The Wine Spot Sipping the Balance

Photo by Dave Slayton

The Wine Spot

ave you ever heard the phrase “this wine has good bones”? It means the same thing as structure or balance. Balance refers to a wine’s key components: tannin, alcohol, acidity and residual sugar. H by Dave Slayton a member of the Master Court of Sommeliers

of the palate and distracts from the wine’s flavor. Alcohol also adds weight to wine, therefore, too much and it may feel heavy on the palate. Too low in alcohol and it may be too sweet or too thin and light. Sipping the Balance

Tannin might cause your mouth to pucker. It is a dry, cottony, astringent sensation, like when the dentist puts cotton gauze in your mouth. Wine Enthusiast states, “Tannins, a group of bitter and astringent compounds, can be found abundantly in nature… in the wood, bark, leaves and fruit of plants as various as oak, rhubarb, tea, walnut, cranberry, cacao and grapes.” A cup of strong black tea is often used as an example of the drying sensation of tannin. Too little tannin will cause a wine to taste overly soft and flabby. Tannin usually feels astringent giving your mouth a dry feeling whereas acidity will taste sour and have the reverse effect of making you salivate.

Too much alcohol and the wine tastes hot and boozy in the back Residual sugar is the natural grape sugar left after fermentation- -the process where yeast converts grape sugars to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Residual sugar is balanced by acidity. Too much sugar or not enough acidity and the wine will likely taste syrupy sweet. Too much acidity can make a wine taste sharp like a freshly cut lemon and make your mouth pucker.

For a winemaker, making a wine that is balanced is a challenge, but the reward is good wine. I leave you with this quotation, “A balanced wine is one in which the last glass tastes better than the first.” Jeffrey Patterson, proprietor and winemaker at Mount Eden.

Cheers!

The poses and breathing practiced in yoga are intended to prepare the body to sit comfortably for extended periods of time in meditation. Photo by Clark Davis.

by Casey Molloy Davis, RYT Meditation Moment

Yoga is the unity of breath, body, and mind. When we heighten our awareness of breath, body, and mind, we are able to control each of them in ways that help establish balance.

We are continually asked to focus on a myriad of tasks and assignments that can distract us from physical and mental balance. The body is constantly working to achieve homeostasis by regulating body temperature, pH, and fluid levels. Luckily, these physical functions occur without our conscious control. The mind, however, takes constant effort to balance. The mind can be likened to a chattering monkey, or a hamster on a wheel, a busy little animal creating endless noise. This mental chatter can drown out the innate quiet and calmness that reside within. What we often forget, however, is that we have a choice in our interpretation and reaction to the constant stream of thoughts. We can be swept away in the current, or we can choose to selectively listen, cultivating a filter for finding what is true. Much like the ebb and flow of the tide, emotions rise and fall in response to both internal and external forces. How we handle or react to our emotions has a strong impact on physical health.

Sometimes we may feel like a child learning to walk as we stagger forward trying to continually catch our balance. In the end, with continued effort and practice, we finally learn to walk. This balance comes from our core, our center. When we move from that centered place within, we will always find balance.