This this Episode 1 of the What the Fruit series. There’ll be many many more…
Join me as we explore what the term MINERALITY means when applied to wine tasting.
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Video Content (transcription)
What is up guys, I am Julien, the French winemaking guy who makes wine videos here on YouTube, welcome to your new wine video, and welcome to Julien’s Wine School. This is the first iteration of our new ‘What The Fruit’ wine video series to explain everything you need to know about the world of wine, where we’re going to be sharing passion and knowledge for wine in short and simple videos to understand important things about wine.
Since this is episode 1 of the What the Fruit series, why don’t we tackle a term that is very often used to describe wine, but one that is almost impossible to really explain: Minerality. We might as well start with an impossible one right? Let’s go….
Ok, so let’s be clear about Minerality. Sure, you will hear everyone interested in wine talk about minerality. The sommeliers, the wine professionals at your local shop, wine teachers, wine connoisseurs, wine critics. Everyone…
Yet, everyone one also knows that minerality means nothing. Or more exactly, it means nothing and everything at the same time.
This is because minerality in wine doesn’t correspond to one component in wines, or not even a set or a family of components. Generally, when we talk about a character in a wine, an aroma or a flavor, it corresponds to a molecule or something we can identify in wine. Corked wine has a molecule associated to it, oxidized wine has several molecules we can quantify in wine, the banana or the strawberry flavors have molecules we can name that correspond to them in wine.
Minerality doesn’t have anything.
Minerality is more of a feeling, an impression, the subsjective perception that a wine smells or taste somewhat mineral. Generally, people describing a wine as mineral, I do it myself as well, refer to a bit of salty taste or smell, or irony, or a little flinty, like stone dust or like when you hit one hard stone against another and you get this smell from the spark that it makes.
But everyone, every individual has a different idea of what it means. This is why minerality doesn’t really exist, yet it exists at the same time because we can feel it.
So next time your sommelier or your favorite winemaker talks about minerality in a wine. There’s no need to argue whether minerality exists or not, or whether it’s there or not. It’s just something someone feels while tasting a wine.
That’s it. If you’ve been wondering what the fruit is minerality? Now you know: Minerality is a feeling more than anything else…
Hey you, yes you. I spent a few hours putting together this video. Not that I blame you for it, but if you could take a second to let me know what you thought of it, that’s be super cool. So give this video a thumb down if you didn’t enjoy it, or make sure to give it a quick thumb up before you go if you did. And sure, consider subscribing if you want to follow along the What The Fruit is Wine series and support the journey. I will see you soon, in the wonderful world of wine. Cheers…
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