The alcohol content of local wines is steadily increasing, but is that a good thing?

IS it a macho thing that imported Scotch is 8% stronger than the stuff sold in Scotland? I'm not talking cask-strength spirit with enough grunt to put ginger hairs on your caber here, but rather y're bog-standard Glenfiddich in Glasgie or Glenfarclas in Furryboots City (Aberdeen), which weigh in at 40% alcohol by volume. Yet imported into South Africa, the Scottish stuff is stiffened up to 43%, as indeed are vodka, gin and Cognac. No wonder South African poets have yet to scale the heights of a Brendan Behan or Dylan Thomas. If a Cape Town Cavafy or Dostoevsky in Durban welcomed the muse with the customary bottle of Scottish, he'd be pushing up daisies in Westpark quicker than you could say Walt Whitman.

A simple step on the long road to responsible drinking would be to regularise the legislated alcohol content of ardent spirits sold in SA. It would save money and create jobs, too, as no special domestic-versus-export bottlings would be necessary.

While SA spirits are legislated 8% stronger than in the EU, wine continues its inexorable climb to the ceiling. But it could be about to fall down in a heap, given the increasingly strident calls for clear alcohol labelling legislation in the UK, still the largest export market for SA wine in spite of a 16% volume meltdown last year.

Globally, wine alcohol levels are up 20% in two decades as producers embrace richer, riper styles made from grapes harvested with more sugar, which ferments out to higher alcohol levels. The magic number in Stellenbosch, when the great reds of the 1980s were made (many of which are still alive), was 12.5%, while today 14.5% is more likely.

UK consumer group wineoption.org makes the point: "In spite of all the aggressive marketing of lighter and healthier food options, the wine trade does next to nothing to help consumers discover lighter and healthier wine counterparts."

In SA, we're not even at the aggressive marketing stage, although liquor distributor Brandhouse are sponsoring a new initiative called the Responsible Drinking Media Awards.

As it says on the bottle, "the awards will recognise and celebrate journalistic efforts in supporting, promoting and contributing to the Responsible Drinking agenda and ultimately, changing consumer behaviour". First prize is R10000 and when I told Ray Edwards, Spar liquor executive, about the competition at the launch of a local whisky magazine called (not too surprisingly) Whisky, he said perhaps he would throw in a trip to Scotland to visit some distilleries for the winner. A true Roald Dahl moment.

A more effective strategy to bring SA wine-alcohol levels down to earth lies in the remit of Pravin Gordhan - a handy name for a minister of finance, as he sounds like a member of the Gordhan family who gave the banking world G&Ts.

In last month's budget, tax on wine was raised by 13.5 cents a bottle, short-changing elegant, low-alcohol lovelies such as Paul Cluver's 9% Close Encounter Riesling 2010 while giving China's favourite shiraz from Niel Joubert, the 16.3% Christine Marie 2006, a discount ride.

Read Pendock Uncorked at http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock