Let’s face it: Flavor is much more fun than texture. After all, when you
eat a pizza, you’re enjoying the saltiness of the pepperoni, the earthiness of
the mushrooms, or the stinky savor of extra garlic, not analyzing the acid
content of the tomato sauce. On the other hand, you might well take notice of the
crispness of the crust or whether the amount of cheese is just right or too
gloopy. The texture of crust and cheese needs to be in balance for the pizza to
be good. It’s the same with wine. The textural elements of wine—the acid,
tannin, sugars, alcohol, and body—provide an essential framework for presenting
the flavors.
The texture of wine is more
commonly known as its structure. So what effect does each of these structural
elements have on your perception of a wine?
Acidity: This is perceived as
crispness or lemoniness in whites and gives a certain zing to reds. It makes
your mouth water (produce saliva), which is why wines with higher acid levels
are consistently the best with food. Acidity in wine derives from that in the
grapes, although fruit acids are also allowed to be added to certain wines, if
necessary, in the winery.
Tannin: This causes the dry,
chalky feeling on your tongue, gums, and cheeks when you drink red wine. There
is much less tannin in rose wines, and for most people it’s usually
imperceptible in whites. Many people dislike tannin, but it is a necessary
element in the aging process of red wines, and involves many of the beneficial antioxidants
that red wines have become known for. Tannin comes from the skins, seeds, and
stems of grapes, and sometimes from the wood cells of barrels used in the
maturation process.
Sweetness: Sugar and alcohol both
contribute to a wine’s body. Sweetness is both a flavor and a structural
element—sugars are, of course, sweet, but they also give a sense of richness
and thickness (body) to wine. Dessert wines will feel thicker in your mouth
than dry table wines. Sugars are present in the grapes themselves, especially
ripe ones, although in some areas sugars are allowed to be added to the wine
during wine making.
Alcohol: This, too, contributes
to body—a high-alcohol wine will have more apparent thickness in your mouth
than one with a lower alcohol level. The alcohol in wine is a product of
fermentation, when yeast cells consume the sugars in the grape juice and produce
carbon dioxide and alcohol.
How Structure Works for You
Noticing the structure of different
foods will help you pair them with wine. It is very often the structure of
food—the acidity, sweetness, spiciness, oiliness, or creaminess—not the
flavors, that determines which wine will pair well with it. An example of this
is the way a creamy dish like fettucine alfredo is lightened up when paired
with a zesty white with plenty of acid. Pairings can be made using opposites or
like elements. In the example above, the acidity in the zesty white cuts
through the heavy creaminess of the alfredo sauce, refreshing your mouth
between bites. But some very rich dishes benefit from a correspondingly rich
wine. For instance, grilled salmon, an oily fish, pairs brilliantly with a
rich, lightly oaky chardonnay. Knowing which foods and wines will match well
comes with practice. Experimentation never hurts—after all, if the food is good
and the wine is good, you’ll enjoy them both, even if it’s not a match made in
heaven.
The best reason to notice
structure is to help yourself decide what you like. To help you, many
restaurants and wine shops now sort their wines by categories related to
structure: “Fresh and Crisp” (acid, body), “Hearty Reds” (body, tannin). As you
learn about regional and grape characteristics, you’ll be able to predict where
in the world of wine to go for the particular overall sensation you want:
You’ll head to warm climates for full-bodied wines; cool climates for racy,
acidic ones; to New World countries such as Australia or the U.S. for reds with smoother tannin. It is these tendencies that pro tasters consider at blind tastings--they consider the structure first, to arrive at the region and the grape, and even the producer and vintage, of the wine in their glass. And whatever their personal tastes, critics ultimately evaluate the balance of flavor and structure in writing reviews or assigning scores.
In the end, without structure,
wine is just fruit juice!
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