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Learn about the basics of wine each week.
And, get great recommendations for affordable and attainable wines in the weekly Behind the Cork™ Wine of the Week.
Last time we explored how terroir (the soil, terrain and climate) can affect how a single varietal of wine tastes. But, there are a host of other things that can also affect a single varietal’s taste, aroma and overall flavor.
Blending of Grapes in a Single Varietal
This is just a brief outline of some of the factors that can affect a single varietal’s flavor. But, there are even more! And we’ll explore those in future blogs. Cheers!
When I first became interested in wines, I remember asking if other fruits were used in the production of wines. After all, so many wines smell and taste like a lot of fruits other than grapes. So, if grapes are the only fruits used in wine making, how do all those other aromas and flavors get into the wine?
Well, it turns out that there’s a lot going on during fermentation, not just the yeast converting the grape’s natural sugar to alcohol. There are also chemical reactions going on that create hundreds of aroma and flavor compounds. Wow!
These “compounds” are identical to the compounds that we already associate with smells and tastes. So, when you smell a fruit aroma in wine you are smelling the same aroma compounds that also naturally occur in those fruits. The same is true with flavors.
Other aromas such as vanilla, tobacco, leather, coffee, caramel and toast come from the oak aging of the wines. Depending on the amount of ‘toasting’ the barrel undergoes affects the range and depth of these aromas.
So next time you have a glass of wine take time to smell it in the glass before you sip. You’ll be amazed to discover the aromas of dark fruits in red wines such as berries and plums while white wines can have aromas of apples, pears, melons and citrus. And then sip the wine and enjoy all the fruit flavors it has to offer. Cheers!