A wine with less wallop

JUMILLA, Spain -- Global warming may be the latest threat to the wine industry, but a clutch of producers in one of Spain's hardest-hit regions say they've found a way to survive and even profit from it.

Vintners face a twin danger from climate change. Higher temperatures mean grapes with more sugar and thus more alcohol, but wines packing a heftier wallop are less popular these days, in part because people are wary of drinking and driving. Plus, drought can stop vines from producing fruit altogether.

So winemakers in Spain's southeastern Murcia region thought up a way to coax their vines into making a product that retains the character of a classic wine, only with much less alcohol -- 6.5 percent by volume, compared to 14 percent or more for many traditionally made Spanish wines.

The technique and product are so groundbreaking the European Union had to devise a new category -- "wine with reduced alcohol content" -- for it to be marketed.

"Vineyards are migrating north to avoid heat. If we want to stay in the business we have to adapt. And this method gives us a means to do so," said Pedro Jose Martinez, the brains behind the project at a winery called Casa de la Ermita winery, near the town of Jumilla.

His pride and joy, called Altos de la Ermita, is redolent of cherries, plums and blackberries, with a smoky hint of the oak barrels it spent six months maturing in. It tastes light and fruity, like a good summer drinking wine. Only a slight lack of "legs" -- tear-like traces wine leaves on the side of a glass -- gives away the low alcohol content.

"And you can drink two good glasses with your lunch and still be under the legal limit," said the project's chief winemaker, Marcial Martinez, who is unrelated to Pedro Jose Martinez, raising a glass of his own.

The winery says it knows of no other producers making this kind of wine but expects competition to emerge. It plans to release 770,000 bottles of Altos in this the debut year and 1.5 million in 2009, with sales planned in Spain and around the world.

The Ermita vineyard's technique uses carefully controlled irrigation to trick vines into making grapes with less sugar and thus significantly less potential for alcohol. The finished wine is then put through rotating cones to remove alcohol molecules. It is this step that made it necessary for the EU to devise a new category of wine.

"We manage to achieve a product that retains all the sensorial characteristics of a classic wine, but with only 6.5 percent alcohol," said Marcial Martinez.

------ On the Net: OIV - International Organization of Vine and Wine: http://www.oiv.int Spanish Wine Federation: http://www.fev.es AP-WS-05-11-08 0000EDT