I often mention the components of wine in passing as I describe a wine’s style and flavor, but we’ve never gone into them in any real depth. So I thought it might be time to really address them so you can understand what they mean about how your wine tastes, better identify them and hopefully figure out what you like/dislike about them.
The main components in a wine are: Acid, Alcohol, Sugar, Tannin and Water (we won’t really discuss this because, well…. It’s water).
When you take a grape and press it you get pulp/juice (Acid, Sugar and Water) and the skin/seeds/stems (Tannins). The sugar in the juice then undergoes fermentation (Alcohol) and Ta-Da: You have wine!
Let’s break all these down over the next couple of posts, starting with Acid.