Characteristics of Red Wine Grapes

General

Jump to Specific Grape Varieties

Color: From red to purple. The more blue or purple, the younger. CM wines are very purple. Orange or bricky denotes age.

Fruit: From red fruits to dark bramble fruit. Raspberry and cotton candy in CM wines. Older wines tend to be lacking fruit.

Tannins: When they are young they are the rough almost tactile sensation in the mouth. The harsh ones are from the seed and stems. The softer tannins are from oak. Harsh tannins can be softened with careful winemaking during the maceration period (skin contact).

Leather flavors in aged red wine is are to be expected. TANnin is used to TAN leather, so the smell is from the tannins. Leather tends to be more pronounced once the fruit has faded.

Tobacco - along with cedar and leather a product of well aged tannins.

Astringency: Different than tannins, this is the drying out of the mouth. It is due to the acidity in general.

Off Flavors and Smells:

Wet cardboard - Corked wine.

Wet horse blanket - Brett, a common bacterial spoilage, in smaller concentrations it is more like dirt than merde.

Slight sparkle - if it is slight it is dissolved CO2, if it is accompanied by a wet forest floor smell, than it is Malo-Lactic fermentation in the bottle.

Wine Making Flavors:

Malo-Lactic Fermentation - The process of changing the sharp malic acid (in apples) into the softer lactic acid (in milk). The process also leaves the by product DIACETYL, the taste of butter.

Carbonic Maceration (CM) - This is a quick way of making wine that results in fruity wines with no tannin and only slight varietal character. Strawberries, bananas and raspberries, as well as a cotton candy sweetness in the nose, are typical.

Oak - If it is complex with cloves and woody spices, it is French oak. If it is forward with vanilla, it is American oak. If it is musty it is from old barrels.

Oxidation - Caramel and a dark, plum smell (Port). Light orange hues in the wine are another hint.

Blending - While not always obvious, a wine that tastes complex may have been blended with several grape varieties.

Climatic Characteristics:

Hot weather - A deep rich flavor lacking in acidity or bright fruit. The hotter the region the more flabby (less acidic) the wines tend to be. Because of the overripe fruit, and the propensity to oxidize hot fruit, the color tends towards brown shades of red.

Cool weather - Long cool growing condition pronounce the fruit and the acidity. Tannins and color are low.

Temperate weather - If it is not too hot nor too cool, the ideal grape variety are those with long growing seasons, but thick skins to protect the fruit. Tannin and color are products of the grape skin.

Specific Varieties

CLASSIC VARIETIES

Grape Variety	Cabernet Sauvignon
Use in Old World	Bordeaux, primary in Haut-Medoc
Use in New World	Pervasive
Color	Dark red with blue hints when young.
Aroma	Bramble fruit, cassis. Often mint or even green pepper.
Body	Heavy
Wine Making Flavors	Heavy use of oak, but incorporates well into the wine.
Blended with:	Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Syrah (Australia).
Other	Increasingly being planted in Italy where it only recently has an official status

Grape Variety	Merlot
Use in Old World	Bordeaux, primary in St.-Emilion and Pomerol
Use in New World	US and South America
Color	Tends towards medium dark and very blue.
Aroma	Red bramble fruit, chocolate, straw
Body	Moderate
Wine Making Flavors	Diacetyl and vanillic acid from American oak come through well and are often prevalent. Brett is common in the Old World, but it is the light dirt variety.
Blended with:	Usually with Cabernet Sauvignon.
Other	Increasingly being sold as a varietal wine even in the Old world.

Grape Variety	Pinot Noir
Use in Old World	Burgundy. Also Germany and Switzerland.
Use in New World	US, Australia
Color	Light red, sometimes with a slight hint of blue.
Aroma	Dark cherries and linden (to some a 'Band-aid' smell).
Body	Light to medium.
Wine Making Flavors	Brett (horse blanket), sometimes strongly, especially in Burgundy.
Blended with:	Rarely blended, except with Chardonnay in Champagne.
Other	The hardest of all wines to make, and often the most rewarding when it is successful.

Grape Variety	Syrah
Use in Old World	Rhone, France
Use in New World	Australia (called Shiraz), US esp. CA
Color	Deep red with a good deal of blue.
Aroma	Violets and sometimes black pepper. Very Berry.
Body	Medium to heavy.
Wine Making Flavors	Minimal flavors intrude, even when much is done to the wine.
Blended with:	Grenache and in Chateauneuf du Pape, 11 other grapes. The white grape Viognier is used very well in the Cote-Rotie (Rhone). In Australia it is a very important grape and is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon.
Other	The Syrah of Australia is an older clone than in the Rhone. The clone was taken before phylloxera.

MAJOR VARIETIES

Grape Variety	Cabernet Franc
Use in Old World	Chinon in the Loire, as a blending grape in Bordeaux
Use in New World	US
Color	Light to medium, bright red
Aroma	Raspberry
Body	Light to medium
Wine Making Flavors	Often made in whole or partial CM style.
Blended with:	Alone or as part of a Cabernet Sauvignon blend.
Other	Just starting to catch on in the US.

Grape Variety	Grenache
Use in Old World	Rhone and Southern France. Rioja, Spain.
Use in New World	Some US
Color	Light red to orange.
Aroma	Spicy black pepper. Light red fruits
Body	Light to heavy
Wine Making Flavors	CM style in Southern France and Cote du Rhone. Much blended in the rest of the Rhone. Often oxidized with a strong vanilla aroma (from American Oak) in the wines of the Rioja.
Blended with:	Extensively with Syrah in the Rhone and a zillion other grapes in the south of France. In Rioja it is blended with Tempranillo.
Other	Also used to make the excellent roses of Tavel and Lirac.

Grape Variety	Nebbiolo
Use in Old World	Piedmont, Italy.
Use in New World	Small amounts in US.
Color	Solid red.
Aroma	Light fruit, sometimes bitter
Body	Medium to heavy
Wine Making Flavors	Often old musty oak and oxidation in these wines
Blended with:	None
Other	The grape of Barolo and Barberesco. A difficult grape that is often overlooked.

Grape Variety	Sangiovese
Use in Old World	Tuscany, Italy
Use in New World	Rare, but increasing in CA.
Color	From very light to very dark.
Aroma	Dark red fruits.
Body	From very light to very heavy.
Wine Making Flavors	Often heavily oaked and slightly oxidized.
Blended with:	In Chianti it is blended with red and white wines. In the 'Super-Tuscans' it is blended with Cabernet Sauvignon.
Other	There are huge differences in the various clones of this grape. There is the Grosso clone which is the more common, and the Piccolo clone which is smaller in size and plantings. The Brunello grape is a Sangiovese Grosso clone and yet still shows as the finest example of Sangiovese.

Grape Variety	Zinfandel
Use in Old World	Now known to be the Crljenak Kastelanski, of Croatia. All but extinct.
Use in New World	The only vinifera grape almost completely exclusive to the US.
Color	Deep purple, often inky.
Aroma	Blackberries and dark fruit.
Body	Light to very heavy.
Wine Making Flavors	Sometimes made in a CM style. Increasingly it is made in a partial CM style (blended with traditionally made wine) which preserves its character while adding complexity.
Blended with:	Any number of things, but Petite Syrah and Grenache are the most successful.
Other	Often made into a rose wine this exceptional grape has earned an undeserved reputation based on these insipid pink wines.