If you’re into wine, no doubt you’ve encountered the terminology of “nose” and “palate”. This is probably obvious, but the nose of a wine is everything that can be gleaned from smelling, while the palate encompasses everything that is gleaned from actually tasting a wine. The main component of the palate is what’s called a wine’s structure, which has five main components: tannins, acidity, alcohol, sugar, and body. In this post, we’ll do a brief overview of each component, and then discuss how knowing your own personal palate can guide you towards the wines you like.
Tannins
Tannins are…complicated—very complicated, and even scientists don’t have a complete understanding of them yet. But luckily, we’re keeping a 10,000 foot view of the subject today—a deeper dive will come later.
So, what are they? Tannins are a group of chemical compounds that cause an astringent sensation in the mouth. If you don’t know what that means, imagine drinking over-steeped tea, or biting into an underripe fruit—it’s that feeling like your mouth is drying out, or a like there’s rough sandpaper on your tongue and gums that sticks around for a little bit before slowly dissipating. Some tannins are bitter, in addition to being astringent. All of that might sound unpleasant—and indeed for some people, it is! Luckily, different grape varietals are known to have different levels of tannin in the resulting wine, so whether you love them or hate them, you at least can have an idea of how to navigate amongst them. (Plus, serving temperature matters a lot too! Tannins will be more apparent at lower temperatures).
Tannins in the Grape
The tannins come from the skin, seeds, and stems of the grape. And while all grapes have tannins, not all wines have tannins, and that comes down to how the wine was made, and how much time it spent on its skins. Because white wine is made from juice that is pressed off the skin, there aren’t many tannins in white wine. Red wine, on the other hand, is fermented on the skins, during which time the tannins are extracted into the wine. Rosé wine spends some time with the skins, so they’ll have some tannins, but not as much as red wines. Orange wine is a white wine that is made like a red wine—fermented on the skins. As a result, orange wines have tannins, too.
Tannins and Grape Varieties
A few common lower tannin red grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Gamay Noir, Zweigelt, Schiava, Frappato, and Barbera.
A few common higher tannin red grape varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, Syrah, Monastrell/Mourvèdre, and Tannat (that one you could’ve guessed!)
Tannins and Winemaking
In addition to the grapes themselves, the winemaking has an enormous impact on how many (and which kind) of tannins show up in the wine. This can be hard to suss out from a consumer perspective, with one notable exception: carbonic maceration. We talked about this last time in our Gamay Noir post, but carbonic maceration is a winemaking method that results in wines with lower tannins, and it is often easy to tell, if not by the label then by a quick google search, if a wine underwent carbonic maceration.
Tannins and Aging
As wines age, the tannins change and become less astringent. So a wine that is unpalatably tannic in youth could end up much smoother a few years down the road.
Acidity
While a somewhat less complicated area than tannins, this one is no less divisive! All wines are acidic from a technical perspective, usually sitting between 3 and 4 on the pH scale. But even just one tick on that pH scale causes a huge difference in the wine, going from searing, mouthwatering acidity to buttery smoothness. White wines tend to be more acidic than red wines.
Like with tannins, some grape varieties tend to be higher in acid, and others lower in acid. But the climate and when the grapes are picked will have a large effect on this—riper fruit tends to be less acidic, so grapes from a warmer climate, and/or that are picked later in the season tend to be less acidic. Winemaking also matters—a winemaker can adjust the kinds and amount of acid in a wine. But, for acidity, grapes are the place to start.
Acidity and Grape Varieties
Some higher acid red grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Schiava, Sangiovese, Barbera, Nebbiolo
Some lower acid red grape varieties: Grenache, Bonarda, Cinsault, Dolcetto, Pinotage
Some higher acid white grape varieties: Sauvignon Blanc, Albariño, Verdelho, Vermentino
Some lower acid white grape varieties: Viognier, Gewurztraminer, Marsanne, and Roussanne
Alcohol
Wines usually have between 9% and 15% alcohol by volume. The amount of alcohol depends on a few factors, including grape ripeness, climate, type of yeast, and method of vinification. But to keep it simple, we’ll focus on grapes and climate. Alcohol is produced during fermentation when the yeast eat the sugar. A riper grape will have more sugar, so riper grapes produce more alcohol, and usually those riper grapes are coming from warmer climates. (However, with climate change, alcohol levels in wine are creeping up pretty much everwhere.) Higher alcohol wines will tend to be “bigger” wines—think of a big burly Napa Cab vs. a Pinot Noir. Most grapes could go either way (or stay somewhere in the middle) depending on how and where they are grown—Chardonnay is a great example, so is Chenin Blanc. Luckily, for the consumer, by law the alcohol content must be listed on the wine’s label, so for this one at least it’s a little easier to know what you are getting!
