Wine Tasting-Tannin

     This wine tasting was to discover TANNIN in the wine.  Tannin is a texture not a flavor.  It comes from the skin, stems and seeds of the grape. That is why it is only noticeable in red wines and not white wines. Tannin is a texture, you will mainly feel on your tongue.  If either there is a lot of tannin, or if you are sensitive to texture you may feel it  throughout your mouth.

  Three factors influence the amount of tannin a wine will have.
  1.  The grape.  The thicker the skin the more tannin. A Cab has thicker skin then a Pinot.
  2. Amount of skin contact. The longer the grape skins soak in the juice, the more tannin.
 3. Age of the wine.  Just like us, we mellow with age (hopefully), so do the tannins in a wine.  As the wine ages the tannins integrate with the rest of the wine components, creating a softer more balanced texture.
  According to Andrea Immar, like all components of the wine, tannin is a personal choice.
    Her descriptions of the levels of tannin are:
 " Low Tannin- hardly noticeable, the wine feels silky .
   Medium Tannin- Noticeable dryness, tacky feeling, but smooth rather than harsh.
   High Tannin- Ouch! Your tongue feels very puckered, dried out and leathery."

    Using my trusty "bible" by Andrea Immar, I chose two California wines. One was a Kendall- Jackson Pinot Noir and the other one was a Simi Cabernet Sauvignon .
  I was a little nervous about having to "feel"rather than "taste" something in my mouth.  Hot and cold is about the limit of my texture sensitivity. To be able to focus on the texture I closed my eyes, making my other senses  more heightened.   I started with the Pinot Noir  which was  smooth and flowed through my mouth. "Silky" is a good term for the texture.  An interesting side note- the Pinot Noir had been aged in oak and I could taste the oaky flavor. The second tasting was the Cab.  The term I would use for tannin is "roughness". The texture  on my tongue reminded me of the roughness you get when you  brush against the grain of  a fabric.  Afterwards there was a dryness to the mouth.

    I have tasted some wines since this tasting and I am  pretty confident about feeling the tannins. I don't know that I am ready to say it has low, medium or high tannin, but I can say  either ,"Yes it has tannin, or no it doesn't have tannin."
  Now that I know what tannin feels like, do I like it? One of the things I am beginning to enjoy about wines are the unique qualities each wine exhibits.  So"yes", I do enjoy the tannin.