Gnothi Wine School

How to judge tannin, alcohol, body and finish, and how all six parts of structure combine into one tasting note. Also why thin-skinned Willamette Pinot noir is light in grip and moderate in alcohol, and how a warmer year pushes its alcohol higher.

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Tannin, alcohol, body and finish

Tannin comes from grape skins, seeds, stems and new oak. It is felt rather than tasted: it binds the proteins in saliva and leaves the mouth dry and gripping, like black tea brewed too long (what wine tannins are). Acid makes the mouth water and tannin dries it, so the same pause after swallowing or spitting tests both. Tannin is rated low, medium or high, along with its texture, from fine-grained and ripe to coarse and green. How a wine was made predicts it: white has almost none, rosé very little, red the most, and orange wine some.

Alcohol follows ripeness, since riper grapes hold more sugar for the yeast to turn into alcohol. It shows as warmth in the throat and as weight, and a burn means it is out of balance. Still wine counts as low below eleven percent, medium from eleven to thirteen point nine, and high from fourteen. Most American labels state the alcohol, and above fourteen percent they must. The stated figure may be off by one and a half points at fourteen percent or below and by one point above, but never across fourteen, the legal line between table wine and dessert wine (alcohol content on wine labels).

Body is the wine's overall weight in the mouth, like skim milk against whole milk. Alcohol drives it most, with sugar, extract, lees and oak adding weight and acid trimming it. Finish, or length, is how long the pleasant flavor lasts after swallowing or spitting, counted in seconds; lingering warmth, drying or mouthwatering does not count. A long finish is one sign of quality.

Together the six parts make a structure note such as "dry, high acidity, medium tannin with a fine grain, medium alcohol, light to medium body, medium finish." An optional exercise compares a crisp white with a fuller red.

Why Willamette Pinot noir is light in grip and moderate in warmth

Pinot noir's thin skins give pale color and lower tannin, often silky when the grapes ripen well, while thick-skinned Cabernet Sauvignon gives dark color and firm grip. Some winemakers add grip with whole bunches or longer time on the skins. Ricochet Wine Co. reports that its 2022 Holmes Gap Pinot noir, from the Van Duzer Corridor, was made with thirty percent whole clusters and spent eleven months in French oak, a quarter of it new, so stems and new oak add tannin to the thin Pinot skins.

The cool valley keeps sugar, and so alcohol, in check. Producers commonly report thirteen to fourteen percent, and Prince Hill Vineyards reports 13.1 percent for its 2022 Dundee Hills Pinot noir (technical sheet). Cooler years such as 2019 and 2022 often land near thirteen percent, while warmer years such as 2018, 2021 and 2023 climb toward fourteen, with darker fruit and a fuller body.

How to taste sweetness and acidity, why they mask each other, and how their balance forms a wine's first structure. Also why the cool Willamette Valley climate keeps grapes' acid, and where the 2026 harvest stood in mid-October.

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Sugar, sour, and how they hide each other

Residual sugar is the grape sugar yeast leaves behind in the finished wine. It is measured in grams per liter, and most tasters miss it below about two to four (how residual sugar works). The four-step sweetness scale runs dry, off-dry, medium and sweet. European rules let a high-acid wine stay "dry" up to nine grams per liter (international sweetness standards and the WSET approach).

Ripe-fruit aromas and high alcohol can make a dry wine seem sweet. To check, pinch your nose shut during a sip: fruit you smell drops away, while sugar you taste remains. "Fruity but dry" is often the right call.

Acidity comes mainly from tartaric acid, which is steady, and malic acid, which has a green-apple sharpness. Malolactic conversion turns malic acid into softer lactic acid, and a winemaker can choose how far it goes: Ricochet Wine Co. put its 2023 Pinot blanc through full conversion but stopped the conversion short in its 2023 Confluence Rosé to keep the wine's acidity. To rate acidity as low, medium or high, wait after swallowing or spitting and notice how much your mouth waters, and for how long. That works even in sweet wines (understanding acidity in wine). Sugar masks sourness and acid masks sweetness, the way sugar changes lemonade (acid, sweetness and tannin on the palate). Judging how the two sit together is balance, the first piece of structure. An optional two-wine exercise compares a dry white with an off-dry Riesling.

