Tannins is the translation of the English name Tannins, which is an acidic substance, mainly from grape skins and seeds, one of the two phenolic compounds contained in wine. The main reason for this is that red wines contain the most tannins in the grape seeds, skins, and stems during the fermentation and winemaking process, and because of the oak barrels used to store the wine.
When the grape juice is fermented with seeds and stalks, it is extracted through the alcohol and dissolved into the wine, and when the fermented wine is placed in oak barrels for maturation, it comes into full contact with the barrel walls and extracts the tannins from the oak. In the chemical structure, the tannins infiltrated from the grape skins are “condensed tannins” and the tannins extracted from the oak barrels are “hydrolyzed tannins”.1.
1. Tannins determine the flavor, structure and texture of the wine
Tannin is the soul of red wine, its main role is to build the “backbone” of the wine, making the wine stable, solid and full; to effectively polymerize and stabilize pigment substances, giving the wine a perfect and vibrant color; and to react with other substances in the liquid to produce new substances, increasing the complexity of the wine.
Wines with strong tannins have a thick body and rich tannins, but they also produce wines with different aromas, different flavors, and different layers depending on the region, vintage, and grape variety. Wines with insufficient tannins are stunted and usually have a light, weak, tasteless texture. Of course, the tannin content is not exactly proportional to the quality of the red wine, and it is not true that the higher the tannin content the better the wine is. A good glass of wine is the result of the balance of alcohol, acid and tannin. After testing, experts have come up with a formula for measuring the quality of red wines: alcohol – (total acid + tannin) = smoothness index. A wine with a smoothness index of more than 5 is a good quality wine. If a red wine has an alcohol content of 12, a total acidity of 3.6 g/l and tannins of 1.8 g/l, then the softness index of this wine is 12 – (3.6 + 1.8) = 6.6, then it is a full-bodied, full-bodied and aromatic wine. 2. Tannins support the long maturation of red winesTannins are strong antioxidants, a natural preservative that prevents wine from becoming acidic due to oxidation, allowing long-term storage to keep the wine in optimal condition. Therefore, tannins play a decisive role in the aging potential of red wines. A bottle of red wine from a good vintage usually needs more than 10 years to age well. Simply put, tannin is a free molecule that needs to be in slow oxygen to combine with other molecules in the wine and not turn the wine into “vinegar”.
3. The presence of tannins is the most important difference between red and white wines.
White wine is made by fermenting pure grape juice after separating the juice from the pomace, so the soul of white wine is “acid”, not tannin. In terms of chemistry, tannin is a negatively charged active molecule, and in red wines the molecular weight of tannin is usually between 500 and 3000. In the process of wine tasting, tannin molecules and saliva proteins will chemically react to produce an astringent touch on the surface of the human mouth, which is often described as “astringent”.
If “acidity” is the personality of white wine, “astringency” is the hallmark of red wine. “If it feels “raw” or “green”, it means that the tannins need time to soften. After a long period of aging, the tannins will gradually change from raw to smooth, from rough to delicate, and then people will feel round and smooth when they drink it, just the right amount of “astringency”.
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