Question 1

What are tannins?

Accepted Answer

A group of naturally occurring compounds — **polyphenols** — that bind to proteins, which is why they produce a **drying, gripping sensation** in the mouth rather than a taste.

**Why they feel rather than taste.** Tannins bind to the proteins in your saliva and to the surface of your mouth, reducing lubrication. The result is astringency — a rough, puckering, drying feeling. **It is a tactile sensation, not one of the basic tastes**, which is why describing tannin as "bitter" is imprecise, though many tannic compounds are also somewhat bitter.

**Where they come from in wine:** grape **skins, seeds and stems**, and additionally from **oak barrels**. This is the fundamental reason red wine is tannic and white generally is not — red wines are fermented **in contact with the skins**, extracting colour and tannin together, while white grapes are usually pressed and the juice fermented alone.

Longer skin contact, thicker-skinned varieties and a higher proportion of new oak all increase tannin.

**Why tannins matter:**

**Structure.** They give a wine grip and a framework, which is why a tannic wine feels substantial and a wine with none can taste flabby.

**Ageing.** Tannins are **antioxidants** and polymerise slowly over years, gradually softening and precipitating out as **sediment**. This is a primary reason some wines improve with age and others do not — a wine without tannin has little to develop, which is why most whites are drunk young.

**Food pairing.** Tannins bind to proteins **and fats** in food as well as in saliva, which is why a tannic red is softened by fatty meat and cheese, and why the same wine tastes harsh on its own. This is a genuine chemical interaction rather than a convention.

**Where else you encounter them:** **tea**, prominently — which is why over-brewed tea is astringent and why milk, being protein-rich, softens it; unripe fruit; walnuts; and dark chocolate.

**How to reduce perceived tannin:** decanting, which helps somewhat; serving slightly cooler, since warmth accentuates them; and eating something fatty alongside.

Question 2

Does wine and food pairing actually make a difference?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but the mechanisms are narrower and better understood than the elaborate pairing charts suggest, and most of the rules that matter are about chemistry rather than tradition. What genuinely

Question 3

What is natural wine, and what is orange wine?

Accepted Answer

One describes a philosophy of production; the other describes a winemaking technique. They overlap frequently and are not the same thing. Natural wine. Broadly, wine made with minimal intervention in

Question 4

Does wine really go off after opening?

Accepted Answer

Yes, though "goes off" overstates it for most wines. What happens is oxidation: exposure to air changes the flavour, first improving many wines and then progressively flattening them. Oxygen reacts

Question 5

Why does salt make sweet things taste sweeter?

Accepted Answer

Partly because sodium suppresses bitterness, and partly because salt affects how the tongue's receptors respond — the net effect is that sweetness comes forward. Two mechanisms are involved. The

Question 6

What temperature should red wine actually be served at?

Accepted Answer

Cooler than most people serve it. "Room temperature" is a phrase from an era of unheated stone houses, where a room was around 15°C. A modern heated room at 21°C is well above the point where most

Question 7

Why does food taste different as you get older?

Accepted Answer

Because smell declines substantially with age and taste declines modestly — and since most of what we call flavour is smell, the loss is far larger than it feels like from the inside. What actually

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