TY - JOUR T1 - A Method for the Estimation of Alcohol in Fortified Wines Using Hydrometer Baumé and Refractometer Brix JF - American Journal of Enology and Viticulture JO - Am J Enol Vitic. SP - 486 LP - 490 DO - 10.5344/ajev.2006.57.4.486 VL - 57 IS - 4 AU - Frank Rogerson AU - Charles Symington Y1 - 2006/12/01 UR - http://www.ajevonline.org/content/57/4/486.abstract N2 - A novel method for the estimation of alcoholic strength of fortified wines has been developed, linking %v/v alcohol to two simple and rapid enological measurements: refractometer apparent Brix and hydrometer apparent °Baumé. The soluble solid content of fortified wines, measured as true Brix (refractometer) and true °Baumé (hydrometer), can be estimated by the application of experimentally determined correction factors, which compensate for alcoholic obscuration. A calibration plot of true °Baumé versus true Brix, for 35 port wines, having diverse apparent °Baumé and % v/v alcohol, was linear with r2 = 0.997. Applying the obscuration formula and rewriting the equation in terms of apparent Baumé and apparent Brix, leads to an expression for alcoholic strength: % Alcohol (v/v) = 1.646 A.Brix − 2.703 A.°Baumé − 1.794. This equation permits the rapid estimation of alcohol content of young fortified wines by two simple measurements: refractometer apparent Brix and hydrometer apparent °Baumé. The method is rapid, economical and extremely portable, and is proposed as a quality-control technique for the three standard fortified wine parameters: % v/v alcohol, hydrometer apparent °Baumé, and refractometer apparent Brix. ER -