Again Steve is pretty on-target.
If drinking a high tannin wine young, I tend to want it with rare marbled meat.

Where are you located, someone should be able to recommend wines you can find to compare acidity. A pretty stark contrast would be something like Trimbach's basic Riesling with a Kendall Jackson Chardonnay. Obviously different grapes, oak treatments, etc but if you ignore flavors and concentrate on how sharp they come across, should give you a pretty good clue.

On Feb 5, DaleW > wrote:
> Again Steve is pretty on-target.
> If drinking a high tannin wine young, I tend to want it with rare
> marbled meat.
>
> Where are you located, someone should be able to
> recommend wines you can find to compare acidity. A pretty
> stark contrast would be something like Trimbach's basic
> Riesling with a Kendall Jackson Chardonnay.

Vintage?

> Obviously different grapes, oak treatments, etc but if you
> ignore flavors and concentrate on how sharp they come
> across, should give you a pretty good clue.

ok thanks.

Can you comment further on this oak business?
"the wine is very oaky" is another one I don't get.

--
Rich

RichD > writes:

> On Feb 5, DaleW > wrote:
> > Again Steve is pretty on-target.
> > If drinking a high tannin wine young, I tend to want it with rare
> > marbled meat.
> >
> > Where are you located, someone should be able to
> > recommend wines you can find to compare acidity. A pretty
> > stark contrast would be something like Trimbach's basic
> > Riesling with a Kendall Jackson Chardonnay.
>
> Vintage?

Any vintage. And Trimbach is just a (good) example. Other Alsatian
Rieslings will also usually be relatively acid. So will most New
Zealand Sauvignon Blancs.

> > Obviously different grapes, oak treatments, etc but if you
> > ignore flavors and concentrate on how sharp they come
> > across, should give you a pretty good clue.
>
> ok thanks.
>
> Can you comment further on this oak business?
> "the wine is very oaky" is another one I don't get.

The flavor comes from the oak barrels that many wines are made in.
Not all wines made in oak barrels taste oaky though - the barrels
have a much stronger effect on the wine when the barrels are new.

Most Napa and Sonoma Chardonnays are oaky. By contrast, most white
burgundies (same grape used) are not oaky.

Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay is widely available in the US, reasonably
priced, and you can taste the oak. Jadot Pouilly-Fuisse is a widely
available (in the US) whie burgundy which will not be oaky (or at
least much less oaky).

Maybe other people have better example to contrast.

Mike Tommasi > writes:

> On 2/7/2011 7:06 AM, Doug Anderson wrote:
> > And Trimbach is just a (good) example. Other Alsatian
> > Rieslings will also usually be relatively acid.
>
> Perceived acidity or actual acid content irrespective of sugar?
> Either way I don't understand the statement.

I suppose I mean my perception of acidity. Which is certainly
influenced by the sweetness level some, but that influence is
ameliorated somewhat by having drunk plenty of sweet wines with too
little acidity to support the sugar, and others with plenty of acidity
to balance the sugar.

My experience with Alsatian Riesling (much more limited than yours,
I'm quite sure) is that a good acid level is the norm, and that
usually the sweetness level is low enough to make that apparent.

I'm happy to be corrected if that's wrong.