To Effectively Communicate,
We Need a Common Language.

Of course we speak English, but the same English word sometimes has a different meaning to different people especially when the subject has to do with our senses of touch, sight, sound, smell and taste. By looking at the same object, we can agree on its color, blue say, but I have no way of knowing that blue looks the same to you as it does to me and vice versa. Our enjoyment of wine comes from its taste, but we need to keep in mind that “taste” comes mainly from our sense of smell - our olfactory sense - as detected by the olfactory receptors in the nasal passage above our palate.

I find a parallel between wine and music - my ability to describe, verbally, a piece of music or a wine is extremely limited, yet I can recognize the music or even the performer upon hearing only a few notes, and can recognize a familiar wine, or sometimes a varietal, from a single taste or sniff. In this regard, I am sure I am not unique - you can acquire this ability.

What follows is a work-in-progress, a glossary attempting to bridge the wine communication gap....

“Residual sugar” is the sugar left in the wine after fermentation

Wine (grape juice) “fermented to dryness” (meaning that the fermentation stopped for lack of fermentable sugar) may contain as little as 1/10th of one percent of sugar. On the other hand, a very sweet wine may contain as much as 20% residual sugar. High acidity makes such a wine palatable, eliminating the cloyingess that we experience with sugary substances. Other attributes may make it unforgettable.

“Dry” is Wine Speak’s most confounded word

Its true meaning is “no detectable residual sugar” - where “detectable” is determined by the taste buds of the taster. Those taste buds are on the tip of the tongue of the taster and they are imprecise, affected by the presence of other components of the wine. A wine with high levels of acid or tannin may not taste sweet with as much as 2.5% residual sugar.

So what do I understand when a customer asks for a red wine, “but not too dry”?

Ninety-nine percent of all red wines are “dry” as defined above. However, a few wine-makers, taking their cue from food manufacturers (read those Nutrition Facts), use residual sugar as a “hook”. (Didn’t most of us, start with “off-dry” Rosè?)

I have learned that, in most cases, the customer who asks for a red wine, “but not too dry”, is not looking for sweet wine. He or she means “not too tannic” as in puckery or astringent.

So when someone asks for a “dry” red wine I know to ask “Do you mean that you want a tannic wine?”

When the customer tells me that a white wine is too dry, he is probably telling me that it is too acidic - white wine has little or no tannin. But wine needs acid to distinguish it from grape juice.

A wine tower of Babel!

“Sweet” is another conundrum

The sense of sweetness comes from residual sugar in the wine, and we sense it on the tip of our tongue, but as noted above acid or tannin may mask our sense of sweetness.

On the other hand a “fruity” wine, particularly a wine with black fruit or tropical fruit flavors, may give the impression of sweetness but in fact may have little or no residual sugar. I will comment on that under the topic of “fruit”.

The English language, or perhaps our usage of it, comes up short when we attempt to describe levels of sweetness in wine. We use “dry” or “sweet” and then “dessert wine”. I personally am trying to ban “dessert wine” from my vocabulary. Sweet wines may be dessert, but in my humble opinion, they do little for most desserts, and vice versa, unless we are talking about fresh fruit or cheese.

Foreigners do better when it comes to defining levels of sweetness. The French use Sec, Demi-sec, Doux, Moelleux and finally, Liquoreux, but the contradictory terms Brut and Extra Dry, applied to Champagne, drive the casual consumer to distraction. Italians use Secco, Abbaccato, Amabile and ultimately Dolce. Keep in mind that these terms are relative; as far as I can determine, they are not strictly defined as to precise sugar levels.

Full-“bodied”, or Full-“flavored”?

There is an important distinction that is often overlooked and sometimes not easily made. The “body” of a wine has to do with the impression of ”viscosity” or “thickness”, whereas “flavor” has to do with taste. A pale-colored, light-bodied wine may be summarily, and sometimes unfairly, dismissed as “thin”, when, in fact, it may be “full-flavored”, even complex, while a “full-bodied” wine might also be “full-flavored” , but the flavor might be very simple - a single, “loud” and boring note.

“Fruit” is the umbrella word for all the desirable
flavors that can be found in wine

Fruit can be fresh fruit flavors like black currant, cherry, melon, citrus, coconut, or dried fruit, like raisins and prunes, or anyone or more of perhaps thousands of “tastes” (really aromas detected by our sense of smell) such as leather, faded violets, tar, cedar, smoked meat. They are the natural products of fermentation of grapes, reflecting the grape varietal; the soil and climate in which they were produced; how the vines were cultivated; the nature of the yeast used for fermentation; in what kind of vessel the wine was aged; and ultimately the art of the winemaker

Fruit does not include off-flavors of a flawed wine, and it does not include the flavors added to wine by ageing in barrels or, heaven forbid, by additives such wood extract, although it may not be easy to distinguish between natural flavors and some of the flavors imparted by the use of new oak of various species.

“Structure” is the “feel” and “texture”
of the wine in your mouth

Structure comes from acid, in both red and white wines, and tannin in red and rose wines. Acid gives wine a sharp, crisp or bright mouth feel, while tannin is often, incorrectly, referred to as dry - astringent or puckery are better words.

“Balance” is the sense of harmony that
a wine gives on your palate

Wine with fruit and no structure is like grape juice, while wine with insufficient fruit, or too much acid or tannin can be harsh, or sharp and unpleasant, but food will often enhance such a wine.

“Complexity” and “length”

Keep in mind that our sensual impression of wine has, or should have, a beginning, a middle, and an end, as it appears to travel from the front of our palate to the back (and sometimes beyond) - referred to in wine-speak as “entry”, “mid-palate” and “finish”. A wine might have a “long” finish or a “short” finish, even “no” finish because it ends in mid-palate. It may appear to transform smoothly or abruptly from front to back, or it may not change at all - a simple one-dimensional wine that quickly becomes boring

I often think of wine in musical terms. Elevator music is simple, repetitive, boring and eventually annoying. I look for music that I can listen to over and over, because at each listening I find something new. It matters not if it is a solo performance or a whole orchestra, loud or soft - I look for the same thing in wine, whether it is full-bodied or light-bodied. Full-bodied wine, if it has only one loud flavor can quickly become boring, while being light-bodied does not exclude complexity.

“Pairing” as in food and wine

Pairing is neither art nor science - its fun. The wine and the food should complement each other, but more important neither one should overwhelm the other. The possibilities are endless. We are looking for a memorable one-night stand, not a life-time relationship. We learn by experience.

Stay tuned - More to come!

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