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Chapter 17 - White Wine Vocabulary

17.1. The "Two Dimensions" of White Wine
Owing to the composition of white wines, the vocabulary used to describe them focuses on acidity and sweetness.
At the risk of oversimplification, white wines can be characterised by two tastes:
The sweet taste or unctuousness associated with ethanol, glycerol and unfermented residual sugar (less than 2 g/L). Alcohol acts as a vector for aromas. It provokes a feeling of "hotness" in the mouth, which lasts for a certain time and which dries out the mouth. The presence of residual sugars and glycerol mask this desiccant effect of alcohol.
The tart or acidic taste of the various wine acids and their chemical derivatives. Tasters who can distinguish between these two tastes can easily choose the adjective that corresponds best to the sensation perceived. Twenty-five such adjectives are available from the possible combinations of the following:

• Basic sensations of acidity
• Basic sensations of sweetness.
  

17.2. Vocabulary
Individually, the other compounds in white wine (approximately 400) are not expressive in terms of the four basic tastes. To varying extents, though, they do contribute to the two basic tastes of acidity and sweetness.
It is rare to come across a salty wine.
A few white wines are slightly bitter.

17.3. Vintage Effect
The natural composition of grape juice depends on weather conditions during the growing season. During ripening, tartaric acid content decreases as sugar content goes up.
Within a given wine region, a "natural" wine (i.e. no sugar or acid additions) from a cool vintage (F) will be positioned differently than a "natural" wine from a hot vintage (C).

17.4. Chaptalisation Effect
Chaptalisation, or sugar addition, increases the alcohol content of wine. This alcohol increases the taster’s perception of roundness or even sweetness in the wine: "natural" wine (N) versus "chaptalised" wine (Ch).
Chaptalisation is a kind of "artificial sunshine" for wine regions where it is difficult to ripen grapes fully

17.5. Let’s Get on with the Tasting! Calibrate your Taste Buds!

• Get 3 white wines: a Muscadet or other light, acidic wine (no. 1); a white Bordeaux, Entre-Deux-Mers or other Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon wine (no. 2) and a white Burgundy or other Chardonnay wine (no. 3)
• Serve the wines in three glasses.
• Taste glass no. 1. Do not let your senses be guided by what you know from the wine label.
• Assess its levels of acidity and sweetness.
• In the table , write the number 1 in the square that corresponds to the conjunction of these two tastes.
• Modify your assessment, if necessary, after discussion with your fellow tasters. This discussion will help you in "calibrating" yourself.
• Now, taste glass no. 2 : is this wine more or less acidic than wine 1? Is it more or less sweet than glass 1?
• Then, do the same for wine 3. How does it compare with wines 2 and 1?

Compare your results with those of the other tasters.