Wine Word of the Day: Structure

Here's an article I wrote at the request of the Stan the Wine Man who has done some great work defining words, that we in wine-geek-dom use on a regular basis. You can finish reading the article on via Stan's Blog and be sure to follow his many wine adventures via twitter.

"The characteristic of Brunello is its longevity," Biondi Santi told Wine Spectator last year. "Nature is capable of creating beautiful things—you just have to wait." 

And in order for you to wait for that wine to mature, then said wine needs to have the stuffing to go the long-haul [aka longevity]. That’s something we wine-geeks call structure.

Let’s face it, not all wine is created equal and I know, I know that’s not what you've heard from your friends around the wine-cooler. But stick with me, all will be explained below.

And for the average garden-variety vino-sapien out there, you probably don’t care too much about a wines structure. But let me frame it this way; a wine without good structure is like having that second cup of coffee brewed from the grounds of the first cup. Now you feel me don’t you?

Like the quote above from the Godfather of Brunello, if a wine is meant to go the long-haul which much of Brunello is, it’s going to need structure. And like any building, structure in wine is the foundation, for which every other component in the wine hangs upon.

It was just the other day; I tasted through some very elegant and interesting Italian vino which got me to thinking about a wines structure and what does that really mean anyway. Some were what I call everyday drinkers, not much too them but in the short term they were very tasty and got the job done.

Now this is where the nerd-meets-the-herd [eye-roll] it’s time to define what all this talk about structure means to you and to the wines you may or may not be consuming. [Read More]