All about the flavors of wine

Hey so we know the main flavors from school learning included – sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. When drinking or tasting wine, your taste buds and your sense of smell are involved, adding to the way you interpret wine overall. The flavors, aromas, and sensations that wine is comprised of, provide the interaction that you taste when you sample wine.

We know wine for its sweetness. And grapes are responsible for this sweet taste. They contain a lot of sugar, which breaks the yeast down into alcohol. The grapes and the yeast that were used to produce the wine will leave behind various sugars, which your tongue will be able to quickly detect. Your tongue will receive this oh so awesome stimulation of sweetness from the wine right into your taste buds.

Alcohol is also present in wine. The alcohol that is found in wine will cause blood vessel dilatation and thereby intensifying all of the other flavors found in the wine. After sampling a few types of wine, the alcohol level can have an effect on your taste buds, making it hard to distinguish other drinks that you may have.

Another flavor is acidity. This will effect the sugars. With the proper acidic balance, the overall flavor of wine can be very overwhelming. After tasting wine that contains it, the flavor of the acidity will be well known to your tongue. Although acidity is great with wine, too much of it will leave a sharp taste, but with the right levels, acidity will bring the flavors of the grape and fruits alive in your mouth – providing you with the perfect taste.

Another effect of flavor are tannins. Tannins are the proteins found in the skins of grapes and other fruits. A wine containing the right amount of tannins, will give your tongue a great feel, bringing in the sensations of the other flavors. Once a wine begins to age, the tannins start breaking down in the bottle, giving you a softer feel to the taste. Tannins are important for the taste of wine – as long as the wine has been properly aged.

The final flavor element associated with wine is oak. Although oak is not put into the wine during its manufacturing, it is actually transferred during the aging process, as most wines will spend quite some time in oak barrels. Depending on how long the wine is left in the oak barrel or cask, the ability to extract the flavor will vary. Most often, wine will be aged just enough to where the oak taste is visibly there – oak adds the perfect sentiment to the taste.

There are other flavors involved with the taste of wine. These flavors aren’t as present as the ones mentioned. The above flavors are the most present in wine, and they are the flavors that you need to get more familiar with. Before trying to distinguish wine flavors, how about you learn as much you can about the components responsible for the flavors. This way, you will get to find out more about what you are tasting and you’ll truly be able to appreciate wine.