Feeling the burn
Photo by Daniel Salgado on Unsplash
"What's the alcohol?" I asked. Paul Hobbs looked rankled. He replied with a slight sigh, "14%."
I was struck by how light the wine in question felt, his 2019 Goldrock Estate Pinot Noir, I'd guessed it was lower. When I expressed my surprise, Hobbs said something interesting – the sort of thing that doesn't often come out of a group Zoom tasting of the latest releases from X or Y estate. But Hobbs clearly isn't your average winemaker, with a depth of knowledge that is profound, and a clear desire to dive into the nuances of each wine he makes.
He'd said that there was much more to alcohol than a number. That it was so much more complex. That no one talked about it. Obviously, I wanted to know more.
I ask about alcohols a lot more than I used to, a result of needing to nail them blind in an MW exam, and knowing that they can provide an essential clue for a wine's identity. Of course we know that it's easy for alcohol to be masked by other elements in the glass, but Paul offered a fascinating eye into how climate change doesn't just mean that there's a little more alcohol in a wine – but is changing the very nature of the alcohol produced.
