What do you taste when drinking wine? Frequently used wine terms can be confusing or at least require further explanation.\u00a0 The big four wine terms are acidity, sugar, tannins and alcohol.\u00a0 What role does each have in wine?<\/p>\n
Acidity in Wine <\/b>– without acids the wine would not exist.\u00a0 Acidity gives the wine is vivacity, certain aromatic characteristics and touch of bitterness.\u00a0 Acids also play an essential role in preserving the wine with its antioxidant properties.\u00a0 Choosing a wine with the right amount of acidity is important when pairing food with wine.\u00a0 For example, a creamy sauce needs a wine a wine with a higher level of acidity to cut through the fat so both go well together. Think of the effect of acidity like a squeeze of lemon on a plate of food.<\/p>\n
What are tannins?<\/b>\u00a0 This is another term frequently used when describing a wine.\u00a0 Tannins could be described as the backbone of the wine onto which everything else is attached. They are found in the skins and pips of the grapes as well as the stalks. A good way to taste tannins is to make really strong tea, you will notice that its mouth puckering dryness.\u00a0 Those are the tannins.\u00a0 Red wines have more natural tannins than whites and you notice them because they have a dry slightly bitter flavour.\u00a0 Wines that go well food need the touch of bitterness and structure from the tannins otherwise they would fall flat and the food would dominate the taste of the wine.<\/p>\n
What determines the amount of alcohol in a wine<\/b>?\u00a0 Most wine will have a level of alcohol of between 10% and 14%.\u00a0 The amount of alcohol is determined by the natural level of sugar in the grapes when they are picked.\u00a0 Climate plays an important part.\u00a0 A hot, dry region like Jumilla in Spain will produce wine with higher levels of alcohol than Germany, where it is much cooler.\u00a0 The different effect that alcohol has on wine is similar to the fat in milk; skimmed, semi or whole milk.\u00a0 Wines with lower alcohol are lighter in body while wine with a higher level of alcohol will be more full bodied.<\/p>\n
How can a dry white wine sometimes taste sweet?<\/b>\u00a0 The sweetness in a wine comes from the sugar in the grapes.\u00a0 Fermentation causes the sugar to convert to alcohol when most of the sugar has become alcohol the wine is then considered to be dry, with just a small amount of residual sugar remaining.\u00a0 The sweet sensation in a dry wine comes from the fruit flavours, for example a Chardonnay from Australia which citrus and tropical fruit flavours has a sweet sensation.\u00a0 If a wine has been aged in an oak barrel you can get\u00a0 creamy, vanilla flavours that enhance the sweet sensation. Also the higher the level of alcohol adds to the sensation of sweetness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What do you taste when drinking wine? Frequently used wine terms can be confusing or at least require further explanation.\u00a0 The big four wine terms are acidity, sugar, tannins and alcohol.\u00a0 What role does each have in wine? Acidity in Wine – without acids the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[281],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6439"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8572,"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6439\/revisions\/8572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markoneill.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}