 |
| Anima Mundi Pét-nat Penedes 2024 Guiberteau Saumur Rosé France 2024 L’Écu “Chat de Soif” Vin de France 2024 Ŝtoka Izbrani Teran Kras Slovenia 2023 Lapierre “Le Beaujolais” France 2025 |
| Nearly every day at the shop, I find my mouth uttering the word “acidity” to describe wines to our customers. Uttering this word is not a salubrious trait, as for many folks, the word lacks indexicality and thus really isn’t actionable, beyond triggering thoughts of Pepcid. My job is to offer our customers wines that they enjoy, without forcing them to think. And it’s my fault, transmitting with the technical language of wine, something that’s essential to my own appreciation of wine, a preoccupation of mine, but truly, not one that enters the atmosphere for most of my interlocutors. I should stop using the term acidity, but I can’t help it. It slips out without me even noticing it, and by then, it’s too late.
So, knowing this pitfall, here, nevertheless, is a short paean to acid in wine, and also the theme of tonight’s tasting. Acidity is something that wine offers that no other alcoholic beverage can. It’s central to our experience of this drink, and, armed with a few words regarding acid, you’ll be better equipped to ask for what you’re in the mood to drink, whether you’re in foul temperament on a hot and dusty day, or brimming with that rare commodity these days, joy, or eating something fatty, fried, or raw. Acidity is what makes wine refreshing. As acids attack your tongue, bombarding it with protons, your mouth secretes (sorry, gross) saliva as a sort of defensive posture, without us even realizing it. (Try holding a mouthful of seltzer in your mouth for 30 seconds, if you can, to see what I mean by “attack.”) Beyond refreshment, acidity in wine is a flavor and texture vehicle, without which you’re left drinking something inert. There are several different forms of acid in wine. If you’d like, I’ll blather on about them in minute detail in person (ask, and you will regret it): some acids form in the grape itself, e.g., tartaric and malic acid, while others arise only through fermentation, e.g., lactic, acetic, and succinic. And they all provide a varied repertoire of sensations. The most important distinction, which you’ll see tonight, is between malic acid, a constituent of all raw grapes, a tart, puckering acid found in abundance in Granny Smith apples, and lactic acid, the softer, more comforting acid found in sour cream and yogurt. Natural lactic bacteria will, under the right circumstances, digest malic acid and produce lactic acid as a metabolite. Some winemakers block this process by adding sulfites or through sterile filtration, while others let it be. Tonight, you will taste wines that are brimming with malic acid (the amazingly delicious Anima Mundi pét-nat from Penedes), as well as wines with more lactic acid than malic (the ultra-mineral Ŝtoka teran). There will be a quiz. |