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What is tannins? I am a newbie and I started reading about the wine I have been drinking and the word tannins was used (soft tannins). What does tannins mean to wine? thanks for helping me out.
Follow Ups:
Tannin is short for Tannic Acid. Sometimes after you drink a big, red wine you feel like you need to shave your toungue. That's due to tannins.
A bit more on tannin: tannin is a common component of vegetation, esp. leaves and bark. If you drink brown or black tea, you probably add sugar and/or milk--to neutralize and mask the bitter flavor of the tannin from the tea leaves. Grape leaves and stems also contain tannin; red wine grapes are of course fermented to one extent or another with their skins (and sometimes stems); that's why the wine is red.Some wine grape skins (like cabernet sauvignon's) contain quite a bit of tannin, and wine makers and drinkers have noticed over the years that it's possible to manipulate that tannin to add a dimension to wine: some wines (not, I guess, actually that many) improve in the bottle over time because the tannin metamorphoses, moderating from a distractingly bitter element to one that's better integrated with the over-all personality of the wine, and adding sort of a bass note of earthiness and gravity to the wine. Other wines, with less tannin in their grape skins, benefit from tannin's contrasting ground note right from the start, and don't need time in the cellar to soften their tannin's edge.
And that's what I know about tannin.
As the wine ages, and the tannins oxidise, they tend to protect some of the other flavoring agents from oxidizing, which is why tannic wines can last.
JJ
nt
A quick correction on the above: when I wrote grape leaves, I meant grape skins.
Tannins, simply put, are the volitile chemicals which often make your mouth pucker when you taste a wine. The compounds are often attibuted to such qualities as; astringency, agressiveness, and a wine being 'big'. A wine with softer tannins might be smooth or velvety. Generally, as wines age, the tannins become softer.
thanks for the information, I appreciate it.
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