Why does wine have different flavors

So why does a Riesling remind you of a grapefruit or a Merlot of a chocolate covered cherry? The chemical qualities that those scents have will have some similar chemical compounds that make up the wine.

In the case of a Riesling, the grapes themselves have similar attributes to the attributes that make up the scent of a grapefruit. In the case of Merlot, the combination of the grapes and oak barrels will likewise have similar chemical compounds which make up the individual compounds of chocolate and cherries.

What fine wines do not have are added flavors to impart these qualities. To provide diverse, unbiased, and independent advice, Bartholomew and Loren answer all user submitted questions without consulting one another. Sometimes they agree, sometimes they don't. Always interesting though. Have a wine question for them? Submit it via our Contact Us form.

Skip to main content. You are here Home. How do all the different flavors and aromas get into a wine? Wine Culture Winemaking. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Next Post: Cabernet Franc ».

Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. They describe the scents obtained by the wine through the winemaking process.

The flavors include yeast, toast, caramel, honey, chocolate, vanilla, oak, cream, butter, and many more. Most of these oaky flavors comes from the barrels used to age wine. Tannin, which is a flavorless compound, comes along too. When you open a bottle of artificial butter and take a whiff, you can make diacetyl in your version, including a strong aroma of butter.

The vanilla foams a byproduct of aging oak. And we know that oak and wine have had a long-standing relationship since the use of oak barrels in wine fermentation and aging. It also gives an aromatic aid and adds richer and fuller impressions of vanilla flavored wine.

The formation of these flavors comes from aging wine. It so happens that oxygen and wine molecules combination change the aromatic wine flavor profiles. Although the aroma may look similar in the primary and secondary camps, they are quite different in the context of old wine.

Some of the typical tertiary aromas bouquet scents come from leather, truffle, spices such as nutmeg, or fennel, clove, forest floor, wood ashes, or grilled meats. Since we are all different, our senses will interpret aroma compounds differently. The smell of wine somehow dissipates. People are usually using different descriptors when it comes to wine. The bottom-line and standard agreement here is that wine has a fruity aroma and various flavors, including apple-flavored wine and red wine flavor profiles.

Wine Flavor Facts Why does wine resort to fruity and flowery smell but described in different notes? As the grapes grow in a vineyard surrounded by plants such as wild herbs, flowers and grasses, the bees fly around the vineyard distributing pollen, and as the grapes ripen they absorb the subtle flavor characteristics from these plants.

Elements such as the air can also have an impact on the flavor of the grapes as they grow. In many regions of the world, such as Spain and Greece, much of the white wine is grown on cliffs that overlook the sea.