Session 4 ~ Body, Flavor, Length, Complexity and Depth

This month our study group learned more about how to describe their wine experience. We decided to tackle the subjects of Body, Flavor, Length, Complexity and Depth. Jennifer and I did our best to choose wines that would highlight many of these descriptors.
Read below to find out what we discovered!

Body:
Body is a physical sensation of how the wine feels in your mouth. You can ask yourself if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the intensity of the wine, or if it is watery. Generally speaking, a full-bodied wine has a higher alcohol content. (above 13.5) While a light-bodied wine has a lower alcohol content (below 10-11). Examples of full red wines are Chateauneuf-du-Pape of the Rhone in France, Late harvest Zins from CA, and cabernets. White Burgundy, and CA Chardonnays are examples of full-bodied whites.

Flavor:
Wine for Dummies breaks this complicated subject into four easy categories: They suggest the flavor families are Fruity, Earthy, Spicy, and Herbal.
In our experience, sometimes you will find that these categories blend together. We will go into more specific flavors in certain varietals starting in our next session. Just remember that everyone has their own tasting vocabulary…while we may think of a wine as spicy, you may think it is fruity!

Length:
Many times we refer to wine as being short or long, which indirectly is referring to the length of a wine. Length describes a wine that goes all the way on the palate, meaning you can taste it on all the taste centers on your tongue and gives a long sensory impression across the tongue. The flavor tends to linger in your mouth and nose (in a good way) even after being swallowed or spit out if it has good length. The flavors won't disappear halfway through a taste. Sometimes the flavors linger much longer than others. They say if it lingers for 10 seconds=good, 15 seconds=great, and 20 seconds= superb. Many wines today are up-front on the palate and may make a big impression as soon as you taste them, but they can actually be "short" in length. When you hear long finish or short finish, this again talking about the length of a wine.

Complexity/Depth:
The depth of a wine is somewhat subjective, but when we say a wine has depth it means we taste many flavors that give an impression of having underground layers of taste on our tongue, rather than being flat or one-dimensional. A "flat" wine can never be great. These flavors and layers of taste that give us depth also goes along with the complexity of a wine. A wine that keeps revealing different things about itself, showing new flavors or impressions is a complex wine…usually considered better quality. A complex wine is also said "to have a lot going on" Red wines tend to be more complex than white wines because they have more going on with them when you taste them. This is probably because of a very obvious factor, that being they have at least one more component than white wines...tannins.

Tenuta Pietra Porzia Regillo Frascati 2009 ~ This was chosen to highlight a light-bodied white wine, that would fall into the "fruity" flavor family. Tasting Notes from our Group: Crisp, refreshing and clean. We felt this was light, not very complex, short in length and showed pear and apple on the palate. We discovered that this wine, while not all that enjoyable to most people on its own, became quite lovely when paired with our snacks of Italian meats and cheeses. Yum!

Headstand Gewurztraminer 2010 ~ Boy were we glad we tasted this one blind! Sometimes there is trepidation when trying a Gewurztraminer, but we felt this highlighted a medium-bodied white wine in the herbal and spicy flavor families. Tasting Notes from our Group: Earthy with aromas of cut grass, flowers, and herbal notes. On the palate we tasted rose petals, apricots and loquats. This wine had a little complexity, and had a longer finish. Many of our group members were pleasantly surprised with this lovely varietal!

Fog Head Pinot Noir 2009 ~ Pinot Noir can often offer up earthy notes with light to medium body, and this one delivered. Tasting Notes from the Group: Earthy, light bodied with short length, and a little "hot" (high in alcohol). We didn't feel that it had a lot of complexity, and it tasted better after we ran it through a Vinturi.

Cartlidge and Brown Petite Sirah 2009 ~ We had high hopes that this petite sirah would show a full-bodied, spicy wine. Unfortunately it turned out to be quite light for a petite sirah. (Last months petite was far more full-bodied.) Tasting Notes from the Group: We felt it was medium-bodied, with complexity and a long finish. We did find it spicy, along with a little earthiness, and some pepper. We also felt it showed some berry fruit, and was well balanced. Everyone really enjoyed this wine!





Point to Ponder...
As you sip wine this month, consider what you have learned tonight. Evaluate wines you drink on the weight you feel in the mouth, the flavor family it might belong to, what the length and depth is, and how complex the wine feels to you.