The Biggest Change in Wine Styles

The California wine revolution began in the 1970s. By the '80s Napa and Sonoma were in high growth mode. Then it spread south to many other areas of coastal California and even to Lodi in the Central Valley and the Sierra Foothills. Early on it was the move from jug wine blends to Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon then to other wines like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and rosé. But the biggest change? Alcohol levels.

Vine trellising has changed over the years. This one is called
Vertical Shoot Positioning for maximum sun exposure

Through the '70s and '80s the alcohol level of California wines were about 13%-13.5%, plus or minus. Yes, even zinfandel! Since then they've risen to where 15% isn't that unusual for a lot of red wines. There are many theories for this: Vineyard practices, winemaker experimentation, chasing point scores, climate change.

Lets look at some of these:

In the vineyards
Trellising practices have evolved. Trellising is vine design for optimal sun, air movement, fruit production, and ease of picking the fruit. Lots of sun will give lots of lush fruit and higher alcohol levels.

Robert Parker
A famous wine writer who likes big, fruity wines that usually necessitate big alcohols. If you want "Parker points," and most wineries did then you made wines that ol' Robert likes. Why? Points equals dollars. Wineries chase point scores because consumers do.

Wine making
Things can be done to soften tannins and to remove excess alcohol from wine to get those big, lush, fruit bombs. No more "tannin bombs." When you manipulate this way you do change the wine in other ways, too. How? If you're old enough you might remember the old days of wine characteristics like dried herbs, tobacco, cigar box, green bean, mint, and eucalyptus. Not so much anymore as it's mostly red fruits, some black fruits, vanilla, and fig.

Consumer preference
It's easier to go from soda to wine if the wine is similar to your Pepsi. That is, without those nasty tannins and that high acid. Cola actually has very high acid, but it's balanced with very high sugar. Also, consumer studies show that most wine purchased is consumed within a few days. So that wine has to be soft and drinkable on release, not after ten years storage.

Climate change
Not sold on this one. I'm sold on climate change, but not so much on it adding 2% alcohol to the average wine in a couple decades as some claim.

The 1997 vintage
This one really gets no play, but '97 was a warm year that caught the growers a bit surprised and fruit came in with high sugars (high sugar means high alcohol). Napa wasn't sure what was going to happen to their cabernet that years. When the writers and judges got hold of the wines they loved them (see Robert Parker above). "Oh, said the wineries, how do we do this every year?" Well, there are lots of smart winemakers and vineyard managers and they figured it out.

You may like these New World style wines or not, but they're here to stay.