Too much alcohol in the wine? Change the yeast!

People sometimes complain that there is too much alcohol in wine. In a warm climate, however, it is not always easy to produce wines with lower alcohol content. When ripe grapes, rich in sugar, ferment to a totally dry wine, the alcohol level often reaches 14 or 14.5%. But now research has come one step closer to identifying different yeasts strains that ferment all the sugar in the must to a lower alcohol level.

More research is needed, however, but experiments with Shiraz and Chardonnay in Australia has produced wines with 1.8% lower alcohol content. Read more about this research on decanter.com.