When you drink wine do you prefer a big, buttery California style Chardonnay with lots of oak, or do you like more of a fruity, acidic, Chardonnay with a complete absence of oak? Would you select a lighter bodied, sweeter, fruity White Zinfandel or do you opt for a full bodied, dry, astringent “old vine” Zinfandel. Have you ever noticed that when you taste wine you tend to gravitate towards a certain style of a wine?

In regards to a specific wine varietal type, be it Chardonnay or Zinfandel, you as a wine taster will experience a vast range of distinctive styles in your wine experience.

Style is the artistic component in the wine making process. The style in which the viticulturist and vintner manipulates the grapes and wine is what will determine the specific style of the final wine that you will taste in the glass. Style refers to a winemaker’s characteristic way of combining, balancing, or eliminating the sensory features that distinguish a particular type of wine to create an individualistic expression of that type of wine. Are you still with me?

To define the style desired for a particular wine is to decide what emphasis to give each of its characteristic sensory features, which ones should be brought out and which ones should be suppressed, and to what degree. The definition of a wine’s style could include such things as the overall

simplicity or complexity of its odors and flavors, the intensity of its varietal aroma, the predominance of fruit aromas or oak bouquet and the balance of a wines sugar and acid content. This will determine if the wine will taste sweet or dry, flat or tart. The amount of tannin present in a red wine upon release to the market will determine its current consumer drinkability and its long term aging potential.

For the present day winemaker to create a stylized wine it requires a mastery of grape growing and winemaking. Each feature of the style definition dictates a decision both in the vineyard and the winery. For example, to create “intense varietal character: requires planting a specific varietal grape in the climate to which it is best adapted or site specific. The grape grower must train, irrigate, and prune the vines in a specific fashion. These vineyard practices result in a lower yield of fruit for the winemaker with intense varietal character. The winemaker will extract the juice from the fruit, ferment, age, and conduct all of the finishing operations at the winery in an organized fashion. This is done to insure that all of the varietal character and determined wine style is brought out and preserved in the final wine. Wine is the liquid expression or style of the winemaker and their creativity is evident in the wines we enjoy.

Happy Tasting! - Brian