How Important Is Tertiary Development To You?

How Important Is Tertiary Development To You?

  • 1. I like them young and fruity.
  • 2. I like some maturity but still desire obvious fruit.
  • 3. I want fully evolved wines, fruit is secondary.
  • 4. As developed as possible, even at the risk of being on the downward side.

0 voters

What say you when it comes to the importance of maturity in the wines that you drink?

You must realize this question is so broad that it doesn’t make sense at all. I don’t think there is anyone who could reasonably choose only one option for all wines. Maybe Francois Audoze…

Can one of you please define and/or explain both the terms “secondary” and “tertiary”. I’d like to understand the difference, if any.

I have generally understood secondary to be the result of the winemaking and tertiary to be bottle aging.

Michael, if that’s the case, why are these other terms in use? Why don’t we just talk about the importance of aging a wine?

I prefer my whites (mostly Chablis) on the young side (under 15 yrs from vintage). I need my reds to have as much as on them as possible. I love my Champagne both young and old, and everything inbetween.

There are no answers that I choose that accurately reflect my opinion. I love wine when its young and fresh and I also love wine when it has transformed into full maturity and many stages in between.

My take is a little different. Secondary being when the fruit gives way to leafy and more earthy notes and tertiary being the evolved state of leather and tea and the absence of fruit in old wines.

Sorry, but a pretty stupid and loaded poll. Bill Klapp was thrown out, and these kinds of threads get started? This should be on WS or Ebob not here.

Flawed poll - somebody had to say it.

I’ll go with, “What he said!”

I wonder what Pobega will say!

i’d put tertiary in third place, personally. imho.

Once you go quaternary you never go back.

I believe that Michael’s definition is technically and historically correct. Peynaud and others used the terms that way. But they are used differently so often that they have lost most of their utility.

My answer to the poll is all of the above, with a special place in my heart for tertiary development. The greatest wine experiences I have had have come from aged wines that have developed great complexity from strong tertiary components. Some would call them OTH but different strokes… I have also had great wines that are young and showing a lot of fresh ripe fruit with little or no tertiary complexity.

Absolutely not reason to be this rude.

How is this rude? This is about the poll. I said nothing personal?

Go read your reply to a few people and ask if it sounds rude.

Klapp was useful in whacking polls, trolls, and moles.

My vote is for quinceañera, which whould be be a option on any serious poll about wine development.

Sorry. but questioning a thread does not seem rude to me. This thread just begs the question of why taste wine.
I fail to see why we can’t have a poll on do aromas in wine matter? or does taste matter? If one asked do you prefer young wine with fruit versus older wine with tertiary characteristics ok. But basically what does this poll show - do people on WB appreciate more complexity? Seriously?


If you are not sure why calling someone’s thread “Stupid” is rude, Im not going to waste my breath trying to explain it to you.