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A piece about all about tannins and what they add to your glass
David has been reading some interesting books and is musing about the nature of wines. This is the first in a three part series on the major components of great wines, tannin, acid, and fruit. Today’s topic is tannins.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to write about what I believe to be the three most important elements in wine: tannins, acidity, and fruit. It can all get complicated, but I think identifying great wine is fantastically simple with these three elements as a lens.
This week’s topic is tannins. Tannins provide backbone, structure, and depth of flavor to a wine. While they can be a key indicator of a wine’s potential longevity, they in and of themselves are not the only factor in a wine’s age-worthiness.
You sense tannins in wine as a sort of drying sensation on the sides of your cheeks. I tend to describe them by texture: fine-grained, gritty, rough, silky, or smooth. Occasionally, I’ll assign a tasting note to the tannins like green, chocolatey, or peppery. The above descriptors are an excellent cheat sheet for you to use when talking about (predominately) red wines.
I recently read a fantastic book called Most Delicious Poison that breaks down what is happening scientifically with tannins:
“In our mouths… tannins bind to salivary proteins… in fact, our salivary glands immediately begin to produce these proteins as soon as we ingest tannins. When the tannins bind to the salivary proteins, the tannins precipitate out of solution in our saliva, creating the rough, dry puckering sensation that many of us grow to like.”
These protein-binding tannins naturally occur in plants as a form of protection. In some cases, they serve as a sort of sunscreen and, in others, as a poison against certain herbivores. But when we talk about tannins in a wine, we need to talk about how they get there. The four origins of tannins in wine are grape skins, grape seeds, vine stems, and oak, in which the wine ages. In red wines, the most prevalent contributor is the grape skins.
Typically, thicker-skinned grapes like Cabernet, Malbec, and Tannat will impart a wine with more tannins than thinner-skinned grapes like Pinot Noir or Gamay. Nebbiolo is an interesting exception.
Balance has always been my measure of great wine. A wine with tannins that match the intensity and weight of the fruit and acidity can make for a truly great wine that is balanced between all its components.
Over time, tight tannins begin to soften. This is partly why connoisseurs choose to age their young wines, waiting for a moment when the tannins are most enjoyable to them. Getting it just right is a tricky endeavor that requires trial and error in your tasting experience.
Not only can the tannins soften, but they can also evolve in flavor. Through this aging process, wines will obtain sediment from the tannins that have precipitated out of the solution to the bottom of the bottle after biding with proteins or amino acids.
White wines, too, can have some tannin, but it is rare for now, and most winemakers and wine drinkers still prefer that the grape skins be removed from the juice in the fermentation process. Yet increasingly younger drinkers are turning to “Natural” or “orange” wines (we prefer the term minimal intervention), which often see some skin contact with white grapes. Of course, wood aging can also add some tannins to a white wine.
So, what’s the point of talking about tannins? I believe it’s crucial to pay attention to the individual elements of wine because thinking about just one will help you critically evaluate what you are drinking. Tannins are a major structural component and, when handled by a skilled winemaker, can add tremendous depth to a wine.
If you’re curious here are a few of our favorite tannic wines in the shop:
The beautiful Bordeaux from Chateau Potensac.
A gorgeous Barolo from the classic producer Vietti.
The Obsidian Ridge, a Cabernet grown at high elevation in a field of obsidian.
Cheers!
