A wine drinkers' caveat
How Much Is Too Much? Alcohol in Wine
© by Richard Fadeley
wineloverspage.com
A good friend recently asked me would it be safe to drive after drinking a half bottle of wine with dinner. I was embarrassed to say that I was not sure and immediately went to work on this article.
Wine varies dramatically in its percentage of alcohol-by-volume (ABV) and is something you should pay attention to if you plan to imbibe. My plans were to drink varying wines and submit to an official Breathalyzer test, doing this over several days. SLED (South Carolina's state law enforcement division) refused to cooperate and since they own all of the machines, that option was out.
Fortunately the private market sells an assortment of handheld devices with varying degrees of accuracy. I settled on the BACTrack Element, a professional grade device with a 4-digit readout and an accuracy of 0.005 percent, keeping in mind that 0.080 percent is legally intoxicated.
For this "unscientific" study I drank wines with varying degrees of alcohol (ABV percent). This percentage is shown on every bottle, though quite often you need glasses to see the fine print. Another variable is the labeling laws of each country. In the US wine producers with wines below 14 percent are allowed a variation of 1.5 percent, and for wines above 14 percent they can be off by 1 percent. Most European countries allow a 0.5 percent margin of error. For this reason I limited my wines to Europe, picking a 12 percent Spanish rosé from Rioja ('12 Monte Clavijo Rosé, $8), a 13 percent red Burgundy (Machard de Gramont '09 Chorey-les-Beaune, $25), and a 14.5 percent southern Rhone red (Pierre Amadieu '09 Gigondas, $25).
(Continued here.)
© by Richard Fadeley
wineloverspage.com
A good friend recently asked me would it be safe to drive after drinking a half bottle of wine with dinner. I was embarrassed to say that I was not sure and immediately went to work on this article.
Wine varies dramatically in its percentage of alcohol-by-volume (ABV) and is something you should pay attention to if you plan to imbibe. My plans were to drink varying wines and submit to an official Breathalyzer test, doing this over several days. SLED (South Carolina's state law enforcement division) refused to cooperate and since they own all of the machines, that option was out.
Fortunately the private market sells an assortment of handheld devices with varying degrees of accuracy. I settled on the BACTrack Element, a professional grade device with a 4-digit readout and an accuracy of 0.005 percent, keeping in mind that 0.080 percent is legally intoxicated.
For this "unscientific" study I drank wines with varying degrees of alcohol (ABV percent). This percentage is shown on every bottle, though quite often you need glasses to see the fine print. Another variable is the labeling laws of each country. In the US wine producers with wines below 14 percent are allowed a variation of 1.5 percent, and for wines above 14 percent they can be off by 1 percent. Most European countries allow a 0.5 percent margin of error. For this reason I limited my wines to Europe, picking a 12 percent Spanish rosé from Rioja ('12 Monte Clavijo Rosé, $8), a 13 percent red Burgundy (Machard de Gramont '09 Chorey-les-Beaune, $25), and a 14.5 percent southern Rhone red (Pierre Amadieu '09 Gigondas, $25).
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home