What makes wine so delicious

What Makes Wine So Delicious?

Wine is comprised of many chemical compounds and is often described by professionals in whimsical terms. But what does it all mean? What makes one wine taste different then another? Before dive into the notes of lemon curd topped with a slightly bruleed meringue met with a spring ocean breeze.... we need to understand the basic structure of wine.

Dry vs Sweet

When all the natural grape sugar is converted to alcohol, a wine is described as dry. When a wine has residual or unfermented sugar still in solution it is described as sweet. The level of sweetness is determined by the percentage of residual sugar. One thing to note is that people often associate a wines fruitiness to sweetness, a result of the minds association of fruit being naturally sweet. Many wines can be dry yet retain a large amount of fruitiness.

What is tannin?

Best way to taste test tannins on their own is to over steep some black tea and drink it.

Tannin is an organic molecule that can be integrated into the wine two ways, the grape skins and seeds and oak aging. It is responsible for the astringent, velvety quality of a wine. The tannin molecule binds to the protein in your mouth, creating the drying sensation you feel when drinking a Cabernet Sauvignon or other high tannin wines.

The best way it has been described to me is picture cooking an egg in a pan and how the white forms as you cook it, basically that is happening in your mouth. It is a large contributor to the structure of a wine along with alcohol and acid.

Alcohol Contribution to Wine.

Ethanol gives a wine texture because we perceive it as “richer” than water. The way to identify the wines alcohol level is to pay attention to the burn in the back of your throat after you take a sip. If it feels like you just to a shot of liquor the alcohol is high. Also you can tilt your chin to your chest and make the infamous wine slurp sound. As the air passes over the wine the alcohol dissipates at a faster rate leaving you feeling the burn.

Alcohol ranges from 5% ABV – 16% ABV. A sub-11% ABV table wine usually means something with a little natural sweetness. Dry wines at 13.5% to 16% ABV are all going to be quite rich and intensely flavored. Fortified wines are 17-21% ABV. Alcohol level is directly correlated to the sweetness of the grapes prior to fermenting the wine. For this reason, lower ABV (sub-11%) wines will often have natural sweetness; their grape sugar wasn’t all turned into booze. Warmer growing regions produce riper grapes, which have the potential to make higher alcohol wine.

What is acid?

Acid is perceived as the tart or sourness in a wine, think of eating a lemon. There are many types of acids in wine, but the overall acidity in wine is often measured in pH. The lower the pH the more acidic the wine is and the more it will cause that mouthwatering sensation (the feeling on the sides of your tongue). The closer the pH approaches 7 (neutral) on the pH scale the less detectable the tartness of the wine will be. Most wines range between 3-4 pH however, some can be as low as 2.9 pH and as high as 4.9 pH.

While there are many contributing factors to the wines amazingness, these are the basics that set the good from the great apart. These are the backbone to defining a great wine from a good wine.