Does the amount of alcohol in a wine matter? Well, yes and no.
Yes, if you consume too much wine and suffer whatever consequences ensue.
No, as far as what's in any given bottle. All that matters is balance, the integration of fruit, tannins, acid and, yes, alcohol.
Of course a wine with 15-percent alcohol will give you a buzz faster than a 12.5-percenter, especially if you're not having it with dinner. (And those high-octane bottles overwhelm all but the most robust foods and can be treated as "cocktails.")
"People ask about alcohol levels constantly," said Lisa Impagliazzo, owner of North Loop Wine & Spirits, "usually when they're tasting. But do people say, 'Oh, that's 14 1/2 percent, I'm not going to buy it'? No. I think the alcohol content has to marry with the winemaker's approach. If you try to make a big red with low alcohol, it's not going to be balanced."
Several winemakers agree. "I'm less worried about alcohol content than about getting perfect ripeness with the fruit," said Kent Rosenblum of Rosenblum Cellars. "We have tried to go lower on the alcohol, and the wine wasn't as good."
Chris Ringland, an icon in his native Australia, has the same approach in making high-alcohol wines under his own name and in the unusually titled Chateau Chateau series.
"I unashamedly make wine from perfectly ripe grapes," he said on a recent visit to the Twin Cities. "If it's in harmony, that's all that matters. In the vineyard, you need ripeness and acidity. You're not thinking alcohol at that point. You're thinking flavor and expression."
