Conventional wisdom has it that hot vintages lead to wines with high alcohol, and cool vintages deliver more moderate alcohol. A couple of recent experiences suggest it is more complicated, or even the opposite might be true.
The 2022 vintage in the Douro Valley was very hot as harvest time was approaching, with temperatures up to 45 degrees. At Wine & Soul, the old vines closed down to protect themselves and stopped producing sugar. The resulting wines will have an alcohol level of 13 to 13.5%, whereas 14.5% is the norm.
Conversely, at the Standish Wine Company, the 2021 wines have a high alcohol content of around 15% from a mild vintage without heat spikes. What happened here? Simply, Dan Standish picked very late to get full ripeness, including tannin ripeness from the stems.
By the way, I will review some of the 2021 Standish wines soon, and make some comparison to an older vintage.
No comments:
Post a Comment