Wine 101: The Components of Wine

For many of you, wine might be a favorite drink. It might taste good, it might make you look sophisticated, it might be good for your heart, but … do you really know what you are ingesting? The simple answer is grapes. Sure, but there’s a lot more to it. In this first part of the Wine 101 series, I take a look at the components of wine.

Water

Surprisingly, wine is mostly water. Yes, water. But not tap water, instead, it’s water that comes naturally from the grapes used in the wine making process. For many people long ago, alcoholic beverages were a way of safely consuming non-contaminated and safe to drink water. Luckily today we can buy bottled water making wine no longer a necessity but more so something to be enjoyed.

Fruit

You might use grapes to make wine but the key in this wine component is to find noble grapes that evoke aromas of fruits other than grapes. The wine making process helps to break down the organic acids and alcohol which forms compounds that imitate the aroma of other fruits.

Alcohol

Wine typically consists of 10-15 percent ethyl alcohol. For you chemists, thats C₂H₅OH.

Sugar

No all sugars become fermented in the wine making process. Some sugars remain and these are known as residual sugars. The more residual sugars that remain the more than sweetness becomes apparent.

Tannin

Tannin is considered a sort of natural preservative and is the key component in allowing wines to improve with age. Tannin is extracted mainly from grape skins.

Glycerin

You wouldn’t want to drink watery wine now would you? Glycerin gives wine a bit of drinkable thickness if you will. The glycerin is a by-product of the fermentation process.

Oak

The oak here is in reference to oak barrel used in the fermenting process. The type of oak used has an effect on the final wine product. Taste can change depending on barrel aging, using new or old oak and even using oak from different parts of the globe. Oak adds character to the wine.

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide is yet another by-productof the fermentation process. Although allowed to escape during the wine making process, some CO₂ remains in the end product which adds a bit of a fizz to the wine.

I hope you enjoyed this first part of the Wine 101 series! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below. And if you know someone that loves wine but isn’t really sure what it’s made of then be sure to pass on a link to this article!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user 2create.