Wine Characteristics
All Those Things
That Make A Wine Special

Flavors are only part of the overall wine tasting experience. Wine characteristics play a major role in a wine’s taste. Anytime you’re around wine tasters, you are going to hear some of these terms. Understand and appreciate them and you’ll fit right in - not to mention enjoying your wine even more. Here we go:

• Sweet wine and dry wine. “How sweet it is!” Jackie Gleason used to say on the Honeymooners. He was probably tasting a good dessert wine when he said that. Anyway, note how sweet your wine is. Since the tip of your tongue detects sweetness first, you should notice it right away. The sweetness comes from any residual sugar left after fermentation. Not sweet? Then the wine is dry. Dryness is simply the absence of sweetness.

  A couple of technical details. If a wine has a lot of tannins, you’ll pucker up and think the wine is dry. That’s not the true definition of dryness, however. Second is that a wine can be fruity but not sweet.

• Acidity. Detected on the sides of your tongue (where the sour taste buds are), this is the component that makes a wine taste crisp and tart. You will find this more in white wines and lighter reds. And you should. A lack of acidity can make these wines taste flat and listless. Here is a list in approximate order of acidity:
  • Gewurtztraminer
  • Pinot grigio
  • Chardonnay
  • Champagne
  • Chablis
  • Chenin Blanc
  • Riesling
  • Sauvignon blanc

• Tannins. Found mainly in younger red wines, this is what gives you that bitter puckering sensation. Found in the skins of the grapes, excess tannins are similar to stuffing cotton in your mouth.

Maybe that’s why Marlon Brando spoke the way he did in the Godfather. Lot’s of red wine before going on camera. There was even a scene in which he drank some wine and Al Pacino said “It’s good for you, Pop”. They had the right idea. Wine is an offer you can’t refuse.

Anyway, this is one of the main reasons red wines are aged. The tannins preserve and soften up the wine over time. This is also why white wines are not aged as much. Too few tannins. Also, aerating can help soften them a little when you first open the bottle. Here they are in general order of tannins:

• Beaujolais
• Tempranillo
• Pinot Noir
• Merlot
• Sangiovese
• Zinfandel
• Syrah/Shiraz
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Alcohol. Does the wine feel heavier and warm on the back of your tongue? If so, there is more alcohol in the wine. Too much alcohol can taste too harsh. If it really burns on the way down, then you are drinking booze instead of wine.
• Body. A function of alcohol content, this is the feeling of fullness or heaviness on the tongue. It thus can range from thin and light to full and rich. A very heavy body can feel like you can chew the wine. So chewy is another description of heaviness. When the 1960’s bubblegum group Ohio Express sang “Chewy Chewy”, this is what they were really singing about.
• Complexity. This is putting together all of the above components of a wine. If it exhibits many flavors, aromas, and favorable characteristics, then you have a great wine. Even better is that the complexity increases over time. Simpler wines will reveal all of their personality in the first few sips.
• Balance. This is when the wine has many of the desirable characteristics but none of them in excess. You can taste each one but none of them overpower any of the others. This is a winemaker’s dream and as such difficult to attain. Not to belabor a point, but since everyone’s tastes are different, a wine may be balanced to one person but not to another.
• Intensity. Not a wine term as such but still important. How intense are the flavors and characteristics? Bland, middle-of-the-road, or knock your socks off? How’s that for wine terminology?
• Quality. Simply ranges from poor to mind-blowing. You decide.
• Typicity. Many wines will exhibit distinct characteristics specific to its varietal or region. The typicity is how well the wine does that.
• Length. This is how well it tastes all the way across your tongue. Some wines have a big bang at the first taste and then fade. A good wine with have long length.
• Finish. Related to length, this is how long the taste lingers after you have swallowed the wine. Note which flavors linger and how much you like them. An excellent finish may last a couple of minutes. A short finish may require another sip. Maybe that’s not so bad after all.

A wine’s taste sure is complex (pun intended), isn’t it?

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