Can wine be spicy? Spicy might be a weird thing to find in your wine glass, but this is one of the many weird wine terms out there that you may find in tasting notes. Seriously. But what does it actually mean, and is it a good or bad thing to find in your glass? More importantly, will you need to drink a glass of milk after the wine or not? In this wine terms explained, we dive into everything you need to know about this wine-tasting note
What is spicy as a wine tasting note?
Although you can find many spice flavours in your wine like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg or ginger, spice and spicy are different things. Spicy isn’t actually flavour, instead, a feeling you get from a chemical reaction. Although many wines have a spicy component especially from oak influence, not every wine is spicy.
If you think about eating spicy foods, they feel like they are burning your tongue even though there is no burning happening. This sensation is a neurological response to chemical compounds. This makes you want to cool your mouth down and can even lead to sweating, tears or excess saliva depending on your tolerance to spice.
Some grapes have a similar compound that makes the wine seem spicy to the brain. The first is called Rotundone which makes some wines taste like they have a high level of pepperiness. Fun fact: 1 in 5 people can’t actually smell this and so they might not think the wine is peppery at all!
And then you have wines that make you think you’ve actually eaten a chilli. This is often called Piquant and feels like a heat. This can come from high acidity or high alcohol in the wine that tricks our brain into thinking the wine is hot when it isn’t really.
Where you’ll find it
So now that we know what it is, what wines are more likely to be spicy? Here’s a list of the wines you’ll sometimes find this tasting note in:
- Syrah and sometimes Shiraz
- Grenache
- Petite Sirah
- Malbec
- Zinfandel
- Sangiovese
- Amarone style wines
So can wine be spicy? The answer is yes! And hopefully, this guide has helped unpack why, and where to find it for you. So next time you find your wine a little on the hot side, you’ll know what’s going on.