Putting Flavors into Words: Tannic

In this weeks tasting, we will be exploring the tannic element of wine.  Tannins are a normal component found in the skins, stems and seeds of grapes and when steeped, the juice soaks up the red color along with the tannins when making red wine.  Tannin is more of a texture that you feel in your mouth rather than a flavor.  Robinson compares the feeling on the tongue to accidentally biting the stringy part of the banana peel rather than the banana.  It is drying and makes you feel like puckering your mouth.  

The intensity of tannin varies depending on type of red grape.  Grapes with thicker skins, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, have more tannin than grapes with thinner skins such as Pinot Noir.  The color of wine follows the same guidelines so the darker the color of a red wine, the more tannin.  Tannin can also vary with the amount of skin contact the juice has.  The longer the juice soaks with the skins, the more tannic the wine will be.  Aging wine can actually reduce the intensity of the tannins leaving a smooth and more balanced wine.  

As with the last tasting, we tasted a wine with and without this characteristic.  Robinson suggests tasting a low-tannin Pinot Noir and a high-tannin Cabernet Sauvignon.  Out of the list of wines provided, I chose the 2008 Kendall-Jackson Pinot Noir from California and the 2007 Franciscan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.   

The Pinot was a very translucent ruby color and the Cab was a deep reddish-purple.  The Pinot had a subtle fragrance with a very smooth and silky taste.  I'm sure this is why Pinot Noir is so popular....it definitely seems versatile and not overwhelming to the average drinker.  The Cab was much more intense in smell and in flavor.  It was a little tangy and was definitely more dry to the point of drying out my entire mouth.  In the pictures below, the Pinot Noir is on the left and the Cabernet Sauvignon is on the right.  

 Robinson says that this tannin character is the reason Cabernet Sauvignons go so well with steak or cheese.  She says that the fats in the protein  coat your tongue and allow the tannins to pass over your mouth without completely drying it out.  I can't wait to learn more about pairing wine with food! 

Putting Flavors into Words: Oaky

The next group of wine tastings is all about putting the flavors you taste into words.  The four main adjectives that are used to describe wines are dry, crisp, oaky and tannic.  I am to taste two wines from each category, one having that specific characteristic and one that is similar but does not have that characteristic (for example, oaky chardonnay and non-oaky chardonnay).  Because this would require purchasing and tasting 8 bottles of wine, I decided to break this tasting up as well. 

This week my husband agreed to participate in the tasting with me and we decided to taste from the oaky category.  Andre Immer Robinson gives a list of wines that she recommends and out of this list I chose a 2008 Jadot Macon-Villages from France (a Chardonnay with no oak flavor) and a 2008 St. Francis Chardonnay from Sonoma County (an oaky chardonnay).

                   

Robinson likes to think of an oak barrel as a marinade for wine.  It is a method that a winemaker can use to put their own spin on the wine.  Oaking can be done in one of two ways.  The wine can be stored in oak barrels during the fermentation process or the wine can be placed in oak barrels to age.  Each of these methods will infuse the wine with oaky characters.  The more the wine is in contact with the oak barrels the more oakiness it will be infused with.  It can add aroma, flavor, body and color.  Oak can also increase the cost of the wine due to the higher production cost but, in my opinion, it is well worth it.  

In the picture above, the French non-oaky Chardonnay is on the left and the California oaky Chardonnay is on the right.  Right off the bat you can see the wine on the right has a deeper golden color.  This carried over to the aroma as well.  The French wine smelled very fruity while the California wine had a more intense fragrance.  The non-oaky Chardonnay seemed to be a little bit on the dry side, but it was still full bodied.  This didn't even taste like a Chardonnay to me because I have always chosen California Chardonnays.  It was the Chardonnay grape base without any added flavor.  The oaky Chardonnay had a more intense depth of flavor.  It seemed to be more full-bodied than the French wine and coated my entire mouth with wonderful flavor.  My husband said that is was "velvety rich," and indeed it was.  Both of us enjoyed the French Chardonnay but preferred the oaky Chardonnay.  The oak just seemed to pump up the volume.  Needless to say, we polished off the St. Francis wine that night!   

The Big Reds

This week’s tasting was a continuation of last week.  We tasted the three red wines from the Big Six grapes:  Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot and Syrah/Shiraz.  I lucked out again this week because my husband was given a nice bottle of Shiraz for Christmas and Emily had a bottle of Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon on hand.  A group of six of us got together to partake in this tasting and one of the guests brought some fantastic cheeses from Venissimo that paired with each of the wines.  I apologize ahead of time that I was not able to take as many pictures as I would have liked to.

