Not to shake up an old controversy. But on a thread on Mao's board a long time ago that led to my expulsion from the board he called me out and asked me to name wineries that were pushing 15-16-17 percent alcohol wines and followed me into every thread and eventually baited me into blowing up at him and the rest is ancient history. I bring this up because on CNN's website today there is an article about high alcohol wines in California and the disturbing trend of them getting higher and hotter. The article is interesting and has an appearance by Clark Smith with his tricks to lower alcohol in wines but the point is a major news corporation has picked this up months after I complained about this on Mao's board. I was kicked off the board for raising this issue and not citing examples although when pressed I did. Not the insane 100's that Mao wanted me to but nonetheless I did provide specific examples. This article does not cite specific examples either less Schafer as a an example of someone who is at the threshold of 14.9% and of course Randy Dunn, who was one of the first people to speak out about the problem. I am not bitter, maybe a little, as that board is just as trashy as OK magazine and is in fact the OK magazine for the wine world these days. But it does irk me that something I bring up just on my own as a member of a wine board that I think is pretty important as a trend that I've noticed being a wine retailer, and tasting California wine way more than I want to, finally gets picked up by a major news corporation like CNN. I am sure it will be picked up by Mao's board and all will be good in the world. Maybe a locked thread as it does not agree with the company view. Call me out for not letting sleeping dogs like but I just had to vent about this. Here is the article.
Friday, March 7, 2008
"Hot Wines" are raising concerns
Not to shake up an old controversy. But on a thread on Mao's board a long time ago that led to my expulsion from the board he called me out and asked me to name wineries that were pushing 15-16-17 percent alcohol wines and followed me into every thread and eventually baited me into blowing up at him and the rest is ancient history. I bring this up because on CNN's website today there is an article about high alcohol wines in California and the disturbing trend of them getting higher and hotter. The article is interesting and has an appearance by Clark Smith with his tricks to lower alcohol in wines but the point is a major news corporation has picked this up months after I complained about this on Mao's board. I was kicked off the board for raising this issue and not citing examples although when pressed I did. Not the insane 100's that Mao wanted me to but nonetheless I did provide specific examples. This article does not cite specific examples either less Schafer as a an example of someone who is at the threshold of 14.9% and of course Randy Dunn, who was one of the first people to speak out about the problem. I am not bitter, maybe a little, as that board is just as trashy as OK magazine and is in fact the OK magazine for the wine world these days. But it does irk me that something I bring up just on my own as a member of a wine board that I think is pretty important as a trend that I've noticed being a wine retailer, and tasting California wine way more than I want to, finally gets picked up by a major news corporation like CNN. I am sure it will be picked up by Mao's board and all will be good in the world. Maybe a locked thread as it does not agree with the company view. Call me out for not letting sleeping dogs like but I just had to vent about this. Here is the article.
This is slightly off topic, but speaking of alcohol content,have you seen the "fre" wines? they are alcohol removed wines...the key word being removed. Maybe I'm just out of the loop but I had never heard of this until I started seeing them at a few local wine stores. Any information?
ReplyDeleteAsimov points out a 16.6 wine here:
ReplyDeletehttp://thepour.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/brewer-clifton-and-scholium/
the thing that creeps me out more is that 14's are more common than not in ordinary ten buck drinking wines. Breaking 15 is still not super-duper common but getting near it is becoming the norm. Gonna have to drink more German for the sake of my liver!
- SS
The fact is that the 16% wine is a rare in California. I have a couple of Zins that are north of 16%, but those aren't really serious wines, are they? The vast majority of good California wine is below 15% and complaints in the 14% range tend to be more about sensitivity than anything else. I just posted something about this on my blog. Do I think it's a problem in CA? Sure. No less than some of the thin and reedy plonk coming out of the Old World. It is hard to balance a high alcohol wine, just like it is hard to balance a tannic wine. Not impossible, just very hard. It's all about balance and palate.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to compare it to a 9% German wine with tons of RS, then sure you can draw a distinction pretty starkly.
I have many, many, oh so many wines at 15-16% alcohol and since their is this 1.5% margin for error allowed...who knows what alcohol they are! The many opinions of this as of late has lots of anger associated with it but I do not believe you should have been kiched off any board for that opinion. That's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI have a 17+% alcohol Aussie wine in my house that someone gave me. I'm waiting for that time when I really want to suffer.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you on all points here - it does suck that you were kicked off when speaking the truth.
Drink, Memory,
ReplyDeleteMarketed by Gallo is all I know. Was a brand I believe. Have not seen them in a bit though.
Wire is about to start . . .will have full answers after
Ben,
ReplyDeleteFair enough. But your definition of good CA wine is different than most people or certain critics. But I will say it and say it again lifitng from my Eric Asimov quote.....whiskey is balanced but I would not want to drink it with my dinner.