Wine "structure" - curious?

I’ve been curious lately when reading about the latest vintage news and how wines are frequently described with certain types of “structure”. Invariably when mentioning structure the author includes both acid and tannins.

Merriam-Webster defines structure as follows: “the way that something is built, arranged, or organized.”

Thus bringing me to the following question:

How can structure be translated to flavor profile, or can it?

If acid and tannins are the building blocks of wine, neither conjure to mind fruit, floral, earth or other usual flavor descriptors. Are both enablers or facilitators for increasing/decreasing the wines flavor and aroma profile?

Not sure why this has stuck in my head, but I’m trying to wrap my head around the concept of structure and what it means in totality.

I was told this once and it always stuck - think of the structure of a wine as the skeleton and fruit as the flesh. I would not use any flavor profiles to describe the structure, it is just the tannins and acid that “frame” the fruit.

That makes sense. Thank you! :slight_smile: I would assume that too much acid or tannins (structural building blocks) will impact the fruits expression within the wine.

I was told this once and it always stuck - think of the structure of a wine as the skeleton and fruit as the flesh. I would not use any flavor profiles to describe the structure, it is just the tannins and acid that “frame” the fruit.

I am new with this wine businesses but that sounds very interesting to know. Hopefully, lot of members here will input their idea too.

There was a horrible trend over in the UK 20 years ago to describe wines with a cornucopia of flowery descrptors, coupled with a shopping list of fruits. However sometimes the structural elements are so crucial to a wine, that they merit special mention, such as a german spatlese with/without sufficient acidity, as it would be so fundamental to the drinking pleasure. Ditto young nebbiolo wines, which can vary from light/soft tannins, to the literal ‘wall of tannins’. Knowing this would be crucial to how you might approach the wine, and indeed acid/tannin and the balance with the depth of fruit / fruit profile can indicate whether a wine should improve over 5, 10, 20 or more years.

Regards
Ian

Agree, Ian!

I absolutely agree with Bweimer and Ian Sutton. I think descriptors on structure help to give a great understanding into the very nature of a particular wine. And the words we use to characterize a wine’s structure are familiar to a much broader group of people.

Additionally, understanding the impact of ripeness on flavor profiles is important as there’s a significant difference across the spectrum (under ripe, ripe & over ripe).

Yesterday I was reading an article on Pinots and the author talked about how one winemaker leveraged 60% whole clusters (stem inclusion) and how that strategy led to an Old World Burgundian style wine. He described the whole clusters as imparting a green and vegetal note, which he liked. I found this information helpful, as I go in the opposite direction. I’m instantly turned off by the slightest hint of stems and gravitate away from green and vegetal profiles.

While the words lack precise definition when it comes to wine, I find that structure refers mostly to acidity when talking about white wines. It gets muddy when it comes to reds. I think that both acid and tannin play a role in a red wine’s structure. Ascertaining what a person is referring to specifically with a red wine often necessitates asking them directly.

I think I like some of the green elements of whole cluster, especially with Pinots. Stems can also be a big source of tannin, thus affecting astringency as well as flavor.

One thing I would add that is important to understanding wine structure, in addition to acid and tannin, would be the notion of body and alcohol. Acid and tannin determine how much you salivate, but the alcohol level plays a big role in the overall “feel” of a wine, which is a key element of structure. One could also argue that the amount of residual sugar, in wines where that applies, is very important structurally, as it also adds body to a wine. The dance between all of these elements is where the structure emerges.

Very true Joy. So easy to focus on acid and tannin, yet a wine with what ought to be an excess of either may be balanced by the plushness of rich fruit and alcohol, or by sweetness (thinking of dessert wines).

There is then the judgement of whether a wine with overt acidity and tannins may soften, and whether the fruit will fade before this happens, or whether the wine will open just like a fragrant flower when the tannins fade.

Structure needs to incorporate acidity, tannins, alcohol, glycerol, residual sugar and the nature of each. They integrate into a whole that is often notated shorthand by those who frequently talk about or review wine, and that notation is sometimes fluidly integrated with the discussion of aromas and fruit (remember that color is related to grape pigments called anthocyanins that have complex interactions with various tannins, and that sugar, nonfermentable sugars and alcohol all play into the density and mouthfeel of the wine, and the alcohol level is also related to the solubility of certain aroma molecules.)

Each component of structure has some standard descriptors (tart, velvety, silky/smooth, grippy, opulent, full-bodied, etc) but often you get more information by comparing the specific description to a standard description for that style. When someone uses shorthand like “old world” or “new world” there’s a gestalt there that aligns our expectations.

The same goes for descriptors like “cool climate” which is problematic because it’s the perfect example of how terroir and vinification terms get used as flavor and structure descriptors. It takes a while to parse those out and make sense of them.

My advice: drink a lot and make associations with the experience of the wine and what the reviews said. Best and only way to calibrate.

Here’s a useful cribsheet for tasting notes from Ric Einstein (aka TORB), or as he was known on a certain other wine forum: *** ********
http://www.torbwine.com/images/Torb%20Tasting%20Sheet.pdf
It has a good list of structural elements (only relating to red wine - TORB standing for 'the other red bigot!)

Good addition Joy! Oddly Jancis Robinson does not include ‘Structure’ as a standalone term in the Oxford Companion To Wine, nor can I find any reference under the sections on Acid, Tannin and Tasting in the same book. Although I went through those sections very quickly, so I may have missed it.

Ian thanks for posting the Torb Tasting Sheet.

So, one of the wines in my cellar has a tasting note on CT that includes the term “massive structure”.
How does massive relate to the basic elements of acidity, tannins, sugar, alcohol, etc.?
Does it mean that these are all in excess right now?