Favorite lower alcohol wines

[RogerHarui]

A number of Savage Grace wines are 13% or lower, including Reds. Many are delicious.

https://www.savagegracewines.com/

[Eric_S_n_y_d_e_r]

13% is a pretty easy bar to clear assuming you’re not too attached to Napa Cabs and CdP.

For me:
Lots of low alc Pinot and Chard producers on CA (Ceritas, Whitcraft, and Chanin are in my wheelhouse)
Lots of OR Pinot
“New wave” favorites like Dirty & Rowdy, Sandlands, Broc
Lots of French, Italian, Spanish, Greek whites
Champagne

Drop the threshold to 12% and things get real interesting.

[Tom_DeBiase]

If you were going to build out a cellar exclusively with high quality wines that are lower in alcohol, which wines would you go to? I’m curious about people’s favorite wines, red and white, that year in and year out are reliably lower ABV. And no going back in time to an earlier era, assume current/future releases. For the sake of this, let’s say everything has to be 13% or lower. I would submit off-dry german riesling from the mosel and nahe as an obvious, and great, source. Perhaps reds from the Jura, like Ganevat? Where else? Who else’s?

Most wine varieties such as Riesling have been mentioned. Here are some local California producers we buy from who make MOST BUT NOT ALL of their wines under 13% with a brief description of what they make.

Ceritas: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir
Dirty & Rowdy: Mourvedre, Chenin Blanc, Semillon, Carignan, Petite Sirah, Red and White “Blends”
Idlewild: Piedmontese inspired wines grown in Mendocino. Arneis, Cortese, Dolcetto, Barbera, Nebbiolo, Red and White “Blends”
Jolie Laide: Wide variety of wines. Gamay, Melon, Grenache, Syrah, Pinot Gris, Trousseau Gris, Red and White “Blends”
Leo Steen: Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay, Grenache, Cabernet Franc, Red “Blend”
Martha Stoumen: Several Red and White “Blends”, Carignan, Zinfandel, Nero d’Avola
Ryme: Vermentino, Cabernet Franc, Ribolla Gialla, Pinot Noir, Aglianico, Red “Blend”
Sandlands: Chardonnay, Mourvedre, Chenin Blanc, Cinsault, Refosco, Carignan, Mission, Red “Blend”

Tom

[Eric_Ifune]

All Riesling.

Umm no. In the Wachau it can get well over 13.5%. Sometimes very high.

[David_Bu3ker]

Sipping on a 2018 Envinate Palo Blanco (Tenerife) right now, and at 11.5% alcohol it has more flavor than most wines I have tasted this year. Wonderful stuff.

[Thomas_Keim]

Vinho Verde is often around 11%.

…or less. My first pick, but this isn’t a cellar wine, it’s what you put in that fake wine rack in the kitchen (that you keep feeding into the frig). German Riesling is of course the star of low alcohol wines in the cellar, but also Petite Chateaux, the little wines of Bordeaux run 12%-13% in not so ripe years. And they hold up well.

[Markus_S]

And of course, this all assumes folks are ‘honest’ about their wine labeling, too - including those overseas.

Cheers

A big assumption, I think. And it’s not even that people are lying for marketing purposes, but many just don’t want to redo labels year to year so they leave “12.5%” or something on there.

It’s surprising how many wine geeks see a European wine labeled 12.5% and think that is the alcohol level. All it really means is “somewhere between 11 and 14%.”

14.9% in Napa is starting to be that same thing. It just means “somewhere between 14% and 15.9%.”

Of course, many of the kinds of wineries we like do try to put actual numbers on each label, too.

Would be nice for truth in advertising by stating the actual alcohol level. I know the “legal” definition gives you enormous leeway, but sometimes the ‘right’ way to do something is more than simply ‘legal’. (I’m sure lawyers will disagree with me here!)
Think of buying milk: you are on a low-fat diet so pick up 2% milk but actually this is really full fat, or even worse, half-n-half. Your body might not like the difference.

[Paul_Miller]

Drinking a 2018 Sabelli-Frisch Marsanne tonight. It’s 12.5%. I think a couple other of his wines have been low. And it’s very nice!

[Rich_Brown]

Gotta throw in our guy William Kelly’s Beau Rivage Chenin Blanc! Its listed at 12.1% but I believe he said it actually clocked in closer to 11.5%. Highly recommended!

[Adam_Frisch]

Drinking a 2018 Sabelli-Frisch Marsanne tonight. It’s 12.5%. I think a couple other of his wines have been low. And it’s very nice!

Agree on the Riesling. It’s just in a class all by itself, that grape. That said, Ceritas Zephyr Chard actually blew my mind recently. The other C’s they make are nice enough, but this is the standout. Amazing shit. And BTW, it’s very Riesling-like.

[S_teve_R_edenbaugh]

Big “yes” on the Beau Rivage, Dirty and Rowdy, Sandlands, Rhme, Ceritas, Arnot-Roberts, Anthill Farms are usually on the low side, Kelley Fox whites and skin-contact wines are 13 and under, Massican blends. Funny after all these years, but ABV has become important to me stylistically. I prefer most of my whites and increasingly reds to be on the lighter side.

[Dennis_Atick]

As Yao said above:
This. 7-8%. And my summer crusher.

[Rich_Salsano]

Most wines from Matthiasson are in that range. Some reds are even around or below 12. Excellent quality and ability to age.

[DougS]

All Riesling.

Umm no. In the Wachau it can get well over 13.5%. Sometimes very high.

Even some of the dry ones in Germany are above 13%. Austria and Alsace can be over 14% in more than a few cases.