Little percentages mean a lot in wine

The other night we enjoyed a nice dinner out and ordered a bottle of wine we had never had before. It was a local Cabernet Sauvignon that went nicely with our steaks. What was especially notable, however, was how quickly both of your wine nuts felt the effects of the alcohol. Yowza!

We looked at the label and our suspicions were confirmed. The wine had an alcohol content of 14.6%. This literally means that by volume, the wine we were drinking was 14.6% alcohol – specifically, ethanol. That’s pretty high. Most everyday wines are typically in the 10-13% range. One of our favorite light, sweet summer wines is a Moscato that clocks in at just 7% alcohol. Dessert wines, like sherry or port, usually have an alcohol content in the 17-22% range, largely because they are fortified (they have had alcohol purposely added during the processing). But rarely do you finish a bottle in one sitting. There are also some wine makers out there, particularly in California, who are making huge Cabernet and Zinfandel “fruit bombs” that pack a punch with 16-17% alcohol. Bomb is right, cuz that’s what you’ll be after a bottle of wine like that!

So if you are sensitive to alcohol or are just curious, examine a wine’s label for something along the lines of “Alc. 12.4% by vol.” You’ll often find it in tiny print on the edge of the front label, sometimes printed sideways. It can also be found on the back label towards the bottom, near the information about who produced and bottled the wine.

Faux Ice Wine

We hesitated to include this wine on our blog since it apparently isn’t readily available anymore. Rumor has it, Argyle Winery in Dundee, OR is no longer making this fabulous dessert wine. But, it serves as a great example of a ‘fake’ ice wine and therefore we thought it was worth discussing.

A few nights ago, we opened a bottle of Argyle’s 2004 Minus Five. We bought several bottles of this delicious treat at the winery itself. Now it appears to only be available through various online wine retailers. It seems to be going for about $25, and that’s probably not far off what we paid for it. A bit steep, yes, especially considering it is one of those small half-bottles (375ml instead of the standard 750ml). But, crazy as it may sound, it was worth every drop and every penny.

In a word, this wine is all about candy. Minus Five looked like one of those translucent Brach’s fruit candies from years ago. Its color was a cross between a root beer candy and a peach candy. Its nose (its smell) was just like candied apple. The flavor was sweet without being sticky sweet. It felt thick and round at first but then turned into a Kool-Aid burst of fruit. It was a beautiful balance between thick syrup and light fresh fruit. This is typical of ice wines, which Minus Five sort of is.

Traditional ice wines are made from grapes that have been allowed to literally freeze while still on the vine. These frozen grapes are then gently pressed into a thicker, sweet, highly concentrated juice that eventually turns into a delicious dessert wine. Because the climate has to be just right (COLD!), true ice wines are special and priced accordingly.

The folks at Argyle (and they are not the only ones) decided to experiment to see if they could produce a similarly styled wine by forcing the freezing. In our opinion, their experiment was very successful.

At Argyle, they hand-picked a small quantity of very ripe Pinot Noir grapes and flash froze the clusters to -5ºC (hence the name). They then waited for a very cold day and took the frozen grapes out of the freezer and slowly pressed them to extract the juice. From there, the normal wine making process kicked into gear. Because Argyle used a freezer instead of Mother Nature to freeze their grapes, they can not legally call Minus Five an ice wine. But man, it sure tastes like one!

Click here for more info about ice wine.

A favorite dessert wine!

We consider this dessert wine one of our best finds of all-time. We first discovered it in 2004 while we were on vacation and went to a restaurant well-known for its chocolate soufflé. We dutifully ordered the soufflé but what we walked away raving about was the amazing Muscat we blindly ordered to go with it. Campbells Rutherglen Muscat from Australia is one of our favorite go-to dessert wines. We keep it in stock and are always excited by an opportunity to share it with someone for the first time.

Most Muscat grapes produce a sweet white dessert wine. Campbells is unusual because its rich amber color makes it look a lot like a tawny port. This wine gets its color from the creatively named Brown Muscat grape, which is apparently grown in the southern part of Australia (Victoria, northeast of Melbourne).

We got to bring out a bottle of Campbells last weekend when some friends invited us over for dinner. In addition to a restaurant-quality meal, they served an out-of-this-world orange crème brûlée for dessert. The wine and dessert together were fabulous. Campbells smells like oranges and it has a light caramel-brown sugar flavor. Our friends declared it a dangerous little candy wine. We declared them converts.

We’ve seen Campbells Rutherglen Muscat in various wine shops, but we made quite a scene the first time we saw it in Costco. Yep, you can get this wonderful treat at Costco for a mere $13.69 per bottle. Serve it with heavier desserts of chocolate or caramel, or just drink as dessert itself. Or just skip the meal altogether.