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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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