The chemistry that makes your wine taste good (or bad)

Jul 21, 2015

(WP) - When it comes to wine, the devil is in the details. No matter how fancy, every bottle of wine is mostly water and alcohol -- only 2 percent of the chemical composition allows for any variety. But oh, how that 2 percent can vary.

The latest video from the American Chemical Society's Reactions series can help you arm yourself with science facts to throw at your pretentious, wine-swirling friend at the next Rosé soirée.

First of all, here's the bad news for wine plebs like myself: All of those "flavor notes" that people talk about really exist, even at the chemical level. Chocolate! Tobacco! Grass! What?

Some scientists estimate that a single glass of wine contains thousands of different chemical compounds. Those chemicals are determined by the soil the wine grape is grown in -- which can contain a host of unique minerals to influence the fruit -- the grape itself, the climate, and the fermentation process, where crushed grapes provide sugary fuel for yeast, which in turn produces alcohol. The barrels and environment a wine is aged in can contribute new chemical compounds as well.

Even the shape of the glass you drink from can be a factor -- especially for bubbly wines like champagne, which release important aromatic chemical compounds when their bubbles burst.

And most wines probably have mostly the same chemicals inside of them -- it's the concentration of one compound over another that makes the biggest difference.

And most wines probably have mostly the same chemicals inside of them -- it's the concentration of one compound over another that makes the biggest difference.


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