What does wine taste like?

Why does wine taste like…

Few things quite compare to the sensuous flavors of wine. This beverage evokes a mixture of aromas and tastes. It’s certainly not just alcoholic grape juice! But what makes wine above all else have a complex flavor profile and bouquet? The answer lies in wine science.

What does wine taste like?

When you read a wine review or label you might see flavor comparisons like white peach, leather, or the dreaded hints of cassis (we still don’t really get what this is). It can be tempting to assume that these notes were invented by a bunch of snobs, but take a pause on that for a minute. The truth is that wine does taste like something, in fact, it tastes like many things, some of which are provable. 

What does that mean? Let’s take it back a second to other, simpler flavors. Why does a pear taste like a pear? Why does a raspberry taste like a raspberry? What brings in the smell of coffee or cucumber (interestingly, both pyrazines)? Our sense of taste and smell has a few different pieces, but one part of this comes from the chemical composition of our food and drink. 

Why do foods have flavor?

Flavors essentially boil down to chemicals that are in, well, just about everything. Foods are particularly interesting because they evolved to taste good, and then we furthered that with thousands of years of agriculture, at least in the case of wine. That’s why wine and other food tastes and smells appealing to us! 

So back to our pear example: This flavor comes down to something commonly referred to as the pear ester, which also occurs in some wines, like Riesling. This is the case for dozens and even hundreds of flavors and smells we find in wine, though not all have been studied and proven conclusively. 

How can you use this knowledge to pick wines?

Certainly if you know some of the flavors you enjoy, you can apply that to wines, but it’s not usually that simple. After all, a Cabernet Franc might taste like hints of wood, moss, and old books, none of which you should be eating. Of course, some of these contain similar chemicals and others are associations our brain makes when we try to put things into familiar categories.

If the smells and tastes of wine elude you, that’s OK. The trick is to find out what you like and use that to inspire you to try new, similar things. When you go through that list, you might discover there are some underlying flavors that you’re drawn to, some of which come from the chemicals in wine. Vino is certainly better than the sum of its parts.