WINE VOCABULARY, STEP BY STEP - 9

THIS WILL BE YOUR SECRET MANUAL TO

Affordable styles, self-development, how-to do’s, learn to divine and describe your own taste. Wine is a personal preference; everybody taste different and likes or dislikes some smell or taste impressions.

FOR THE SELF-MADE PERSON

My impression is that a lot of wine critics sound like a doctor. Using wine terms if everybody knows them. To understand this better, I will take you, in the coming time, step by step through those words in a normal way.

By AD Wines, Dannis Apeldoorn

From A to Z —> C

Complexity

What is complexity in a wine?

Wine and how you taste wine is very personal. To make it measurable you must start with a systematical approach to judge wine. The measuring scale is not maybe what you think personally preference but a standard international scale. So everybody can judge wines in the same way.

Complex flavours and aromas are desirable features in a wine. The complexity can come from primary* aromas and flavours alone, or it may come from the combination of these with secondary ** aromas, or primary, secondary and tertiary*** aromas and flavours. 

In terms of putting a wine into quality categories, think about how well it scores on the 4 criteria (Balance - Intensity - Length - Complexity). The quality categories are divided into 5 levels; outstanding - very good - good - acceptable - poor. An 'outstanding' wine will show positively on all 4 criteria. A 'very good' wine will show positively on 3 of the criteria, but can also score a half a point on 2 criteria so the total score becomes 3. If the wine is judged 'good', then will it show positively against 2 of the criteria or with half points on more of the criteria. An 'acceptable' wine will show positively against only 1 criteria or on two but with half points. A 'poor' wine will have problems when judged on all 4 criteria or can have like a half point for one criteria. 

* Primary aromas and flavours are;

• aromas (what you smell) & flavours (what you taste); those two are divided in clusters.

  • Floral ; acacia, honeysuckle, chamomile, elderflower, geranium, blossom, rose, violet.

  • Green fruit ; apple, gooseberry, pear, pear drop, quince, grape.

  • Citrus fruit ; grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange or lemon peel.

  • Stone fruit ; peach, apricot, nectarine.

  • Tropical fruit ; banana, lychee, mango, melon, passion fruit, pineapple.

  • Red fruit ; redcurrant, cranberry, raspberry, strawberry, red cheery, red plum.

  • Black fruit ; blackcurrant, blackberry, bramble, blueberry, black cherry, black plum.

  • Dried/ cooked fruit ; fig, prune, raisin, sultana, kirsch, jamminess, baked/ stewed fruits, preserved fruits.

  • Herbaceous ; green bell pepper (capsicum), grass, tomato leaf, asparagus, blackcurrant leaf.

  • Herbal ; eucalyptus, mint, medicinal, lavender, fennel, dill.

  • Pungent spice ; black/ white pepper, liquorice.

  • Other ; flint, wet stone, wet wool.

** Secondary aromas and flavours (coming from post-fermentation winemaking)

• Yeast / lees ; biscuit, bread, toast, pastry, brioche, bread dough, cheese.

• Malolactic conversion ; butter, cheese, cream.

• Oak ; vanilla, cloves, nutmeg, coconut, butterscotch, toast, cedar, charred wood, smoke, chocolate, coffee, resinous.

*** Tertiary aromas and flavours (coming from maturation)

• Deliberate oxidation ; almond, marzipan, hazelnut, walnut, chocolate, coffee, toffee, caramel.

• Fruit development (white) ; dried apricot, marmelade, dried apple, dried banana.

• Fruit development (red/black) ; fig, prune, tar, dried blackberry, dried cranberry, cooked blackberry, cooked red plum.

• Bottle age (white) ; petrol, kerosene, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, toast, nutty, mushroom, hay, honey.

• Bottle age (red) ; leather, forest floor, earth, mushroom, game, tobacco, vegetal, wet leaves, savoury, meaty, farmyard.

True this system you can judge a wine more easy. Of course when you wanna judge for your self only then this can be handy also only on you personal opinion based.

Constituents of wine

Wine constituents are the global parts where the wine is build form, this is from a average dry wine.

• Water - water is the highest appeared substance in a wine (70 - 90%).

• Ethanol - is the alcohol (8 - 22%).

• Sugars - depends on the style/ type of wine. A dry wine has lower sugars and a PX has a high % of sugars. (0,1 - 20%).

• Acids - the most important acids are tartaric, malic and lactic. (0,3 - 1%).

• Tannins and colour (up to 0,4%).

• Aroma and flavours compounds. Hundreds of different have been found but in very small amounts. (up to 0,2%).

The following week we continue with the letter - C.

Next week, same day, Saturday, and same time, 9:30 am CET, the next two words.