wines being marketed as high alcohol, as if it’s a selling point. Here’s one I found on a UK website:
Andrew McPherson’s The Full Fifteen 2006
Full-flavoured, Aussie blockbuster from a New World master – with 15% punch!
The description goes on the say “Big, rich, ripe cherry flavours, full fruit aromas and all backed up with a whopping 15% alcohol….Maximum alcohol, maximum flavour…”
In Australia and probably in the UK a high alcohol wine might appeal to a drinker who wants something strong and is deciding between beer, wine and whisky. Winemakers in the US could never imagine their wines being positioned that way. Wine in the US is very carefully marketed as a civilized adult beverage that will enhance your meals and your lifestyle. And it is. But it’s also an alcoholic beverage. In some ways our romantic notion of wine is a vestige of our Puritan roots supported and enforced by an ATF that controls advertising and packaging and won’t even let you describe health benefits on the back label. Which makes more sense, hiding the fact that your wine is 15+% alcohol or promoting it?
July 31st, 2007 at 3:32:45 PM
I know from my reporting in California that wineries [specifically the marketing and sales people] firmly believe that consumers want high alcohol, slightly sweet wines. The data may or may not support this, but people believe it, and perception is reality. I’ve been told frankly by many winemakers that they make wines based on what sells, and not necessarily the kinds of wines they themselves would make, if money were not an issue. It’s a kind of Faustian deal, but I have some sympathy with them. Running a winery is an expensive business, and if nobody buys your wine, you can’t pay your bills.