Most people prefer sweetness to sourness. Bitterness is often used between the lines to reflect the sadness in the heart, which is used to refer to the ignorant and melancholy teenager in his youth. The astringency in my heart is like a haze in the sky, longing to go away and then quickly disperse. But in the real world, can astringency really only play a negative role? In the field of wine, the bitter salted fish has turned over greatly, bringing people unprecedented taste and sensory enjoyment.
Remember the experience of eating grapes without spitting their skins? Grape skin will make you feel astringent, which is the taste of tannins. Tannin is an acidic substance and a phenolic substance. In the fermentation process, tannins in wine are generally fermented by soaking grape seeds, skins and stems, which is called "condensed tannins". Tannin stored in oak barrels and extracted from oak is called "hydrolyzed tannin". When wine is imported, the mouth feels dry, and the oral mucosa will feel wrinkled, that is, tannin is at work. When tannin molecules react with saliva protein, which reduces the lubrication of saliva and leads to convergence, people usually use "astringency" to describe it. Therefore, the astringency in wine is mainly formed by tannins. The amount of tannin can also determine the flavor, structure and texture of wine. Red wine lacking tannins has a light body and no heavy feeling. "Thin wine depends on" red wine is a typical representative. Red wine rich in tannins can be stored for many years, gradually brewing a mellow and delicate aged flavor.
The soul master of three-dimensional taste
The astringency in wine mainly comes from tannin, which mainly comes from grape skin. Because liquor is directly pressed, the contact time between juice and skin is very short, so liquor contains little tannin and naturally has no astringency. In the brewing process of red wine, the red pigment and tannin in grape skin will be soaked, so it contains more tannins, and the astringency will naturally become obvious. The biggest difference between red wine and white wine is whether the taste is astringent or not. If "acidity" is the personality of liquor, then "astringency" is the characteristic of red wine.
Tannin plays two core roles in red wine. First of all, the astringency produced by tannins provides the skeleton of taste, supports other tastes of wine, and forms a three-dimensional and multi-level taste. Like a pillar of a house, it constructs a three-dimensional taste space. And sweet alcohol, glycerin, fruit essence, etc. It's a wall, a floor and an ornament. A house without pillars can't live in. Who wants to try red wine without tannins? In fact, it is not only red wine that contains tannins. Don't you know that Coca-Cola also uses tannin as the backbone of its taste?
Secondly, antioxidation is another important function of tannin. Because tannin has antioxidant function, it can slow down the oxidation speed of wine, make red wine last longer in the ripening process, and cultivate aged wine under the brewing of time. Therefore, generally aged red wine must contain higher tannins. In the process of wine ripening, tannin molecules will condense into larger molecules or even precipitate, and the taste of wine will become softer and smoother. This is why young and astringent red wine can be accepted, because precious wine is based on future potential.
The key point of excellent wine body
It is also astringent, but it can be divided into many different kinds in wine, which can form different styles of wine and even determine the quality of a bottle of red wine. Less tannins make it soft and lovely, while more tannins make it firm and firm. In addition to the weight of taste, astringency pays more attention to the details of texture. Tannin particles must be fine, and never bite them, because poor astringency rarely softens with time. Picking grapes that are not fully ripe and over-extracting them may produce this unpleasant and hard-to-swallow astringency.
Different grape varieties will also produce completely different styles of tannin texture. The most famous, such as the Black Pi Nuo in Burgundy, has a silky and compact texture. Bordeaux Cabernet Sauvignon has thicker tannins and larger particles, but it is velvet-like in texture and thick in detail. Different from the soft and smooth texture of Black Pi Nuo, as for the Merlot grape, which is also Bordeaux, although the tannins are smooth and gentle, compared with the first two, the tannins are thicker and less compact.
Although the tannin in grape skin is more detailed than that in other plants, the astringency of new red wine is still a little rough, so it must be cultivated in different ways. Carving tannins in wine and the delicate and astringent taste of jade are the main tasks of winemakers. From the traditional oak barrel cultivation to the tiny bubbles in wine now, it has the function of softening tannins. Although wine has the astringency of tannins, it can make wine more delicate and balanced, and make the astringency get a new evaluation.
Therefore, especially red wine, no matter how fruity it is, it will be eclipsed without tannin. Many young top red wines usually have a strong astringency, but this does not affect them to become top wines. On the contrary, they are the biggest contributors to making jade wine. And this is also the most puzzling place to taste red wine. Especially for people who are exposed to red wine for the first time, the astringency often makes them don't know how to raise their glasses. It is precisely because of this that many people's curiosity about wine has been quenched and they have missed the opportunity to explore the taste of wine.