in wine today

Getting physical

By Georges Meekers

Some of the most common elements in describing wine are actually quite exuberant and sexy. Yes, exploring wines may very well lead you straight from the cellar into the bedroom. Wine has got a nose, a body too, and guess what, to complete its anatomy, it also has legs.

The study of a wine’s legs is absorbing, thirsty work, best done with a large glass only one third full.

Swirl the wine round in the glass. Hold the glass up to the light or against a white backdrop. You will see that the wine forms tears on the inside surface of the glass which then arch before slipping slowly leaving legs in their wake. The size, spacing and shape of the legs depend on the viscosity, the glycerine content and the temperature of the wine.

If at first, you don’t get long and shapely legs, try again. It sometimes takes several bottles before the pair of legs of your dreams comes sliding down your glass.

But let’s not get too hung up on appearance. Wine is also the only natural beverage that offers a complete and complex palette of aromas and flagrances, besides flavour of course.

Orange juice smells like orange juice, milk like milk. But wine has a nose, unless the wine is still young and undeveloped. Then, its whiff is called aroma. For an older complex wine, the term used is bouquet.

Body is more an issue of weight or density, as you might have guessed. While a light wine leaves little palate impression, a wine with more body feels heavier and richer in the mouth. Density may come from a high alcohol level or the presence of residual sugar, but most often from a combination of the two. Compare a dry Riesling with a late-harvest one.
Simply remember that body is more a mixture of sensations than a precise measurement. One could describe it as the oral equivalent of cupping a perfectly formed pair of bare buttocks in your two hands.

Connoisseurs often go overboard when describing a full-bodied wine as chewy, profound, orotund, silky or velvety, but of course, there’s much to say for just perfectly formed buttocks, although the only trouble is you can’t drink them.

Cheers and be candid from swirl to finish!