Welcome to the Happs and Three Hills blog. This is where we publish our ongoing thoughts on everything about wine and the marvelous Margaret River wine region.
The colour of the pulp next to the seed tells a winemaker a lot about the wine that is to come. So, it pays to walk into the vineyard as picking time approaches and taste the fruit. Long before the berries are ripe enough to make good wine the seeds are capable of sprouting to produce a seedling vine. But the pulp surrounding the seeds may actually be really immature.
Check the photo above. The pulp to the right is obviously green in colour. The green is chlorophyll. Let’s say you are interested in assessing the seed colour. Many wine makers think it’s a good index of maturity. When you try to separate seed and pulp in the mouth the green snotty stuff will get in the way. It is relatively firm and still well attached to the seed. The effort involved in detaching it soon abrades the tongue. But there is something else that you notice in the process. The pulp has a hard green taste. Many people think that this hard green taste is the taste of Cabernet Sauvignon. Wrong. It is the taste of green Cabernet Sauvignon. One mouthful of a hard green wine, and if you are like me, you have had enough. It’s not ‘green tannin’. It’s something else entirely.
If you are walking down a vine row and tasting berries as you go, looking at the seeds, it’s the green pulp that will get to you first. You might be scoring the seeds according to their colour like this
- Brown
- Green brown
- Pale green
- Bottle green
But it won’t be long before you will realise that you can guess the colour from the taste of the pulp.
I hate green flavours and if it’s there that’s the thing that I will notice first. I find that the extent of green flavour is a good index of drinkability.
I have what might be called a ‘soft palate’. I don’t like high acid wines. I don’t like green wines. But that does not mean I don’t like tannin.
I find that you cannot really see the pleasant flavours in a wine if it’s acid or green.
As soon as you are eating food the perception of tannin disappears. The saliva in your mouth is full of protein and it binds up the tannins. When you are eating the saliva flows freely, so the wine tastes less tannic. You see flavours in the wine that are not apparent when the saliva is flowing less freely.
People often note that wine tastes different after they clean their teeth. Why? Because they have washed the saliva out of their mouth.
We all taste differently. Why? Because our salivary flow is different.
The type of food affects the taste of the wine? Why. Because different foods elicit a different salivary response.
If you want to enjoy a red wine have it with a simple stir fry with white rice. The rice gets the saliva flowing nicely.
If you want to know whether your dinner party guest is going to enjoy a red wine test them with a kiss. If the lips are wet and there is plenty of ‘slip’ chances are that they will go for the Nebbiolo. If their lips are dry better offer a white.
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