tannic and acidic

Some people like actringency (the effect of tannin), some don't. We don't all have to be the same. I often like to feel some astringency, but not so it dominates my impression of the wine. You will also find you notice the astringency less if you drink the wine with protein-rich foods. Indeed many people think astringency is required with certain types of food, e.g. fatty meats.

I presume you are from the US, so cannot recommend readily available w> I don't understand the appeal of tannic wines.

Again Steve is pretty on-target. If drinking a high tannin wine young, I tend to want it with rare marbled meat.

Where are you located, someone should be able to recommend wines you can find to compare acidity. A pretty stark contrast would be something like Trimbach's basic Riesling with a Kendall Jackson Chardonnay. Obviously different grapes, oak treatments, etc but if you ignore flavors and concentrate on how sharp they come across, should give you a pretty good clue.

Vintage?

ok thanks.

Can you comment further on this oak business? "the wine is very oaky" is another one I don't get.

-- Rich

Any vintage. And Trimbach is just a (good) example. Other Alsatian Rieslings will also usually be relatively acid. So will most New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs.

The flavor comes from the oak barrels that many wines are made in. Not all wines made in oak barrels taste oaky though - the barrels have a much stronger effect on the wine when the barrels are new.

Most Napa and Sonoma Chardonnays are oaky. By contrast, most white burgundies (same grape used) are not oaky.

Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay is widely available in the US, reasonably priced, and you can taste the oak. Jadot Pouilly-Fuisse is a widely available (in the US) whie burgundy which will not be oaky (or at least much less oaky).

Maybe other people have better example to contrast.

Perceived acidity or actual acid content irrespective of sugar? Either way I don't understand the statement.

I mentioned Trimbach because it's very widely available, generally has high acidity, and never has significant residual sugar to mask the acidity. With for instance Boxler or Zind Humbrecht, you might get some RS and as Mike notes that can change perception of acidity>

I think Doug summed up the oak issue pretty succinctly- oak barrels give flavors (vanilla, toast are 2 common signs) to wine. New oak gives more than oak used once or twice, after a few uses oak becomes neutral. How the oak is charred and dried can make a difference. And use of large comtainers (botti, etc) will give less oak flavor than barriques (larger containers have less surface area to wine volume). Doug's examples are good. But any store should be able to point you to unoaked and oaked versions of the same grape (Chardonnay is easiest).

I suppose I mean my perception of acidity. Which is certainly influenced by the sweetness level some, but that influence is ameliorated somewhat by having drunk plenty of sweet wines with too little acidity to support the sugar, and others with plenty of acidity to balance the sugar.

My experience with Alsatian Riesling (much more limited than yours, I'm quite sure) is that a good acid level is the norm, and that usually the sweetness level is low enough to make that apparent.

I'm happy to be corrected if that's wrong.