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In Bordeaux, several unnamed wineries have applied for official permission to chaptalize their wines. In several appellations in southern France, including Bordeaux, chaptalization, which is the process of adding sugar to the must to increase the potential alcohol content, has been prohibited since 2019. However, it can be approved by the French government through an application to the appellation authority INAO.
In interviews with the local newspaper Sud-Ouest, winemakers spoke anonymously about the must having only eleven percent alcohol by volume, which is too low to produce good quality wines. For classified growths (Crus classés), such wines would lack body. Other experts countered that this wine style, with low alcohol and more freshness and acidity, has long been classic for Bordeaux. In recent years, such wines have sold well. They emphasized that only a few batches would be affected, which had been at the lower limit of sugar content. Many others, however, reached between twelve and fourteen percent alcohol by volume and would not need chaptalization. It should not be given the impression that the vintage as a whole is catastrophic. Applications for chaptalization had also been approved in Bordeaux in 2021 and 2023.
(al / Source: wine-searcher)