Seeeeeeecrets

Little known amongst wine consumers is that alcohol labeling on bottles is rarely correct. For instance, a bottle marked as 14.2% alcohol may actually contain as much as 15.7% hooch! That's a mighty big difference when selecting the perfect wine for dinner. The reason you ask........taxes! Producers pay tax rates on their wine production based upon alcohol content. This includes ALL wine sold in the United States, imported and domestic. Because wine production is an agricultural business with yearly fluctuations in ripeness and consequent alcohol levels, the gubment allows producers some wiggle room for their labels. It breaks down like this:

- Labels marked up to 14.099999% alcohol (which would appear as 14.0%) allows producers .5% leeway. That means that a bottle marked 13.8% can be as low as 13.3% and as high as 14.099999.

- Labels marked at 14.1% and above allows producers 1.5% flexibility. Therefore, a bottle displaying 14.5% can be as high as 16.0% and as low as 13.6% (once the actual alcohol level drops below 14.1%, the afore mentioned rule for wines below 14.1% applies).

This flexibilty affords producers the option of printing labels for multiple vintages at once. If a winery has a ten year history of ripeness levels that always produce wines between 14.3% and 14.9%, they can print the next three or four years of labels ahead of time and at a great discount. Take note of your favorite bottlings from year to year as some producers display the same alcohol content on every label in every vintage.

It should be noted that these tax laws apply to the vast majority of table wine consumed around the world. Laws for very low alcohol wine, beer, and brandy fortified wine such as Port are different, but operate within a similar structure.


Salud!

Evan. portlandwino.


p.s. - One of my favorite producers in Oregon, Adelsheim, actually ships their wine to California to be "de-alcoholized." The term is misleading as most of the alcohol remains afterward, but a wine considered to be a little "hot" can have a couple tenths of a percentage shaved off to create better balance. If you haven't tried the wines from Adelsheim, I highly recommend you do so and see for yourself what this handy little trick can accomplish.