So there I am at lunch with winemaker Rick Sayre of Rodney Strong Vineyards and I’m going on about another winery’s flagship wine, a reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, coming in at 15-plus percent alcohol by volume on the label.
Rick, whom I’ve known for the better part of two decades, was quiet on the topic. After lunch I understood the silence. That’s when I went over the tech sheets describing the wines he had presented and saw the 2007 Symmetry with a hefty 15.1 stated alcohol on the label.
OK, so I had my foot in my mouth and didn’t even know it. That happens sometimes.
But that brings me to the larger question of whether or not these high alc bombs are a good thing for the wine industry. They often taste good and generate high scores, particularly from the Robert Parkers and James Laubes of the wine commentariat. Hell, even I would give the Symmetry a generous score even though I am chargined by the stunning rise in alcohol levels over the past 20 years.
But at one point in the conversation I told Rick how much I am enjoying some of the Symmetry in my cellar from the 1990s. Those wines were delicious then and they’re even better now. And their ABV levels don’t approach those we see today.
So why? I ask myself. Is it only in pursuit of the high scores that we see 15 percent ABV on a table wine? I’m not even saying that is a bad thing. I will concede that these riper wines are every bit as yummy, and some would say moreso, than the wines of only a few years back.
But I know this: If you drink a half bottle or more with dinner, you’re going to feel it. Maybe not the heat, which the modern wines cleverly mask, but certainly the fuzziness of dulled senses.
Maybe that’s OK. But I think I still prefer a dinner wine that delivers balanced flavor, complexity and structure without the headache.
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