Friday, June 8, 2012

Barossa Valley Shiraz and alcohol levels

I pulled some interesting statistics out of the Wine Companion database covering all Barossa Shirazs tasted for the 2012 and 2013 Wine Companions.  In all, there were 62 shirazs with an alcohol level of 14% or less that rated 90 points or above. This compared with 352 shirazs rated 90 points or above with alcohol levels in excess of 14%.  The one consolation is that the overwhelming majority of those were in fact at 14.5%.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Given the results it would be interesting to run the test again whereby 14.5% was the diving line (i.e. how many wines above 14.5% scored well)

Vineyard Paul said...

I think it requires some multivariate cluster analysis

CardiacKevin said...

More interesting would be the trend over the last 10 years.

Anonymous said...

I would be more interested in finding out how close to the stated alcohol levels these wines actually were with the allowed +/- 1.5% variance.

Anonymous said...

What was the highest alcohol percent, did any exceed 18%?

Darby from Vinodiversity said...

I'm with CardiacKevin it would be interesting to do some sort of time series analysis, but I think the high alcohol trend is probably longer than 10 years

Anonymous said...

The older I get, the more I realise that balance in wine is the key to enjoyment for me. It is very difficult (for the winemaker) to have all the components of a wine in balance if the alcohol is sitting around 14.5% or 15%.

Anonymous said...

I do not believe alcohol level is the only factor to look at in determining
if a wine will be in balance. I recently consumed a 2002 wine from a winery in Greenock which was sitting at 16% and this was too sweet for me. On the contrast I have consumed wines with similar alcohol levels and they have been superb and in balance.

Anonymous said...

I think it would be more interesting to pick alcohol brackets at .5% intervlas and declare the results for all regions.

Anonymous said...

What wine at 16%? A Fino Sherry?

Anonymous said...

There seems to be a definite move away from big blockbusters towards slim weights, keeping up the wine in balance is the winemaker's art - is it a move towards good old Europe? I agree, a time series would be interesting to see the development over the last years.

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