Grape Tells

What is a grape tell? You can't look it up on the internet, at least I don't think you can. Why not? I just made it up.

Where did it come from? Have you ever played poker or some other game where you wager based on the cards you hold or something similar? Great players approach every hand the same way. Lesser players have "tells." They might scratch their head when they have a great hand or lean to their side when they are bluffing. They might take a deep breath when they are pretty sure they are making a bad decision.

Many grapes have tells as well. No, they don't scratch their heads. That might be a bit challenging for them, but in grapes, they are flavor tells.

You pick up a glass of white wine. You swirl it and smell it to get the aroma. You taste it. The one thing you can't get out of your mind is lychee. You can smell it, but even more so, you can taste it. The grape is Gewurtzraminer.

Your large glass is filled with red wine. It's you detect a hint of green bell pepper as you smell it. When you taste it, you get that same vegetal taste on the palate. Why would anyone put green bell peppers in wine? Well, they're not. The chemical that creates that distinctive green bell pepper smell and taste in the pepper is, technically 3-isobutyl, 2-methoxypyrazine, commonly known in the wine world as pyrazines. In particularly warm weather, they are less apparent as the chemical gets closer to its flash point. But, particularly in the less warm climates in which it is grown, Cabernet Franc is the king of pyrazines and therefore green bell pepper. Cabernet Sauvignon to a lesser extent, being its offspring might show some as well.

Finally, you have a small glass of white wine. The rim is somewhat browned, the rim of the wine that is. That's a tell that your wine either has some age on it or it is deficient. On the nose and on the palate, you get lanolin and petrol. What's going on? 

If it's in a small glass, it's probably a sweeter wine perhaps a dessert wine. And if you're getting petrol and lanolin, it's a Riesling.

And those are Tells 101.

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