What is a fine wine?
It is a nebulous area to provide a definitive assessment on the quality of wine due to varied personal preferences.
However, a fine wine must meet certain base objective requirements.
Balance
Balance in a wine is determined by these key elements:
* Flavour - acidity and sweetness (if present), oak(if present)
* Tannin, and
* Alcohol
Balanced wines bear the greatest potential for cellaring. They will also mix well with food and have a smaller chance of providing fatigue to the palate.
Structure
This could be described as the "shape" of the wine or how it feels in your mouth.
Wines with a good structure often have a front, mid and back palate that is well defined.
Complexity
This aspect of wine shows itself through the span of time of drinking the wine.
Over an evening, the more a wine is smelled and tasted, the more its aromas can be sensed.
The complexity of a wine increase with its age.
Varietal and Regional Expression
A wine that tastes like the grape variety it is made from distinguishes good varietal character.
Regions where grapes are grown are what help express grape varieties and is commonly known as regional expression.
However, wines often have elements that cannot be determined, which makes them special.