Common scenario that most of us social folks have been in…

A group of people goes out to dinner and splits a bottle of wine. One person tastes the wine and says, “Ah, just the way I like it – just the right amount of acidity for me.” Another person sips, makes a puckering face, and says “Way too many tannins for me!”

What does this mean? Is the wine good or bad?

That’s the thing about wine. While, yes, there are certainly qualitative ways to measure if a wine is superior to one or another, the most important criteria is that you like it. As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” and much of that philosophy applies to the world of wine (at least for us casual consumers). Why does Mr. Puckery Face not like it? What’s the bit about tannins??? How can something that’s acidic be a good thing? Doesn’t that mean that the wine should taste like vinegar and has gone bad?? Huh.

With a simple at-home experiment you can learn about the sensation of tannins and acidity. After doing this rudimentary experiment, you will impress yourself at how you, too, can use wine jargon and know what it means!

Take two grapes: one red, one green. Peel each of them. Save the skins. Chew the green grape skin. What do you think? Not bad. Mild, kind of pleasing.

Chew the skin of the red grape. What just happened in your mouth? It became all chalky, a bit bitter, had a drying sensation, and was perhaps a little tart like steeped black tea. Et voilà, those, my dinner party friends, are tannins.

Next, pop the pulp of the green grape into your mouth. What happened? It flooded with water from the bottom-up. It was literally a mouth-watering experience. This is a reaction to the acidity of the grape. An acidic wine will literally make your mouth water. Try the pulp of the red grape and the same thing happens inside your mouth.

Use this simple experiment to think about what you like in wine. You can now start determining for yourself what level of tannins you find pleasing or displeasing in your wine. Observe how much the wine makes your mouth water to figure out if it’s high or low in acidity. Most importantly, many people feel better about their preferences once they have a way to explain why they feel the way they do. Now you have two tools for the wine jargon toolkit. Chin, chin!

 

Link to Mommelier Wine Jargon Toolkit

 

Photo: “CarmenereW” by Lebowskyclone – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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