Savor the Zing: Wine Acidity by Stacy Briscoe, dipWSET

I am an acid head—when it comes to wine. Blame it on a childhood that included eating lemons like oranges and bags of sour patch kids at the movie theatre. 

In wine, acid is the element that gives wine its freshness. It brings life and energy to the fruits; it cuts through tongue-gripping tannins; it adds a contrasting balance to any residual sugar. It can give even fuller-bodied, heavier wines an element of lightness and brightness. 

I’m talking about it in all positives, but that’s a personal preference. When we’re assessing wine, we need to put opinions aside and address the wine in front of us. And that goes for addressing the level of each structural component. So how, exactly, do we assess acidity?

As I tell all of my students, when you’re first starting out, you want to assess each structural component—intensity, sweetness, acidity, alcohol, tannin, length of finish—one step at a time. Particularly if you’re still learning. Take several sips (and spit!) if you need to in order to focus your palate and brain on one task at a time. 

With acidity, I’m a big proponent of the ‘drool test,’ which I learned right here at the Napa Valley Academy when I was a student and still use to this day in my professional career.

1. Swish the wine like mouthwash.
2. Spit into the spitoon, leaving your chin tucked, your mouth open.
3. See how much your saliva pools and drips into your spitoon.
1. Yes, this is kind of gross.
1. Trust me, no one is looking because they’re all doing it too.

Key to #3 is not just how much you salivate on that first go, but how long you continue to salivate after the wine has been expelled. The truth of the matter is that all wine is acidic. Your first spit will come with a lot of drool. But the higher the acid in the wine, the longer it will feel like a waterfall; the lower the acid in the wine, the more akin it is to the broken sprinkler on your front lawn.

Key to #2 is the chin tuck. Tuck your chin like you're trying to give yourself five more. This creates a nervy sensation on the sides of your cheeks. (My students have heard me call it “squeegie.”) It’s hard to describe, but I’ll point you in the direction of fellow wine instructors Laura Brown Unterstein and Peter Cook, both of who teach wine courses in ASL, for the sign for acidity that describes that feeling here. 

Acidity can be harder to assess when there are other factors like tannins or a high amount of sugar. Again, that’s why I highly recommend taking one element at a time—and even addressing acidity first before your palate becomes coated with other factors that may impede your drooling abilities. I’ll also note that when wine has a lot of other “stuff” going on, I also like to pinch my nose (masking aroma/flavor distraction) and make sure that when I tilt over the spitoon, my tongue is not touching any other part of my mouth (cheeks, lips, gums). This guarantees my focus is 100% on that acid.

And those are my top tips for assessing acidity in wine. With that in mind, I’ll leave you to go suck on a lemon. Or pour yourself a Riesling. 

Whichever you prefer.