Balance, Balance, Balance

You might have read wine review saying that a wine is nicely balanced. It might even appear on the reverse label of a bottle. Or, you could have seen me talk about it. What's with balance? Is it important? Does it make your wine taste better? Does it give it more mass appeal? Does it help to aoid hangovers?

What exactly is balance? In a nutshell, it is that state when all of the elements of a wine come together and work in harmony. On the other hand, to be a bit catty, but honest at the same time, it is a word that winemakers or proprietors sometimes use to describe a wine when there is just nothing remarkable about. That is, it's got some fruit, but nothing stands out; the tannins are there, but you don't notice them at all; there is a bit of acidity, but not enough to tame difficult to pair with foods; and the alcohol content is medium. In other words, anybody can drink the wine as it has nothing objectionable, but nobody likes the wine because it just doesn't stand out. 

So, when you see the word balance or balanced in referring to a wine, be careful. Wines that are known for their very distinctive characteristics are rarely referred to as balanced. Cabernets and Nebbiolos, for example, tend to be too tannic to be referred to as balanced. Sauvignon Blanc and Sangiovese tend to be too acidic to be referred to as balanced. The alcohol content in a typical Zinfandel is almost always too high to ever associate balance with a Zin. And, the sugar content in an ice wine is typically too high to see the word balanced.

Shouldn't a wine be harmonious though? Well, yes it should. All of the parts and we've hit on what might be considered the four parts depending on how you look at a wine should work together. So, maybe you should like a wine that is described as balanced. 

I think that at least part of the answer comes back to this: each type of wine should have a different composition of acid, alcohol, sugar, and tannins to have that harmonious balance. So, yes, you could see or taste a balanced Cabernet or Trockenbeerenauslese Riesling. The real key lies in how a wine can have a very high level of one of those elements and a very low level of another and still be balanced. When you taste a Sauternes, do you taste the sugar or is the sugar merely a way of bringing the fruit to the forefront without tasting "sugary sweet?" When you taste a big, bold red, do you pucker too much from the tannins or do you simply notice a wine that lingers in your mouth giving you a long finish? Is the racy acidity in a Picpoul de Pinet something that just tastes astringent, or does it calm the salinity in raw oysters?

So, yes, in wine, balance is a somewhat amorphous term. What really needs to be happening is that everything that enters your mouth, everything that hits your palate needs to be working in harmony. It's a key to pairing wine. And if you don't have that balance, everything tastes worse whereas when you do have it, everything tastes better.

To summarize, beware when someone with an agenda says the wine is balanced, but always aim for balance when slecting a wine.