Click on each petal to learn more about Palate Character or sign in, join the taste56 community and let your palate do the talking!
Tasting Notes
Medium-plus in body with pronounced tannins and acidity. There are complex aromas of black cherry, blackberry, and red cherry fruit, followed by flavors of tobacco, garrigue, black olives, grilled meat, and spice box that lingers in the long, complex finish.
Body is the impression of a wines weight, density, or its ‘mouth-feel’. Some wines feel weighty, or full bodied, while others feel light bodied. Wine runs the gamut from light to full, with most falling somewhere in between.
TANNIN
Low
Subtle
Balanced
Pronounced
High
Tannin can range greatly in wine, but it is necessary to some degree, and a necessary constituent for red wines to age well. In high amounts, it can cause a drying affect, which is sensed mostly on the gums and tongue. Tannin is a natural preservative extracted from grape skins, otherwise known as polyphenols that are micronutrients and antioxidants with potential health benefits.
ACIDITY
Soft
Subtle
Balanced
Pronounced
High
Acidity is a foundational component in wine. In fact, low acidity, or ‘flabby’ wine (as the term suggests) is a negative. You can sense acidity mainly on the sides of your tongue. Acidity generally ranges from balanced to high. Crisp acidity adds freshness, making your mouth water. Acidity is a necessary element and helps to balance other components.
SWEETNESS
Dry
Off Dry
Medium Dry
Medium Sweet
Very Sweet
Most wines are characterized as dry to off-dry, but there are some grape varietals, like Riesling, that run the gamut from dry to sweet. The tip of the tongue mainly detects sweetness, which is why it is often the primary characteristic detected. Sweetness is derived from residual sugar that did not ferment into alcohol.
ALCOHOL
13%
Alcohol is the by-product of fermentation. Differing grape varieties have differing potential alcohol levels, but regardless warmer areas result in riper grapes resulting in higher alcohol. Alcohol level is an objective number, but its affect on its palate impression is largely determined with how well integrated and balanced it is with other components.
It has the trifecta: delicious, cerebral, and complete.
GRAPE VARIETAL(S)
Syrah
100%See-RA
Syrah is widely planted throughout the world, but that was not so until the late twentieth century when Syrah was principally grown in the Rhone Valley and, as Shiraz, in Australia. Stylistically, the Palate Character of Syrah can vary depending on ripeness from a rich Round & Fleshy, Tone & Backbone, to a Powerful & Extracted. The flavors and aromas can also vary with a dark, sometimes sweet, fruit character, varying amount of spice, floral, and earth, and smoke, and meaty aromas and flavors.
Alain Graillot was founded in 1985 in Crozes-Hermitage and quickly became some of the most sought-after Northern Rhône syrahs, especially for La Guiraude, which is made in tiny quantities in only the best years.
The estate consists of fifty acres of organically farmed vineyards located on well-drained soil in between the Rhône and Isère rivers. M. Graillot works the vineyard by hand, does whole-cluster fermentation, and ages the wines in three-year-old barrels that he buys from some of Burgundy’s best domaines.
His wines have exotic aromatics and a firm grip—their structure is buttressed by a complex fruit and mineral character with a persistent finish.
Black Cherry
Grilled Meat
Spice Box
