Water into wine

Q: What does it mean when a winery "waters back" its wines?

A: In general, wineries prefer not to discuss most of the techniques that are used to reduce the alcohol in wines.

The image that the industry likes to promote is that wine is a completely natural product, that everyone takes a hands-off, noninterventionist approach, and basically that good wine is made in the vineyard — the winemaker's main job is not to mess things up. But as vineyard practices have pushed sugar levels at harvest higher and higher, finished wines have gotten hotter and hotter.

There are a number of high-tech methods for lowering the alcohol in wine, but the preferred method is decidedly low tech. Called watering back, or more humorously "post-harvest irrigation," it simply means that water has been added to the wine during fermentation.

In some countries this would be illegal, but in much of the world there is legal wiggle room to do so. Wineries see watering back as a means of picking ever-riper grapes to get the sweet fruit flavors consumers love while keeping the alcohol levels from rising to 15 percent or higher. They just don't want consumers to know about it.

Paul Gregutt answers questions weekly in the Wine section.

He can be reached by e-mail at wine@seattletimes.com.