Patricia González Schütz Dec 4, 2012:

As I see it, it should have been written “potential alcohol” from the very beginning (and Joel is correct), but it’s been written just “graduación” (alcohol content), being an elliptical way of saying (as Charles says), as wanting to say “alcohol content to be”. So I guess the decision goes to Peter of the way to write it down; either correctly or literal (as in context). Maybe Peter can contact the author. Anyway, a very pleasant debate, thanks to you all, and correct me if my reasoning out all this is incorrect please.

peter jackson (asker) Dec 3, 2012:

Charles, you really are the proverbial bee's knees. Thanks, as always, for all your help.

Charles Davis Dec 3, 2012:

@ Peter First appearances are deceptive here. Grapes, of course, don't (normally) contain alcohol, so you would have thought that their "graduación" must refer to sugar content or brix. "Graduación" is an unusual word to use for this; it nearly always means "graduación alcohólica", and sugar content is normally "grado de azúcar". But in principle "graduación" might mean that.

However, it can't be the meaning here, because of the figures. As a general guide, 1.7º brix yields 1º alcohol content, so a wine of 12º alcohol content, a normal figure, comes from grapes with a brix of around 20º. Grapes with 11.5-12º brix are exceptionally low in sugar and unusable for wine (you'd have to add loads of sugar to get to an acceptable alcohol level, and you're not allowed to do that). So "graduación" in your text must refer to alcohol content, and it is an elliptical way of saying grapes "yielding an alcohol content of between 11.5º and 12º".