The Panel’s Best from December | 5 Basic Wine Characteristics
01/22/2018 09:17:27
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Dear Reader
What are the 5 basic wine characteristics? Sweetness, Acidity, Tannin, Alcohol and Body. Here is some useful info about each for your next dinner party …
1. Sweetness in wine is from residual sugar (RS). RS is leftover when not all the grape must is fermented into alcohol. In a technically dry wine, there shouldn’t be more than half a teaspoon of sugar per glass. 2. Acidity, as grapes ripen they become less acidic. A wine from a cooler climate where it is hard for the grape to ripen, will produce wines with higher acidity. 3. Tannin comes from 2 sources: grape skins and seeds, and from new oak barrels. Tannin will cause a drying and puckering sensation. 4. Alcohol comes from yeast converting grape must (sugar) into ethanol. Alcohol may be added to wine, which is called fortifying. 5. Body is not an exact science, it is a style which all of the above affects. Lighter bodied wines will have more acidity, lower alcohol, less tannin and less sweetness—and vice versa for bolder wines.
Below are some of our panel’s top-rated wines from December, which were all blind tasted and scored strongly in their respective tastings. Try keep the above in mind when you taste them and remember “the more you taste the more you will pick up.”
Enjoy!
Kind Regards,
What are the 5 basic wine characteristics? Sweetness, Acidity, Tannin, Alcohol and Body. Here is some useful info about each for your next dinner party …
1. Sweetness in wine is from residual sugar (RS). RS is leftover when not all the grape must is fermented into alcohol. In a technically dry wine, there shouldn’t be more than half a teaspoon of sugar per glass. 2. Acidity, as grapes ripen they become less acidic. A wine from a cooler climate where it is hard for the grape to ripen, will produce wines with higher acidity. 3. Tannin comes from 2 sources: grape skins and seeds, and from new oak barrels. Tannin will cause a drying and puckering sensation. 4. Alcohol comes from yeast converting grape must (sugar) into ethanol. Alcohol may be added to wine, which is called fortifying. 5. Body is not an exact science, it is a style which all of the above affects. Lighter bodied wines will have more acidity, lower alcohol, less tannin and less sweetness—and vice versa for bolder wines.
Below are some of our panel’s top-rated wines from December, which were all blind tasted and scored strongly in their respective tastings. Try keep the above in mind when you taste them and remember “the more you taste the more you will pick up.”
Enjoy!
Kind Regards,