I recently received an email from Rebecca, a reader in Washington, who wanted to know the answer to a seemingly simple question; “Who put the cherry in my wine?” What Rebecca was really asking was, why doesn’t wine taste like grape juice? She went on to describe the wine she had at a dinner party a few nights before and it smelled and tasted like cherries, red berries and strawberries, “but not grapes.” And then came the inevitable follow-up question; “Do [the winemakers] really put all those different fruits in the wine?”
Well, the simple answer, no, winemakers do not add any other fruit to the wine. If you were to taste wine before it is fermented, it would taste like grape juice. So where do all these fruit, spice and other flavors come from?
According to Sue Ebler, professor of eneology at the University of California-Davis, different flavors in wine comes from the grapes going through primary and secondary fermentation. “Fermentation,” says Ebler, “forms a lot of new compounds, including esters [aromas] and ethanol [alcohol]. Combinations of volatile compounds produce aromas that we perceive as a particular aroma, such as strawberry, and then we associate it as taste on the tongue.”
Put simply, the chemical reaction of fermentation releases the aromas that are locked up in the grape. The flavor imparted to the juice is a combination of aroma and our ability to detect sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (savory). So essentially, we taste what we smell. Other flavors, such as vanilla and oak, come from vanillin, a chemical compound that can leach out of wood barrels during the fermentation and aging process.
Here are some classic examples of wines that exhibit particular flavor characteristics. Try serving them at your next wine dinner and see if your guests can answer the question, “Who put the cherry in my wine?” Retail prices are approximate.
Sauvignon blanc wines can tend to be either grassy or citrusy. The 2010 Casillero del Diablo Sauvignon Blanc ($10) from Casablanca Valley, Chile, definitely tends toward the latter, with prominent notes of crisp grapefruit up front followed by orange blossom and green melon characteristics on the zippy finish.
A lot of wine snobs overlook the 2007 Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Merlot ($22) from Sonoma, Calif. — which is good since there will be more for the rest of us. This is a well-made wine, aged for 19 months in French oak. It offers up the expected hint of dark plum, but it is the expansive flavors of cherry cola and black raspberry that really grab the palate’s attention. Notes of vanilla on the long, elegant finish and low price tag go a long way to catch my wallet’s attention.
Pinot noirs are famous for sporting flavors of strawberry and cherry. The 2008 Argyle Pinot Noir ($24) from the Willamette Valley of Oregon definitely tilts toward the cherry end of the spectrum where other notes, such as raspberry and cinnamon, jump in to keep it company. Touches of wild strawberry glide in on the medium-bodied finish.
2008 was a challenging year for a lot of winemakers in Australia, but not for Jayson Woodbridge and his team, who make the 2008 Layer Cake Shiraz ($18) from South Australia. This value-oriented offering from the famous Hundred Acre wine group is a big, rich juicy wine with plenty of dark blackberry and black plum fruit that coats the palate. But it is the prominent notes of black pepper and mint on the medium-bodied finish that have earned it a spot on the “How did that get in the wine?” list.
Another stunning example from the land down under comes from a producer who is known more for its high-end wines. The 2008 Torbreck Juveniles from the Barossa Valley ($25) is a blend of 60 percent grenache, 20 percent shiraz, and 20 percent mataro. Fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks, this big red favors more of a black cherry component on a nice, medium-bodied frame. The charming finish brings in complementary notes of cherry jam and baking spices.
