Wine Term: Acidity of Wine

The acidity of wine, is like the spark, or aliveness that a wine has. Europeans commonly refer to it as a wine's crispness. This doesn't translate well for a beverage in English but get to know the description. You will run into it with different types of white wine

Red wines are much less likely to be referred to as crisp. Their secondary or maloactic fermentation somewhat neutralizes this. White wines on the other hand such as Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling, commonly are crisp.

Another way to think of it is, if you bite into a green grape that has not been on the vine to ripen and then a ripe grape, your mouth will pucker with the green grape. This is the acidity in the grape.

One other reason that a wine will be less acidic is the terroir of the area where the grapes are grown. Hot areas, lead to riper grapes, increasing the sugars. More sugar equals less acid and a warmer, softer wine.

If you want to see the difference between a highly acidic wine and a less acidic wine, try a Riesling and a Chardonnay. Chardonnay will melt on your tongue, but the Riesling will make your tongue come to life. That is acidity.

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