unripe vs. overripe?

Help me to understand the characteristics in these two conditions unripe vs. ripe.

Over the weekend I opened a Daou 2008 Old Vine Lodi Zin and was immediately struck with a “tart/green” sensation. The flavor was pronounced right at the tip of the tongue and over powered any differentiation in fruit. The nose provided hints of dark fruit (black cherries) cassis, and spices. However, the juice was overwhelmingly tart… almost like the wine was too young. Is that tartness a sign of unripe grapes?

I’ve heard over ripe grapes tend to give the wine a “jammy” sweet fruit characteristics. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am by no means an expert, or even in the business, so others can give you much more elaborate answers. Ripeness of fruit is a large topic, and how ripe grapes need to be optimally depends on what type of wine is made, the winemakers preferences etc.

Regarting tasting charecteristics, i would say that you are pretty much spot on. Unripe fruit will taste vegetal, or greenish. overripe fruit will give the wine a jammy, flabby character. The sweetspot depends on your preferences, some like more ripeness in their wine than others.

In general I tend to prefer wines with a less defined acidic backbone, so naturally I wouldn’t gravitate towards anything resembling a tart, sour, puckery or stringent profile.

Thanks for your response.

Dave,
Yes roughly the characteristics are the ones you told: too high acidity for unripe, and too jammy for the overripe ones.
But these factors are not the only results of ripeness level: for instance, the acidity can be influenced by the climate (warm = less acidity), the altitude (elevation = more acidity), type of soil, grape variety, type of vineyard management, etc.
So very acidic wine doesn’t always mean unripe: it could be a ripe Riesling, coming from northern region.
What really counts is the type of acidity: if it gives a good length, structure, freshness, and no aggressivity, it is an acidity of ripe grape, regardless if the acidity level is high or not. If it is “green”, agressive, and give no length to the wine, even with a low acidity level, is comes from unripe grapes. Chemically speaking, the acid of unripe grapes is the malic acid, ripe grapes contain tartric acid.
An other clue can be the aromatic, ripe fruits or not. But again, there are other elements that influence the aromatics, for instance some grapes give tropical fruits notes even when unripe. Or some climates do the same…
So there is always a combination of many clues that you have to cross to be able to make sure of your thoughts.

Florian

.

2008 was a very ripe year. If it was that tart, I would suspect over acidulation. You can also have over ripe and overly acidic if too much tartaric acid is added.

Or, it could also have had some VA- also a hallmark of that vintage in that area.

Great post, thank you. This helps!