The acid test: how to find a sharp wine to suit your palate | Wine
TI was recently chatting with a couple who import food from Lebanon and they noticed that many people found their pomegranate syrups too acidic. But in fact their product is a more authentic product than many we get in the UK, made for Lebanese rather than British tastes and designed to add flavor to dishes, particularly meat dishes. I really liked it, but it underlined how different people’s tastes are. I generally like high acid drinks, shall we say, but if you have a sweet tooth, you can’t do this. And there’s nothing wrong with that. After all, you wouldn’t judge anyone for liking cake more than cheese.
The Lebanese example also suggests that it can also be a question of origin and habit. Italian wines, for example, are not particularly fruity and, in the case of red wines such as the Chianti and Albarossa in today’s selection, are quite acidic, which pairs particularly well with Italian food.
It also depends on what you eat. If an ingredient is salty or pickled, for example, it will accentuate the sweetness in a wine, perhaps to an uncomfortable degree for you, which is why really dry wines like Muscadet, Picpoul de Pinet, Chablis and Albariño work so well with salty shellfish like oysters and clams.
In the meantime, if you’re sensitive to spiciness, you can still enjoy wines with characteristic acidity, as long as you opt for a rounder, fruitier one: New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc, for example, with its rich passion fruit character rather than a Sancerre, while the Provencal Rosé is actually quite dry and crisp, but has a creamy and delicate fruitiness that balances it out; Aging in oak casks will also soften and round a wine, while the sweetness common to Riesling will balance it out.
On the other hand, if you like the taste of spiciness and acidity, look for descriptions like ‘crunchy’ and ‘refreshing’, which Graham Nash, product development manager at Tesco, said (understandably) favors the a-word. You’ll also find it more present in younger, non-oak wines and lower alcohol wines, like Waitrose’s Loved & Found Sauvignon Gris 2021 (£7.99, 12%), a light, citrusy variant of Sauvignon that tastes like a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Remember that all wines, especially whites and rosés, need some acidity for balance, otherwise they would just taste flat and limp. And when that doesn’t occur naturally, acid is sometimes added during the winemaking process (there’s a good, simple explanation on the Wine Folly website, by the way).
Five wines to please if you like spicy flavors
Vin de France Resilience Chenin Blanc Alexandre Cady 2020 £9.95 The Wine Society, 12.5%. Chenin blanc can be quite rich, but this beautifully crunchy, clean specimen pairs brilliantly with shellfish. (Also a good backstory – check out the Wine Society website.)
Petit Chablis 2021 £14 Marks & Spencer and Ocado, 12%. Not quite the bargain it used to be, but an absolutely classic Chablis with seafood.
Waitrose loved and found Albarossa 2020 £7.99, 13%. A light, delicate, refreshing red that would go great with antipasti. Like a slightly rustic and much cheaper Barolo. The Loved & Found Sauvignon Gris (£7.99, 12%) also hits that sharp point.
Campriano Chianti Colli Senesi 2019 £13.25 (or £11.65 per case) Haynes Hanson & Clark, 13%. Textbook-style Chianti: pure, delicate, but intense. As good with ragout as with a roast.
Castel Faglia Franciacorta Brut £15.50 Tesco, 12.5%. A small dosage (added sugar) in sparkling wine can enhance the sensation of spiciness and freshness, and this elegant, sparkling, dry Italian sparkling wine is a good value for Franciacorta.