The red wines that we sampled were:  Felton Road Pinot Noir 2009 

                                                    (New Zealand)

              Dusted Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 

              (Washington)

                                                    Schild Estate Shiraz 2004 
                                                    (Barossa Valley, Australia)

We started with the lightest bodied red wine, Pinot Noir.  The color was a reddish-purple but it was very translucent and the fragrance was subtle.  The light color translated to the mouth feel which was light while at the same time being very silky.  Next, we tasted the Cabernet Sauvignon.  This was my favorite wine of the night!  It was fuller bodied and much more fragrant than the Pinot Noir.  The texture was extra smooth and velvety….so delicious!  Last but not least we tasted the Shiraz.  This was the fullest bodied of them all and was a deep purple.  When swirled in a glass, this wine really sticks to the edges.  It coated the mouth in the same fashion with deep flavors that lingered.  

So these are the big six grapes that make up the foundation of the wine market.  I already feel that I have a better handle on wine, but know I have a long and enjoyable road ahead of me.  The next tasting will focus on putting flavors into words…oh boy! 

The First Tasting :)

I am so excited to actually start tasting wine!  The first tasting could have gone one of two ways.  The first would be to taste the big six grapes (Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah/Shiraz) all in one tasting or the other option was to try just the whites and then just the reds.  I opted for the latter of the two mostly for financial reasons.  Buying six bottles of wine at a time can really break the bank! 

Andrea Immer Robinson gives a list of wines that she suggests be included in the tasting.  The list is broken down by the grape, region and affordability.  For the first tasting I got lucky because my friend Emily was joining me and offered to contribute one of her bottles of Sauvignon Blanc.  (You will probably hear me mention my friend Emily quite often.  She just moved back to San Diego after completing culinary school at the French Culinary Institute in New York City.  She also is incredibly knowledgeable about wine so I value her input and advice.)  Because this bottle would have been in the moderately priced section, I decided to purchase the other two wines from the same category so there were no major quality differences.

I went to my local BevMo to purchase the wine.  Thank goodness Emily was there with me to help navigate.  Although I have purchased wine before, it was usually just a random bottle so I didn't have to search through the isles to find a particular wine.  I'm sure it would have taken me over an hour to locate the two bottles of wine that I was going to get, but Emily showed me the ropes.  The wines were categorized by the grape or by the country that they were made in.  Within those sections, the wineries were alphabetized.  

So we ended up settling on the following white wines:
      Riesling:  Saint M Riesling 2009 - Germany
      Sauvignon Blanc:  Montes Sauvignon Blanc 2010, Leyda Vinyard -
                                 Leyda Valley, Chile
      Chardonnay:  Acacia 2008 Chardonnay

We set up the wines from the lightest body (Riesling) to the fullest body (Chardonnay) and placed a white piece of paper underneath them to view the differences in color.  

As you can see, the Riesling was light yellow, the Sauvignon Blanc had a bit of a green tint to the yellow and the Chardonnay was a dark gold.  For the first tasting, Robinson really wanted us to understand the different body types so we weren't asked to describe the specific taste of each wine.  Usually when I think of Riesling I immediately think about it being sweet.  This Riesling was different from what I have tried before.  It was crisp, light and tasted like sweet fruit, but it wasn't overly sweet.  The Sauvignon Blanc was a lot more fragrant than the Riesling.  Emily said that it smelled like cat urine and upon first whiff she was absolutely right!  After tasting it I could definitely distinguish the difference in body from that of the Riesling.  It was acidic and kind of tasted like grapefruit to me.  The third and final wine was the most fragrant and full bodied of them all.  I love Chardonnay's so I was a bit biased, but this was my favorite wine of the night.  It coated my mouth and the taste lingered a bit longer than the others.  It was buttery and so delicious!  I will be tasting the three big red wine grapes next time so stay tuned:)

It's Wine Time!

Hello all! My name is Melissa and I am 28 years old.  I am currently a student at the University of California, San Diego and will be graduating with a degree in Biology in March of this year (it's been a long road and I can't wait to be finished!).  I recently married the love of my life and am so excited to share the rest of my life creating memories with him.  We both share a passion for good food and beverages (in his case...craft beer).  Over the years, I have had more and more exposure to wine.  I truly love everything about it and could drink it every day for the rest of my life.  With that being said, I am incredibly intimidated by its vastness in varietals, regions, etc.  I get nervous ordering from a wine menu in fear that I will mispronounce the name and/or the waiter/waitress will laugh out loud at how poorly that particular wine will pair with the food I ordered.  I feel inadequate when tasting with more experienced wine lovers because they can smell and taste things in the wine such as melon, berries, chocolate, cherries, dirt, minerals, graham crackers and even kerosene.  Huh?  It seems to come so natural to them...all the while I am struggling to put my finger on just one aspect of the wine that is familiar....usually unsuccessfully.  This is why I have chosen to blog my way through Great Wine Made Simple by Andrea Immer Robinson.   

Andrea Immer Robinson is one of the few women Master Sommeliers in the world.  Her personal website (www.andreawine.com) provides information and advice on various food and wine topics.  Her book promises to guide you through wine tastings at home that are easy and affordable so that eventually, buying and enjoying wine will be second nature.  I know I'm not alone in my wine knowledge insecurities so I invite you to share this experience with me and hopefully great wine will be made simple!