and they begin to provide a noticeable
sweetness when left in wines at levels around
1%. Sweet dessert wines may contain more
than 10% sugars. In strong wines, alcohol
itself can dominate other sensations with its
pungent harshness.
Wine Aroma If acidity is the backbone of a
wine, viscosity and astringency its body, then
aroma is its life, its animating spirit. Though
they account for only about one part in a
thousand of wine’s weight, the volatile
molecules that can escape the liquid and
ascend into the nose are what fill out its
flavor, and make wine much more than tart
alcoholic water.
An Ever-Changing Microcosm A given wine
contains several hundred different kinds of
volatile molecules, and those molecules have
many different kinds of odors. In fact they run
the gamut of our olfactory world. Some of the
same molecules are also found in temperate