Modern man Mikeš
Wait till youāve a teen telling you" FFS give me that you havenāt a clue"
Jayses kid. It would take a lot more than that to upset me. In fact these days , it would take something huge (pardon the pun) to upset me.
Iām alright Jack
Sorry Mikeā¦
It was a nasty nasty post. Write him in the book and dont miss a chance to kick the cunt any chance you get from now on.
No offence taken kid. I took it in the manner in which it was meant. No need to apologise
Few lads around here are starting to take this place a bit too seriously
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You can say that again.
Have you any evidence? You need to back it up
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Oh my that is needy.
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Akimbo.
Iāve searched it on here and itās been used by some of the most learned posters. Basically it means standing like this.
This is an answer to why there seemed to be a trend towards higher and higher alcohol content in wines.
Itās a bit more complex than the simple market forces I had presumed.
Dear Flatty,
Thanks for your interesting and particularly current concern. I think there are two aspects involved here. One is the
variation in the ripening cycles of grapes, which differ a lot. Another is planting grapes in warmer climates and climate change.
Grapesā ripening cycles
Regarding the ripening cycle, different grapes need more or less time to ripen and their ripeness occurs at lower or higher sugar levels, which yeasts then convert into alcohol. The ones needing less time were historically grown in the cooler climates and those with longer cycles were grown in warmer places. The amount of ripening has been translated into a scale of degree days. I will not elaborate further but it does help give some precision.
So short cycle varieties that ripen at relatively low levels of sugar (and therefore alcohol), needing 1100Ā°days are varieties such as chasselas, muller-thurgau, pinot gris and in reds blauer portugeser. These are ripe at say 11-12%. At 1150Ā° days are sylvaner, scheurebe, gruner veltliner, melon de Bourgogne, chardonny, and in reds dolcetto, gamay, pinot noir. That equates to about 12-13%. At the other end of the scale, needing 1350Ā° days are carignan, grenache, mourvĆØdre, graciano. These are not ripe below say about 14%.
Thus Flatty when you chose wines look for short cycle vines for lower alcohol. Grenache a 11.5% will be unripe.
Warmer climates, global warming
This is undoubtedly having an effect, especially with red wines.
I wrote a piece about this recently and hope you do not mind if I repeat what I said in that article.
Red grapes
Red grapes react less well to extreme heat than white grapes. The main reason why alcohol in reds is rising is not because winemakers want it to, but because flavour and tannin ripeness lag behind sugar ripeness.
While the accumulation of sugar more or less follows photosynthesis levels, tannin ripeness is made by the grape from the sugars and needs more time. So in warmer climates the alcohol is high and yet the tannins are still not ripe. The dilemma for the winemaker is if you pick too early the grapes taste green and have harsh tannins. Pick too late and the alcohol can rise.
Generally, it is considered that it is overall more successful to pick with more alcohol and sweet tannins than the other way around. This phenomenon has been present in the new world for a long time. Now it is striking Europe, and not just Burgundy. In Bordeaux, the hot years of 2009 and 2010 some of the merlot-based wines of the right bank were often 15%.
In the vineyard, probably the best solution is to use rootstocks which delay maturity and as for white wines, plant later-ripening clones and move to higher density.
White grapes
Without the tannin ripeness to contend with white grapes can be picked a bit earlier than reds. According to some, chardonnay is adapting well to the warmer climate. Historically in Burgundy, one counted 100 days from flowering to harvest. Now it can be harvested after about 90. Choosing later-ripening clones and planting densely, up from the current 10,000 vines/ha to over 14,000 and even higher, would help preserve acidity.
However, if it gets warmer and alcohol continues to increase and acidity diminish, picking early may result in green tasting wines. It may then be time to allow chardonnay to be blended with other varieties. AligotƩ is often found in grand cru vineyards and is lighter, fresher and more acidic. A secret weapon could be the very acidic petit meslier grape from Champagne.
In the Laboratory
Scientists are trying to find yeasts that produce less alcohol from the sugar in the must. Currently about 17g of sugar produces 1% alcohol. So far, the yeasts they have found that produce less alcohol have produced a lot of volatile acidity (vinegary aromas).
Removing alcohol, adding water
Reverse osmosis is being used to remove alcohol from wine quite successfully. It is legal to add water in some countries. This seems sensible to me. If the wine is too strong then dilute it. It seems no worse than what Europe did before global warming, when lack of ripeness was a problem, which was to add sugar, or Chaptalise, after Henri Chaptal the French scientist who invented the technique, to increase the alcohol. It just had a posh name!
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Limerick won the league, yippee. 
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Could you ladybird that for us? Iām guessing the higher alcohol content is due to either spicey notes of cinnamon with hints of saddles leather, or a need to avoid sobriety
Flattyās valet will contact you on Monday in this trivial issue. Theyāre at their country retreat for the weekend. The Marquis of Didsbury is not to be disturbed.
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There was shots fired a couple of days ago by this clown calling myself a footix Dullard.
One is defending himself whilst stating mere facts.
He has been too caught up in football matters which makes it more ironic considering his opinion of the game and imparticular the english teams.