Read the piece on jancisrobinson.com ↗
Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.
Our reading
Warmer summers are far from the whole explanation of how wine alcohol levels have changed.
Their wordsIt is popularly believed that, thanks to ever-warmer summers, wine is becoming steadily more potent, but this is far from the whole picture
Their wordsToday’s producers and consumers have been turning away from alcohol and are actively looking for fresher wines. In fact, it has become something of a fetish.
Their wordsIn my experience, although most wine drinkers today are actively seeking less alcohol, they want no sacrifice of flavour.
Our reading
Organic and biodynamically grown vines tend to ripen earlier with no loss of wine quality.
Their wordsAnd, in general, organic and biodynamically grown vines tend to ripen earlier with no loss of quality in the finished wine.
Our reading
The UK's strength-linked wine duty may have increased the population's sugar consumption.
Their wordsA government tactic designed to make the population healthier by consuming less alcohol has, therefore, resulted in potentially increasing its consumption of sugar.
Keep reading