Drinking temperature
Wines have an optimal drinking temperature at which they taste best. This varies from wine to wine. One of the tasks of wine experts and tasters is therefore to determine the optimal drinking temperature when tasting wines.
The temperature control for wine is much more complex than for coffee or cola, where the principles that coffee only hot and cola only tastes really good cold. Because wine is a highly complex and sensitive drink with many ingredients that react differently. The range of the optimal temperature for most wines is only around two degrees Celsius. The temperature of wines is measured with a wine thermometer or with cuffs.
In general, cool drinking temperatures emphasize the acidity, tannins and bitter substances, while warmer temperatures emphasize the components of heavy wines, the aroma and the smell of a wine bring to bear. Red wines should therefore be enjoyed at warmer temperatures, while white wines and especially sparkling wines taste better at cooler temperatures.
The optimal temperature range for sparkling wines is 5 - 7 degrees, for light, fruity and sparkling white wines 8 - 10 degrees, with rather spicy white wines at 10 - 12 degrees and with semi-dry white wines or those with a high proportion of residual sweetness at 12 - 14 degrees. With red wines, the fruity and very young thirst quenchers are already tasted at 12 - 14 degrees, with young and light red wines the optimum drinking temperature is 14 - 16 degrees, while medium-bodied red wines require temperatures of 16 -18 degrees. Full-bodied and heavy quality wines, on the other hand, only fully develop their qualities at a temperature of 18 degrees. In terms of the optimal drinking temperature, rosé wines are between the extremes of white wine and red wine.
Traditional rules of thumb, such as red wines at room temperature and white wines from the refrigerator, are too crude and also outdated. On the one hand, the room temperature used to be around 18 degrees due to the immature heating technology, while refrigerators, on the other hand, did not produce the same cooling as is the case today. If white wines are drunk too cold, they lose their aroma, while they taste sour if drunk too warm. Red wines, on the other hand, become oily and bitter when drunk too cold and burnt and scratchy in the throat when drunk too warm. For this reason, the amount poured should be moderate at hot temperatures so that the red wine does not heat up excessively. From a drinking temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, even the richest red wine begins to lose its taste.
Dry
We speak of a dry wine when there is a residual sugar content of up to 4 g/l.If the acid content is at least 2 grams per liter lower than the sugar content, the residual sugar content of a dry wine may also be up to 9 g/l. A different evaluation is made for sparkling wines, because the sweet taste is weakened by the carbon dioxide. A dry sparkling wine may therefore contain a residual sugar content of 17 to 32 g/l. Occasionally, the definitions may also vary regionally.
Dry extract
The dry extract (also total extract) of a wine consists of all substances and substances that remain in the wine after distillation. Water, volatile acids and ethanol are not included in the dry extract, which accounts for 17 to 30 g/l in wines. To date, around 8,000 substances have been identified using metabolonic methods. The largest proportion of the substances in the total extract has not yet been identified. About 50 of the substances are dominant. These give the wine its character, colour, structure, aroma, flavor and shelf life. The total extract of a wine depends on the rainfall, terroir, the grape variety, the exposure to the sun, the amount of grapes and the vine. If a certain substance occurs in unusual amounts, then this can be an indication of a wine fault. Good tasters are able to identify several substances in the dry extract.
Table grape
Table grapes are grapes that are intended as fruit for consumption. They must not be used as a basis for the wine. Compared to grape varieties intended for wine, table grapes ripen earlier, are sweeter, have few or no pits and are delicate-skinned.
Table wine, French Vin de Table, Italian Vino di tavola, Spanish Vino de Mesa,
Category of EU wine law for the lowest quality level of wines; Wine from all wine-growing countries in the EU can be marketed under this name. Wines that come from one of the German areas in which the production of table wine is permitted may bear the designation Deutscher Tafelwein. The German table wine regions are: Rhine-Moselle, Upper Rhine, Neckar, Bavaria and Albrechtsburg. Table wine must have a minimum must weight of 44-50°Oe and at least 8.5% vol% actual total alcohol, but no more than 15%.
A lot of tannins
astringent and harsh; Term of the wine address for wines whose taste is characterized by distinctive tannins. Many red wines are tannin-heavy when young, but become softer and more harmonious as they mature.
tannins
tannins, tannic acids, a type of polyphenols; they are among the ingredients in wines that have the greatest impact on the taste. Tannins are found in wood, in the leaves and in the fruit of numerous plants, in the case of grapes in the berry skins, seeds and stalks, and have the task of protecting the plant tissue from rot and pests. From a chemical point of view, they consist of various mixtures of compounds in which polyhydric alcohols or sugars (mainly glucose) are esterified with phenolic carboxylic acids.
Flavour: tannins react strongly with high-molecular proteins, forming compounds with them and precipitating protein solutions; Due to this so-called tanning effect, they are used as tanning agents in leather production. They have an astringent taste, whereby their quality depends above all on the degree of their polymerization - the astringent effect decreases with increasing molecular size. The molecular weight of wine tannins increases five to eight times compared to young wines over a longer period of maturation; they then have a rounder taste and are almost sweet.If the molecules become so large that they can no longer remain in solution, they form a so-called depot in the bottle
Extraction: The water-soluble tannins from the grape skins are transferred to the must or wine during pressing and during winemaking. Since white wines usually do not have any or only short maceration periods, their tannin content is on average only 10-15% of that of red wines. Tannins are dissolved, i.e. extracted from the plant cells, in particular by heat, as in the case of mash heating, or by the resulting alcohol, as in the case of mash fermentation. Since the seeds and stalks of grapes often contain undesirable, hard and unripe or "green" tasting tannins, value is usually placed on the gentlest possible processing (destemming, pressing) and on low mechanical stress. Gentle destemming of the grapes alone can reduce the tannin content by up to 20% compared to wine made from grapes that have not been destemmed.
Aging: When the wine is stored in wooden barrels, tannins change in two ways. The oxygen in the air penetrating through the staves leads to partial oxidation and polymerisation, which means that red wines with a high tannin content in particular can be bottled and marketed. If the wines mature in barrels made of new wood, e.g. barriques, tannins are released from the oak wood. They often have more pleasant taste characteristics than grape tannins and appear more mature, rounder and velvety even in young wine.
Tempranillo
also called Tinta Roriz in Portugal, is probably the best Spanish red wine grape variety. Tempranillo is cultivated on about 85,000 hectares of vineyards, in Portugal, where it is one of the classic basic grapes for port wine production, on 10,000 hectares. The origin of the grape variety has not been clarified, but some ampelographers suspect that it descends from Pinot Noir. The early-ripening Tempranillo develops best on poor, calcareous clay soils and is ideal for aging in barrels. Tempranillo is the main variety of the Spanish DO or DOCa wines Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Catalayud, Cigales, Conca de Barberá, Coster del Segre, LMancha, Penedés, Somontano, Toro, Valdepenas, and Vinos de Madrid.
Texture
tactile impression of the wine on the palate; Term of the wine language, which is used in particular for red wines. In contrast to the structure, which mainly refers to firmness and volume, the texture describes the "surface quality" of the wine in contact with the tongue, so to speak - it can e.g. It can be rough, velvety or silky and is significantly influenced by the tannin content and type of tannins.
depth
Complexity combined with sustainability in aroma and taste; Term of the wine address for wines that repeatedly show new aroma and flavor facets during the tasting over a longer period of time.