Alcohol and Grape Varieties
Some red grapes that tend to produce higher alcohol wines: Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel
Some red grapes that tend to produce lower alcohol wines: Pinot Noir, Gamay, Cinsault, Schiava
Some white grapes that tend to produce higher alcohol wines: Viognier, Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Marsanne, Roussanne
Some white grapes that tend to produce lower alcohol wines: Riesling, Albariño, Assyrtiko, Melon de Bourgogne, Verdicchio
Sweetness
Sweetness is an often misunderstood component of wine, although luckily, like with acidity and alcohol, it can be measured. Some people call wines with a lot of fruity character as “sweet” and the wines that are less fruity as “dry”. But in winespeak, sweet means there is detectable sugar in the wine, while dry means there isn’t any detectable sugar. Most wines that people drink are actually dry—regardless of whether they are fruity or not. But wine comes in a variety of sweetness levels. On one end are dessert wines—these can be lusciously sweet, with almost 100 grams of residual sugar per liter. Now, if that were just sugar dissolved in water, drinking it would be intolerable, but the intense sweetness is balanced by the other structural components of the wine.
At the other end of the spectrum are wines that are “bone dry”, which have less than 1 gram of residual sugar per liter. A lot of wines that seem dry–that is, seem like they don’t have any sugar—will actually have a little bit of residual sugar to keep it in balance. Think of lemonade—even a tart lemonade that you wouldn’t describe as “sweet” still has a fair bit of sugar to balance out that intense acid, otherwise you’d just be drinking watered down lemon juice. Generally, the “bigger” the wine—the more sugar there will be, just to keep it all in balance.
While some grapes produce more sugar than others, most wines are fermented to dryness, so the sugar doesn’t turn into sweetness in the wine—it turns into alcohol. Sweetness in wine, then, is usually more about vinification than the grape itself. We’ll dive deeper into sweet wines in a future post, but for now we’ll lay out the general spectrum: sweet, medium sweet, medium dry, off-dry, and dry. If you’re drinking a dry wine, you won’t detect any sweetness, whereas with all the other categories, you will be able to taste that sugar.
Body
While tannins, acidity, alcohol, and sweetness are discrete and tangible things (whether they are measurable or not), body is different. Body is like the web that’s created from the other four, and changing any one of them will change the body (and affect how the others are perceived, too!) While it’s not measurable, body is the sensation of the wine in the mouth. The typical way it’s described is like different types of milk. A light-bodied wine is like skim milk, whereas a full-bodied wine is like cream. Medium-bodied wines are in between. Higher acidity will cause the body of a wine to feel lighter, whereas higher sweetness, alcohol, and tannin all cause the body of a wine to feel heavier.
Your Unique Palate
Everyone has different palates and different preferences. This is why it can lead you astray to just buy a wine because someone—whether a friend or a wine professional—recommended it. They might have a totally different palate than you and you might hate that wine—what waste! That’s why it’s important to instead understand your own unique palate
Tannins and You
If you don’t love black tea, and have noticed that a lot of red wines are too scratchy in the mouth, you might be sensitive to tannins, and so you should seek out those low-tannin varieties listed above. If that doesn’t describe you, then go hog-wild with those high tannin varieties.
Acidity and You
If you love tart things—vinegar, lemon juice, sour patch kids—then you probably like high-acid wines. These are very “in vogue” in the wine world right now, so lucky you! Seek out the varieties listed above, and/or wines from cool climates. If that doesn’t describe you at all, then seek out the varieties listed above and/or wines from warmer climates
Alcohol and You
If you struggle with spirit-forward cocktails, you might be sensitive to alcohol. Some wines “carry” their alcohol better than others, but as a rule of thumb you can look at the ABV (alcohol by volume) on a wine’s label and get an idea.
Sweetness and You
This one can be tricky—remember that sweetness doesn’t mean fruity! If you’re one of the rare people who really doesn’t like sweet things at all, then just stick to your normal wines and don’t shop in the dessert wine section of the store. However, there are some wines, notably Riesling, that can have some sweetness even if they aren’t in the dessert wine section of the store (or menu). For wines like this, a good measure is the alcohol level—if they have lower alcohol levels, like 9 or 10%, then it might have some detectable sugar.
While almost everyones does like sweet things, not everyone likes sweet wine. Unfortunately most people’s first encounter with sweet wines are also usually cheap wines, in which case we encourage you to seek out high-quality sweet wines and discover for yourself.
Body and You
As we mentioned above, body follows from the other components of wine. If you don’t mind tannins and alcohol, then you probably can happily drink from the full-bodied end of the spectrum. But if you are sensitive to tannins and alcohol, then you’ll want to go for more light-bodied wines.
Even though this was meant to be an overview—that was still a lot! In future posts we’ll do deeper dives into all of these components. But hopefully this will orient you somewhat in the world of wine, so you can find the path to your favorite kinds.
Fun Fact: Our sense of taste needs saliva to work! We have approximately 10,000 taste buds in our mouths, most of which are on our tongues, but they can’t taste anything until molecules from the food we eat dissolve in our spit! Only then can the chemicals be detected by receptors on taste buds.