Wine – can you taste complexity?

In the universe of beverages wine has the ability to be the most complex and enchanting.  The best way to understand how a wine tastes is to look at the five factors that give each wine its unique taste:

Grape variety – the “breed” of the grape
Vineyard – the soil, slope and climate the vines grow in
Vintage – the weather conditions during the growing season
Vineyard practice – how the vines are tended
Wine Making – how the juice is transformed into wine

Each of these factors can deliver complexity to a wine by imparting signature aromas and tastes. For example, with some wine you can recognise the aroma and taste of the oak barrels (wine making), or the concentration of the flavours (vineyard practice and/or vintage), or mineral characters (vineyard), or the fruit notes (grape variety). 

Some wines are more complex than others.  Great wines have layers of aromas and tastes from each of the five factors that blend in perfect harmony. 

In the coming months we will explore each of the five factors that affect the complexity of taste in wine.  In the meantime, keep exploring the five factors for yourself (or, better still, with friends) by tasting the 12 new wines available for tasting anytime at Summertown Wine Café.

Rob Malcolm