On Food and Cooking

flavor. If the wine is being held in a new wood
barrel, it also absorbs various substances from
the wood that either provide flavor directly —
for example, vanilla-like vanillin and the
coconut-woody oak lactones — or that modify
the wine’s own flavor molecules. In
traditional winemaking, the months during
which the wine is racked and shifted from
container to container are a time when the
wine’s chemical evolution is directed by
periodic exposure to the air. In the presence of
oxygen, the tannins, anthocyanin pigments,
and other phenolic compounds react with each
other to form large complexes, so the wine’s
astringency and bitterness decline. Some of
the molecules that provide aroma break apart
or react with oxygen and each other to form a
new suite of aromas, so fruity, floral notes
fade in favor of a more subdued general
“wineyness.” White and light red wines are
generally bottled young, after 6–12 months,
with a fairly fresh, fruity bouquet, while