'Why Do I Like This Wine?'

There are basically two kinds of people in the world:  those who feel and those who analyze. Wine lovers divide into these two camps as well. While I sometimes find the analyzers tedious when winetasting (I’m more of a feeling type—I just know I like it without worrying about why) I admit that the analysts have taught me a thing or two.

To spare you the agony of having to learn from the analysts, I thought I would devote this month’s column to some of the essential things you ought to know if you are really going to understand why you appreciate a particular glass of wine.

Wine really has only four components: sugar, acid, tannin and alcohol.
  The first three occur naturally in the grape, while alcohol (and some acids) result from fermentation. The very best wines are those in which the four components are in balance – when no one component dominates or overwhelms. By knowing the hallmarks of each component and then measuring how they stack up in your mouth in a particular wine, you can figure out your own preferences and how they relate to why you like or dislike a particular wine.

Sugar is the easiest component of wine to identify, perhaps because most of us have tasted sugar since infancy. We perceive sweetness on the tip of our tongues, which is also where we taste floral and fruit flavors. That means that you may perceive a particularly fruity wine as sweet even though there may be no residual sugar in it. Sugar occurs naturally in grapes, and the riper the grapes, the sweeter the resulting grape juice. During fermentation, sugar is converted to alcohol. Exactly how much conversion to allow is one of the mysteries of the art of winemaking. A winemaker decides when to stop fermentation, and in doing so determines how sweet the wine will be as well as what its alcohol content will be. Get it right, and you’ve got a gold medal on your hands. Get it wrong, and it’s Mad Dog 20-20.

Acid gives wine its crispness or freshness. You can perceive it as sour or tart. Think of other acidic things you eat or drink--orange juice, vinegar, lemons, etc. The reason you enjoy a glass of lemonade on a sunny day is the acid. That’s the same acid that makes a sauvignon blanc perfect for a mid-summer picnic. While some acid naturally occurs in grapes, other acids result from fermentation. One acid that is commonly produced by fermentation is lactic acid, which is a kind of “soft” acid that is present in most dairy products. Lactic acid is what gives some chardonnays a taste the wine snobs call “buttery.”

Tannin gives wine its body and its structure. If you get that puckery feeling in your mouth when you first taste a wine, it’s the tannin pulling at your mouth like a drawstring. Too much tannin can create a very harsh feeling in your mouth. You might experience it as “harsh” or “scratchy.” This often happens when grapes are picked before they have fully ripened. Since tannin is only found in the skin, stems and seeds of a grape, and most white wines are made only from the juice of the grape after the skin, stems and seeds are removed, tannin is typically a characteristic of red wine. So, if tannins aren’t part of your wine palate, the solution is simple: don’t drink red wine. But before you write off the reds completely, keep in mind that tannin mellows over time. You may find that a wine of recent vintage that you found particularly tannic might be great if you save it for a few years. (This is particularly true of cabernet sauvignon.)

Alcohol. In a well-made wine, the distinctive taste of alcohol (which is the overpowering taste of strong spirits) is barely perceptible. At most, you should feel it as a slightly warm sensation on your tongue. In some white wines, it provides body and “chewinesss.” If a wine produces heat or an unpleasant “zing” when you taste it, it has too much alcohol. Excessive alcohol can dull your perception of all the other components.

Now that you have the basics, here’s a simple exercise you can try to help you get the hang of what you’re looking for when you next decide to taste wines: Get yourself a teaspoon of sugar, some lemon juice, some black tea and a shot of hard liquor (vodka or rum will do). You’ve got in front of you now, sugar, acid, tannin and alcohol. Taste, swirl and spit each one. Be sure to roll it around, and notice what you taste and/or feel and where in your mouth you taste it or feel it.  Then, the next time you taste a wine, keep your experience in mind.  You’ll probably find that you now taste wine in a whole new way.

Now you’re an instant wine snob, and you can analyze with the best of the experts. Just remember, though, the most important criteria for any wine: do you like it?