When I first started learning more about wine, I heard a lot about acidity. I thought to myself, what? Acid in wine? Why on Earth would anyone want to taste acidity in wine? Well, I learnt very quickly that acidity in wine is actually essential to how we taste wine. Just like with tannin, whether there is plenty of acidity, or none at all, really impacts the taste of a wine and your personal preference to it.
When I started researching this article, I felt like I almost needed a science degree to understand some of what I was reading. You see, you can get quite technical when it comes to understanding acidity in wine. I felt like I was back in a science class where you’re adding different compounds to a beaker and suddenly it explodes (or was that just me? I was never very good at science). So I’ve decided that what we regular wine drinkers need is something that explains acidity in wine in just enough detail that we can understand it. But no more than that, because who needs all that science stuff anyway? We’re just here to drink wine after all!
If you want to get into the technical details, feel free to use the links in this article to learn more! Go nuts! But for those that just want to learn the fundamentals, read on.
What is acidity in wine?
Acidity is one of the four fundamental traits of wine, coming together with sweetness, alcohol and tannin to produce the taste in a glass. Acid gives the wine a tart or sour taste – so the more acid in the wine the more tart it will be. Ever taste a wine that feels refreshing on the tongue and makes you want to take another sip? Well, the culprit is the wine’s acidity. It makes you salivate just like with other acidic food and drink (lemonade is a great example), so makes you want more.
All wines have some acid in them, but based on the balance between acid and the tannin, sweetness and alcohol, some wines may taste like they have no acidity. All wines lie on the acidic side of the pH spectrum, usually between 2.5 to 4.5. There are many different types of acids that affect acidity, with the most common being tartaric acid, malic acid and citric acid.
How to taste it
The best way to explore acidity in wine is to look out for the puckering feeling when you drink a glass of wine. Sort of like drinking lemonade, if the wine makes you pucker or tastes tart, it is acidic. This will help you determine certain varieties that have more acidity than others.
As a general rule, wines that you want to describe as crisp, fresh or bright have great acidity. Also, wines with tasting notes of citrus flavours tend to be more acidic. Acid makes for a refreshing glass of wine, so look out for those real thirst quenchers that are all too easy to drink. Those are generally the wines that are higher in acid.
Although white wines tend to have these characteristics more than red, red wines can still be crisp as well! Acidity is present in many red wines that make you pucker up and leave you wanting more after the first sip.
What impacts acidity in wine?
There are many things that will impact the acidity. Here are the main factors:
- Sweetness: the sweeter something is the less acidic it will taste. Sweetness rounds out the acid in wine, so the sweeter the wine the less acidic it will taste
- Climate: grapes that are overripe tend to lose their acidity, so hot climates that don’t have cool evenings tend to result in less acidic wines. Shorter growing seasons tend to produce wines that are higher in acid
- Type of acid: Without getting into too much detail, the type of acids that are present in the wine will affect the acidity. A great example of this is the difference between oaked and unoaked Chardonnay where the aging process turns malic acid into lactic acid (it’s called malolactic fermentation) and rounds out the wine, reducing the acidity
Why is acidity in wine important?
Because acidity plays such an important role in the taste of wine, knowing about it helps you determine what type of wines you like. Acidity blends all the flavours of the wine together, making each individual one more pronounced. A wine without acidity is dull and boring, and will sometimes be referred to as flat. And no one wants to drink flat wine, right? That acidity is so important for powering up your taste buds to pick the flavours in the wine. And of course, it keeps you drinking the wine, which is just as important!
The acidity is also important when it comes to aging wine. The acidity is a buffer as wine ages, meaning that you can keep wines with higher acidity for longer. So thank god for acidity, because without it we wouldn’t be able to put some wines down for years, and open them up to a delicious bottle!
Acid and food pairing
Acidity is also essential when it comes to food pairing, as it is what makes wine pair so well with your dishes. When deciding on the perfect food pairing, take into account how acidic the wine is. Think about a basic dish and consider how sweet, bitter, sour, salty and how fatty it is. Acid comes across as sour, so an acidic wine needs to be complemented by a dish that has sweetness, saltiness and a good fat balance. Together all of these come together in a glorious food pairing.
This might take some testing and learning though, so I guess we’ll all have to get into the kitchen and crack open a few bottles! I encourage this science experiment as it’s my sort of experiment.
It’s all in the balance
As a final word on acidity, it only works if it is perfectly balanced. It has to play well with the other fundamental traits to be referred to as a balanced wine. Even with highly acidic wine such as white wine, the other components still need to come together so that it doesn’t overpower the wine. Without this, the wine will be far too sour and tart for drinking. Acidity is just one of the components that makes up a good wine. Without it, the wine will be dull, but too much will tip it over the edge.
So next time you are tasting a glass of wine, look out for that acidity. It’s the hardworking part of the wine that makes you really taste it, and leaves you wanting more. It doesn’t need to get more complicated than that!