When I pick up a bottle, one of the first things I look at is the alcohol percentage. Not in a serious, analytical way, it just gives me a quick sense of what I might be getting before I even open it.

Wine is basically fermented grape juice. The sugar in the grapes turns into alcohol, so the riper the grapes are when they’re picked, the higher the alcohol is going to be. That part is pretty straightforward.

What’s more helpful is how that actually shows up once it’s in your glass.

Wines with higher alcohol usually feel a little fuller, a little broader. They just have more weight to them. Lower alcohol wines tend to feel lighter, a bit more lifted, sometimes a little more restrained.

You see this a lot depending on where the wine is from. Warmer places usually mean riper grapes and higher alcohol. Cooler places, the opposite. So if you see something around 14.5%, it’s probably going to feel on the fuller side, while something closer to 11% is going to come across lighter.

Now, that number isn’t exact. There’s actually a legal range built into labeling. In the U.S., a wine labeled 14.5% can be about a full percentage point higher or lower and still fall within the rules. So it’s not meant to be precise, more of a general range. Still, it’s useful. An 11% wine is never going to drink like a 15% wine.

Where it really starts to click is when you connect that number to what you’re actually tasting.

Alcohol isn’t something you pick out like a flavor, it’s more about how the wine feels. You’ll usually notice it in the weight first. Some wines just carry more presence on your palate. It can also make the fruit come across a little riper, sometimes even slightly sweet, even if the wine is technically dry.

And then there’s the warmth. That little bit of heat at the end of a sip. When everything is working together, you barely notice it. When it’s not, it sticks out pretty quickly.

That’s really what you’re looking for. Balance.

Higher alcohol doesn’t mean better, and lower doesn’t mean simple. Some of the most interesting wines out there are lower alcohol, and there are plenty of higher alcohol wines that feel completely put together. It just comes down to how everything fits.

The number on the label gives you a starting point. The rest, you figure out in the glass.