Too Much Alcohol?

For some time now one of the 'clou' arguments in the professional world of wine concerns alcoholic content. It has arisen because due to climatic changes and the adoption of more 5ELECTive viticulture techniques, used in the past as a certain way to improve quality, the alcoholic content of many wines has increased. Today it is normal to find a Barolo or a Brunello that is more than 14.5% alcohol, Friuli whites that are 15% and only rarely do you find quality wines that are below 13%. There is also the fact that Italy is a Mediterranean country, its climate is what it is and its best wine-making areas are not like Burgundy or Champagne or even Bordeaux but more similar to those in California or Provence. But we often fail to take geography into consideration as well as the fact that if you want to make a wine that represents its territory, then you certainly cannot betray it by crushing unripened grapes just to get a lower alcoholic content. Among the 'great' Italian wines that are currently having the most success abroad is Amarone, which is certainly not a 'light' wine.

This said and done, I would like light wine supporters to consider a number of questions. The first is whether they realize that in certain areas it is impossible not to produce wines with a high alcoholic content, that it would be very difficult to make a Friulano del Collio that is less than 14% alcohol, unless you use unripe grapes that then produce the bitterness of a sour wine. The second has to do with the fact that if you strive for just 12% there is the risk that technology will have the upper hand and in order to make such a wine you would need to increase production by as much as 30%, something possible since the limits allowed for DOC qualification are often quite liberal. However, this would be a victory for standardization, the production of 'industrial' wines that fans of lower alcoholic fail to understand. And third, do they realize that increasing production would be counter-productive given the current market trend. It would produce a surplus, make grape prices tumble and risk driving true wine craftsmen out of business because they could not compete with their higher production costs. I think we would all agree that it would be much better to strive for balance rather than a standard. When he would be asked what was the alcoholic content of his wines, Veronelli would reply: ''Would ask a beautiful woman her age? If she is beautiful what difference does it make?''.