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Wine Styles

Jonathan looks at different wine styles

Wine StylesWhen choosing wines its very important to understand firstly what style of wine is your preferred taste. It’s something I always ask when recommending wines to people. We know we have dry whites and sweet whites, light or heavy reds, but within those there are other characters we can look at which help us to understand our favourites.

Let’s look at whites first of all. The main style of white wine is dry. But within that heading of dry comes crisp,  acidic or tart. Then we have mineral and fruity. To make that easier to understand think about the different groups of fruits. For example, crisp acidity and tart characters etc think about citrus fruits like lemons and grapefruit. For mineral dryness think about green fruits like apple and pears and for fruity dryness think about tropical fruits like pineapple and peach fruits. That will help you understand those different characters and pick out the ones you prefer. Then you can start to associate those characters with the different grape varieties. So for Sauvignon Blanc you would associate with citrus fruit and Viognier you would associate with tropical fruits.

When it comes to red wines it gets a bit more complex, but the principle is the same. With reds think about smooth characters or rough characters. This is what we call mouthfeel. What does the wine feel like when you take a sip? This is to do with the tannin aspect which gives the wine its body. If your red is dry then the tannin will stand out more. If your red is smooth it has more fruit characters which balance out the tannin and hides it more. So as with white wines you can think about red berry fruits like blackberry, cherry, plums and jammy fruit etc but with drier reds you will get more farm, countryside, vegetal and earthy characters. Within those you then get wood, spice and smoky characters as well which will help you to understand further. Again you can associate those with grape varieties. Its very complicated and easier to understand when you taste the wines for yourself. So, I have a couple of examples below for you to try and are available from VIN Wine Merchants.

For a dry red try Boccantino Montepulciano D’Abruzzo from Italy at £9.99 and for a fruity red try Founders Stone Shiraz from south Australia at £7.99

For a crisp, acidic white try Los Rocas Sauvignon Blanc from Chile at £8.49 and for a fruity white try La Barbacoa Verdejo from Spain at £8.99. With these wines you will notice the difference in styles.

If you want to discover more, try our Wine and Cheese tastings which we host regularly. You get to try six wines paired with three cheeses and you will discover even more how wines change when paired with foods. These are £15pp and you can call us on 01243 698838 for more info.

By
Jonathan Rogers of VIN Wine Merchants Emsworth
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