ABV (alcohol by volume), this is what caught my eye on the
label of this week’s Wine Wednesday feature the 2013 Ropiteau Bourgogne Pinot
Noir.
All wine labels
display the percentage of alcohol by volume. What does this mean? If the label says Alcohol by Volume 12%, that
means if you were to separate the alcohol from the rest of the liquid in the
bottle, 12% of it would be alcohol. It
is a good idea to be mindful of this when you are consuming wine or any other
alcoholic beverage for that matter, because it does matter. My point here is
not all wine is the same. There is a significant difference between a wine that
is 11% ABV vs. one that is 15% ABV. The more experienced you become in tasting
wine, you can usually detect those that are higher in alcohol.
What caught my eye with this label is something that I don’t
believe I’ve ever seen before. They
listed a range of ABV, 11% to 14%. Does it vary from bottle to bottle? Interesting. For what it’s worth, my thoughts in this case or
with this bottle anyway is that it was on the lower end of the
spectrum.
In many ways this wine drinks to me like a Beaujolais (another region
and different varietal) but I found it to be a light bodied red similar in
style to a Beaujolais. This wine is fermented in stainless steel than aged in
oak for 6 months resulting in light tannins.
On the nose, notes of cassis, blackberry, violet and cedar.
The beautiful burgundy colored wine (from
which the color takes its name) offered flavors of raspberry, blackberry and
flint. I found it to be a very well balanced wine though with a shorter finish than I
would prefer. We enjoyed this with Grilled Spice Rubbed Chicken Thighs one
night and Italian Street Fair Crepes the next. Try also with quail or other
game birds. Click the links below to print or save the recipe pairing
suggestions.
No comments:
Post a Comment