Mouthfeel

In another website (for home winemakers) the topic of "velvet" taste came up in a thread. This made me think of David Bueker's thread on a 2-word tasting note and the topic of "mouthfeel". The "velvet" I think would be best described as "soft tannins", which develop with age in red wines when the tannins become more integrated, as opposed to the more harsh tannins found in young red wines. While mouthfeel is a part of the tasting, it is distinct. Other "mouthfeels" might include oily, syrupy, acidic (as in cleansing), astringent, hot (high alcohol). What other "mouthfeels" might one use to describe wines and what might be some typical examples different ones?

I have always related mouthfeel to relate to the weight and body of the weight. Specificially does it weigh on the tounge? Does it coat the mouth? Is it light bodied or thin? Terms to relate to the tannins, acids, alcohol (hot) are to me different from the mouthfeel.

"Mouthfeel" to me seems more related to body than to the state of the tannin. The latter would be best described as "readiness."

there was a thread on Rogov's forum classifying wines of different smoothness:
velvety - satiny - silky in decreasing order

Hi,
I'm a wine educator for many years at a local Community College, and the mouthfeel subject comes up more than a few times. To me mouth-feel is all about texture, and of the many articles I have acquired over the years on wine texture, one that I think stands out, was written in the “International Harold Tribune”, which is The global edition of the New York Times.
By Eric Asimov
Published: TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2006
here are a few paragraphs from the article:
What does a wine smell like, anyway, and how does it taste? Does it remind you of fruit or flowers, or mushrooms and brambles? Possibly those metaphors are too literal. Maybe the overall effect is of a symphony, or a string quartet, or a Jimi Hendrix solo, or crumpled sheets the morning after. You could, of course, just say, "It smells like grapes and tastes like wine," but you'd be laughed out of the tasting club. And to differentiate among wines, even if just for yourself, you at least have to make the effort.
Trouble is, most efforts focus solely on aromas and flavors, which seems to make sense because they are a wine's most immediately striking characteristics. But another important distinguishing feature is not detectable by eyes, nose or taste buds. That is texture, the tactile sense of wine on the mouth, tongue and throat. If it's difficult to find words for the aromas and flavors of wine, how much tougher it is to describe the feel.
Think about it too much, and you might find it embarrassing to describe a liquid as crisp, or steely. But that's really no sillier than calling wines harsh or smooth; most wine drinkers know those sensations, whether the components that produce them are apparent or not.
To read the entire article here is the web link
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/23/ ... s/wine.php

I'd use mouthfeel to describe the feel (sense of touch) of wine in the mouth. So it would certainly include the weight of the wine, its viscosity and astringency, and the quality of any astringency. As such it is affected by tannins (weight and astringency), alcohol (weight and viscosity), and acids (astringency).

I'd never really thought about alcoholic burn as mouthfeel before. I suppose it is, but as it tends to be sensed in the throat or right at the back of the mouth, it seems a bit strange. Then there is also the prickle you might get from SO2 or VA I suppose.

...To read the entire article here is the web link
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/06/23/ ... s/wine.php

Thanks for posting this Ken. Very nice article.

What other "mouthfeels" might one use to describe wines and what might be some typical examples different ones?

Howie,
The article others refer to was raised by Robin a couple of weeks ago and I contributed the following in that thread.

Just like Ann Noble formutaled the aroma wheel, there is also a wine texture "Mouth Feel" wheel that has been principally formulated by Richard Gawel in Australia and while it pertains to red wine - it is a start.
See http://www.aromadictionary.com/articles ... ticle.html (right click to open in new window).

A quote from the article states, "Published by the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology in its official journal, the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research (Volume 6, No. 3), the wheel is already being used by winemaking and wine marketing students throughout Australia, and by researchers in the United States, Israel, New Zealand, Canada and Australia. In particular, the Australian Wine Research Institute (http://www.awri.com.au) is investigating the link between the occurrence of specific tannins in red wine and the sensations listed on the wheel."

You can check out a low res version of the wheel (in black and white) at this link. http://www.aromadictionary.com/mouthfeelwheel.gif

Cheers,
Sue

I have a hard time associating wine with textures like smooth, rough, furry, whatever. It's a liquid for crying out loud! So to me all wine basically is slippery in texture. It's not like wine has rocks or course sand in it that impact different textures in your mouth. I know there is little chunks of vine stuff in most wines but I believe they are too fine 99.9% of the time. To me mouthfeel is how it coats the inside of my mouth and that's more a reflection of viscosity and probably alcohol (if you get different legs in a glass from alcohol then you'll get legs in your mouth too and thats a component of mouthfeel). I get a different mouthfeel from how thick/thin bodied it is and how much alcohol there is. And I think there is another component to mouthfeel as well but its hard to put my finger on it, but I think it has something to do with taste buds and chemical reactions in my mouth. Maybe I'm splitting hairs with word definitions and what I'm talking about can be thought of as texture too.

Bryan

I have a hard time associating wine with textures like smooth, rough, furry, whatever. It's a liquid for crying out loud! So to me all wine basically is slippery in texture. It's not like wine has rocks or course sand in it that impact different textures in your mouth.

If you take a mouthful of a tannic wine, and swill it thouroughly around your mouth, you will feel texture. It is not fanciful, but a reality called atringency. The tannins react with protein in the saliva and precipitate particles, which increases the friction between gums and teeth.

Having said that I think I tend to agree that the broad vocabulary developed by wine tasters to describe this phenomenon is rather fanciful. But no worse than the baskets of wierd and wonderful fruits ofthen found in wines. I usually simply put atringency on a linear scale, only rarely commenting on textures that strike me as unusual.

I also often use (un)obtrusive to descibe astringency. I haven't heard it discussed before but if I go looking for astrinency in, say, a young Bordeaux and a Barolo, I may find it there to the same degree. But if I just drink the wine I find I do not notice it so much on Barolo. Obviously a very personal thing as many comment immediately on the tannins in Barolo. I believe strong flavours and sweeetness can often mask astringency.

To me 'mouthfeel' is pretty well described by the word itself but what constitutes it can be many things. Acidity, tannins, alcohol et al. And at a less quantifiable level ‘minerality’.

Whenever someone uses the term in a tasting note I find it a useful insight into how they really felt about the wine but personally I find it a difficult word to use without sufficient qualifications to make sense.

A particular mouthfeel descriptor that I can identify with is ‘chewy’ as a positive statement about e.g. a big champagne like 90 Cristal.

Not that there is actually anything to chew [it’s a liquid as stated earlier] but when it’s something substantial and enjoyable it makes me think of ‘chewing’ it to extract all of its layers and intensity of flavour.