A Brief Guide to Acidity in Wine

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A Brief Guide to Acidity in Wine
If you have ever tasted a wine and your mouth has immediately begun to evidently salivate, feeling it along the sides of your mouth, then you have already known a bit about acidity in wine. Acidity is a main component in wines, and contrary to popular belief can be found in both white and red wines. Of course, due to climate conditions that are ideal for growing white wine, which produce elevated levels of tartaric and malic acids, it is easier to find acidity in a white wine than it is in a red. That tartness that you taste is not something that should throw you off. On the contrary - wine tasting in based on identifying various degrees of acidity, sweetness, alcohol and tannins in a wine. But the key is understanding how and if those various components balance out well with each other.

An Easy Way to Understand Wine Elements
You can somewhat compare it to drinking a cup of tea. If you leave your teabag in for too long, you will find yourself with quite a tannic sensation in your mouth. If you add too much sugar or honey to your cup of tea, you will find yourself drinking an unbearably sweet liquid, not enjoying the actual taste of the tea. If you squeeze too much lemon in a cup of perfectly steeped tea, you will find your mouth puckering up due to the high acidity. The perfect cup of tea is finding that perfect balance of all three.

So What Do You Do to “Reduce Acidity “ in Wine?
Well, the better question is, how can you balance it out properly. Acidic wines pair perfectly with foods that are on the sweet side or fatty foods. Now this doesn’t mean you should drink a Sauvignon Blanc with your slice of cheesecake. Sweetness in foods can be found naturally. Think about a sweet potato. That’s a clear example. Or think about crab meat. That too is a natural sweetness, and a food that pairs perfectly with an acidic wine. Eating fatty foods doesn’t mean you can munch on a plate of fries with your acidic Valcolomba Vermentino della Maremma Toscana DOC, but you can certainly find healthier fatty foods to pair with your wine, such as salmon or young cheeses. Wines that are characterized by a balanced acidity are wonderful to experience, so go ahead and observe how your mouth reacts on your next sip!

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