Primary Notes: Red wine is commonly classified into three fruit categories: red fruit, black fruit, and dried/cooked fruit. Black grapes in cooler climates have more red fruit flavors, whereas grapes in warmer climates will have more black or cooked fruit flavors.
Other Red Notes: Red wines can also have other flavors like green, black and white peppers, tomato stalks, licorice, vanilla, nutmeg, and cedar. Aged red wines may have flavors of dried fruit, mushrooms, earth, or meat.
What are Grape Tannins?
Tannins are not a flavor. Rather, they are polyphenols (astringent chemical compounds) found in grape skins, seeds, and stems. They are also found in fruits, vegetables, wood, leaves, bark, and a plethora of other livings plants. The compounds result in a cottony mouthfeel when we eat grapes or drink wine.
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The best way to understand how tannin influences grapes or wine is to peel the skin off of a black table grape and put it in your mouth, without the juicy pulp. When you chew the skin, you should be able to feel the cottony effect of tannin on your teeth and around your mouth.
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Most black grapes are fermented with their skins, allowing the tannin to soak into the wine. However, a winemaker may also choose to add the grape seeds and stems for even more tannin. This method may be more common for red wine, but some winemakers also choose to ferment white grapes along with skins, seeds, and stems for more complexity.
Tannins From Oak
As mentioned earlier, tannins are also found in wood and bark. When any wine is aged in an oak vessel, it extracts the natural tannins found in that barrel and increases that cottony feel and flavor complexity of the final wine. Barrels add fewer amounts of tannin levels each time they are reused.
Softening Tannins for Easy Drinking
Even though tannin is present in wood, extended periods of oak-aging help to soften the natural tannins found in the grapes themselves.
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If you were to taste Tannat (a high-tannin wine) before barrel-aging, the tannins may be so cottony and astringent that your lips pucker and the wine isn’t very drinkable. This is why many red wines need to age a bit.
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Although barrels are tightly sealed, they are not 100% air-proof. Placing wine in barrels is a form of deliberate oxidation (exposure to air). As small amounts of oxygen seep through the tiny barrel openings over time, it softens the wine and tannins, making the wine less astringent and more enjoyable.
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The goal is to have smooth tannins.
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