Actually, depending on the temperature of the barrel room, the evaporation can increase or decrease the alcohol. Because alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water, in cooler cellars it will evaporate through the staves before the water will and the ABV will fall. At warmer temperatures, H20 being a smaller molecule, will penetrate the wood faster than the alcohol and the ABV will rise.
That’s why Scotch tends to lose alcohol with age (cool cellars) while Bourbon alcohol levels tend to rise in barrel (warmer cellars).
Thanks (again) JM. Could a wine maker theoretically control the cellar temp to decrease alcohol by a reasonable number (say half a %), all while increasing concentration? Is there anyone out there who does/tries to do this?
I was also wondering if anyone tried these yet? Galloni notes the 2019s are more noticeably different than the 2018s were.
I know allocations of this wine are very small. If anyone is interested in sharing my allocation, PM me before the release tomorrow. I would be interested in selling at my cost plus shipping 1 bottle of 2018 and/or 1 bottle of 2019 if im able to secure an allocation of the 2019 on 12/6.
The change is pretty slow through barrels. I’d be pretty sure they’d just resort to reverse osmosis, which is very common, both to increase and decrease alcohol.