Are your following the trend of lower alcohol wines?
In the recent years there were more and more reports how sky high alcohol levels are rising. Blame global warming or our sugar laden palates, but it is not difficult to see that a usual 12-13% abv wine is not around 14-14.5% in ordinary retail.
So what’s happening with high alcohol content?
Our conventional wines are loaded with chemicals that are also undeclared on the bottle, that may include over 50 additives that are ‘generally regarded as safe’ plus sugars. It is not very appetizing to me, is it for you? More sugar before fermentation means higher strength of your wine, it is that simple. Yet some auxiliary processes like chaptalisation and enrichment are also driving it all to higher levels. Pardon my wine jargon, but to all of us it means that winemakers are going to try and satisfy everyone – more buzz, more sugar and more palatable wines for everyone. After all, people develop their sweet tooth more and more and generally consume 30% more sugar on a yearly basis as compared to 30 years ago.
There’s increasing concern about the rising levels of alcohol in our wines, and we’ve recently seen alcohol contents climb up to 17% due, in part, to our palates changing in favour of bigger, fruitier wines and global warming causing riper grapes with higher sugar contents.
Lower alcohol wines are trending up
All of the above information is not brand new, and that’s exactly why many wine lovers are watching what’s written on the bottle with regards to alcohol. We would like to see more information, sulfites and other additives, but let’s just start with getting grips with alcohol levels.
Just to you know if you even opt for a slightly lower abv wine at 13% you are still going to consume 2.3 units with your average glass of 175ml. It means that for the current guidelines of 14 units a week it would be 1 glass a day.
Yet it is not that rigid – many people simply have different tolerance to sugars. Very dry wines, naturally fermented to dryness have generally lower strength and lower calorie content, that’s a true win-win. Many people also report that a glass of dry wine will not give them similar effects of sugar loaded one, so you will be happier the morning after too.
So instead of asking questions like ‘How many units in a bottle of wine?’ or ‘How many units in a glass of wine?’, simply have a look at the bottle and know that the average recommendation will be just slightly over a large glass of wine that is lover than 13% abv. Easy!
As it is a question of health and general well-being, next time do not blame the wine, just check if it is simply way too strong!