Why Willamette grapes stay fresh

Most of the valley falls in the coolest heat class. Cool Pacific air comes in through the Van Duzer Corridor, and days and nights can differ by twenty-five to thirty-five degrees. Grapes burn malic acid fastest in heat above about eighty-six degrees, so cool afternoons and cold nights help them keep it (ripeness in viticulture).

Picking means trading sugar against acid while watching for autumn rain. Winemakers track sugar in degrees Brix, test acid, and taste the fruit (must analysis basics). Still Pinot noir is often picked around 22 to 24.5 Brix. Fruit for sparkling wine is picked earlier, around 18.5 to 20.5.

The 2026 harvest so far

Picking began around the start of September, with sparkling-wine fruit first. By early to mid October, harvest was in full swing or wrapping up (harvest in full swing). Growers reported an early budbreak, and in early summer they called the season moderate so far, though late May brought one very hot week. Smoke from the Grasshopper Fire reached the valley in early August; whether it marked the wines will not be known until they are finished.

Final tonnage is not counted yet. The season follows a 2025 in which Oregon grape production fell 25 percent. Industry opinion so far is hopeful, but the finished wines will show whether that holds.

A first lesson in wine that opens with a map of the course, then shows how fermentation and winemaking choices produce the seven main families, followed by a step-by-step method for looking at and smelling a glass. It closes by introducing Oregon's Willamette Valley as the course's home ground, its Pinot noir, and the truth about its latitude compared with Burgundy.

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The lesson opens with a map of the course: tasting first, then the vineyard, the winery, special styles, grapes, labels and law, storing, serving and food pairing, the world's regions and buying, with the Willamette Valley as home ground throughout. The course's home winery is Ricochet Wine Co., founded in McMinnville in 2018 by Erich Berg, a former high-school English teacher who makes its wine. It has no vineyards of its own and buys its grapes from growers it names.

What wine is, and the seven families

Wine is grape juice fermented by yeast, which turns sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. If the yeast eats all the sugar the wine is dry, and if some is left the wine tastes sweet. Grape juice is nearly colorless even from dark grapes, because color and tannin live in the skins.

That makes skin contact the dividing line between styles. White wine is pressed off the skins before fermentation. Red ferments with skins and seeds. Rosé gets a short soak of a few hours up to about a day. Orange wine is white grapes made by the red method.

Three more families come from other choices:

Looking at the glass

What you need is a clear tulip-shaped glass, a white background, plain light, a pour of about fifty milliliters and no perfume. Spitting is normal. This lesson needs no tasting at all.

Tilt the glass to about forty-five degrees and judge three things:

Color says nothing about quality, price or exact age. Legs mainly reflect alcohol, with sugar making them slower and thicker; they are not a sign of quality.

Smelling it

Take one sniff before swirling to check the wine is clean. Faults to notice include damp cardboard (corked), bruised apple (oxidized, from too much air), rotten egg (reduction; a faint struck-match or flint note can be deliberate, and reduction is a fault when it dominates) and vinegar or nail polish remover (volatile acidity: acetic acid with ethyl acetate).

Then swirl and take short sniffs. Judge intensity as light, medium or pronounced. Sort what you smell into broad groups: fruit, flower, spice and herb, or earth. The chapter closes this part with a five-step routine to run with a white and a red side by side.

Home ground in Oregon

The course is anchored in the Willamette Valley, which lies between the Coast Range and the Cascades. It has wet winters and dry summers, with Pacific air entering through the Van Duzer Corridor. Thin-skinned Pinot noir leads there, so it often lets you see the stem.

The 45th parallel runs through the valley, which stretches from about 43¾ to 45¾ degrees north, so its latitude matches regions such as Bordeaux, not Burgundy. Burgundy lies one to three degrees north of the 45th parallel, and even the valley's north end falls about half a degree short of where Burgundy begins. What it shares with Burgundy is a cool climate, and the two are cool in different ways, as this Willamette Valley vs. Burgundy comparison and the Willamette Valley AVA overview lay out.