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LOW ALCOHOL WINES Margot van Schoor writes: I am interested in finding out which estates are producing low alcohol wines, particularly reds. Thank you!
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Tim James replies, inadequately: Not an easy topic to give a
useful, let alone definitive response. I'm presuming that you're looking
for wines with around 8-9 per cent alcohol. The legal ways that wine in
our climate would have such a low alcoholic content would be through
being picked pretty unripe, or having their fermentation stopped before
all the sugar had been converted to alcohol, or being de-alcoholised
through some process. I think all three of these, or a combination of
them are used.
But I don't know of any listing of such wines. A browse through a draft of the next edition of Platter (due out in early November) suggests that there are a lot more low-alcohol whites available than reds, and many of them are sweet (so if it's reduced calorie intake you're after, that's not much use!). Most of these wines are pretty clearly at the lower end of the price/quality scale, by the way. A few ranges of deliberately low alcohol wines that I noticed: from Riebeek Cellars, Robertson WInery, and the D-Lite-Ful range from Westcorp's Goiya. I've included their website links if you want to explore further. Beyond that, I fear I can't be of assistance. If there's anyone out there who can give better advice or pointers, we'd be pleased to carry further info.
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