Vino Vocabulary 101
Seattle Metropolitan did an extensive sip and spit study and picked 100 top bottles of wines. With 943 wineries in Oregon and Washington, they visited wineries from Willamette Valley to Woodinville. So grab the current September issue for their comprehensive study on the best bottle, the best value and which bottles to stock your cellar with.
Here is your Vino Vocabulary 101 that may come in handy if you are out touring in our Woodinville Wine Country.
Acidity: A critical Component of any wine. Too much acid and it tastes bitter, too little and it’s dull.
Balance: When a wine is balanced, the fruit, acidity, tannins, and alcohol all complement one another, and no single element overwhelms the others.
Extraction: A red wine’s color comes from the contact between the juice and the grape skins before, during, or after fermentation. To create a bottle that is “extracted,” vintners steep their wine in the skins for a prolonged period of time.
Grip: Wines that are acidic but not unbalanced and have strong tannins and a thickness often described as ‘texture” are said to have a firm grip.
Minerality: It’s a term for mineral notes in a wine that are thought to be the expression of the rocks and soil in which the grapes grew.
Palate Persistence: The flavors and aromas of a good wine linger on the tongue rather than disappear the moment you swallow or spit it out. A wine with palate persistence is said to be “long.”
Tannins: Compounds from the skins, stalks, and seeds of grapes and the oak barrels in which wines are aged. Tannins are sensed rather than tasted. Look for a gritty sensation in the middle of the tongue.
