Wine Words: Texture

What do we mean when we talk about the texture of a wine? What words might we use to describe a wine’s texture ? When we talk about the texture of a wine, we are essentially describing the mouthfeel or tactile sensation on the palate. Read on for some thoughts on describing and characterizing a wine’s texture!

I am sure all our readers are familiar with texture when it comes to tasting food. Well, it is the same with wine – that physical sensation in our mouth. While texture applies to all wines, it is often more obvious in red wines, because of the presence of tannin, which have very definite tactile characteristics that can range from ultra smooth to somewhat chewy or even astringent and coarse as described in an earlier Wine Words post .

Words to Describe Texture
While not in anyway an exhaustive list some of the words that I tend to frequently use when describing a wine’s texture are creamy, smooth, opulent, rich, lean, velvety, supple, viscous, fat, oily, waxy, juicy, silky, voluptuous and succulent. These are all physical sensations in the mouth that add dimension to a wine’s flavor descriptors.

Contributors to Wine Texture: Tannin, Alcohol, and Sugars
Because compounds in wine interact with each other all the time to continually form new compounds, it is somewhat difficult to be precisely definitive regarding the exact source of a particular’s wine’s textural sensation. As indicated above, we do know that tannin in red wine is a major contributor to texture. Compare for example the silky tannins of a red Burgundy wine to the grippy, almost astringent tannins of a young Barolo wine.

Alcohol

A third important contributing factor is polysaccharides. While too complex to delve into in detail here, put simply polysaccharides are different types of sugar molecules that exist in wine. Depending on the specific type they can add various levels of richness to a wine’s texture. For example, polysaccharides include the compounds responsible for noble rot (i.e. “good botrytis”) needed for such lauded wines as Sauternes or Tokaji Aszú. Other texture influencing polysaccharides include the compounds responsible for the mid-palate creaminess in white Burgundy and other higher end Chardonnay wines, as well as those that contribute to the rich mouthfeel of Champagne and other traditional method sparkling wines.

Is Wine Texture Important?
In my book, yes texture is important. Texture adds another dimension to a wine’s

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Mary Gorman-McAdams, MW (Master of Wine), is a New York based wine educator, freelance writer and consultant.

Previous Wine Words:
• Wine Words: Minerality
• Wine Words: Acidity
• Wine Words: Tannin
• Wine Words: Body
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Wine Words: Alcohol

Wine Words: Aromas

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