Balance in wine – what is it all about?

Balance is an interesting concept in wine, for regardless of the amount of flavour an individual wine might possess, its balance or lack of balance might be the difference between it being a great wine and a significantly lesser wine. Simply put, the notion of balance is all about how the components of a wine fit together. Young wines with great cellaring futures can be big and awkward, with mountains of fruit, oak and tannin, but even in their youth, no single feature of the should stick out above the others. In other words, whether a wine is powerful or delicate, its various components of texture and flavour should be present in a harmonious way that prevents one or two aspects of the wine dominating all others.

It’s a constant source of regret to me that many modern-day New World wines, including many from Australia and California, are totally out of balance. The reason relates to a popular theme of mine – that the current trend for exceptionally high alcoholic strengths exacerbates the influence of alcohol in the wine while simultaneously reducing the brightness and purity of fruit. Sure, many wines made from ultra-ripe grapes do taste fruity while young, but after only a few years in the bottle many will quickly lose freshness and fruit intensity.

Many of the new generation of high-alcohol wines from the New World as well as Europe present youthful fruit that may conceal their alcoholic strength and spirity warmness, but as fruit fades over time, alcohol doesn’t. So as they age, these wines become more and more out of balance. You are left with a usually highly oaked and very spirity, red wine whose fruit has dried out that often has more in common with ordinary vintage port. This is a classic example of a poorly balanced wine.

Many wineries fall into another trap when they feel they have a special batch of fruit and decide to bottle it separately from their normal wine, creating a more expensive ‘reserve’ label. In order to justify the price, this wine often receives significantly more oak than usual; often well beyond the fruit’s ability to handle it. The outcome is a poorly balanced and expensively packaged wine of questionable quality, often of a significantly lower standard than the cheaper wine it was supposed to be better than.

New World wines are indeed accused more often than their Old World counterparts for lack of balance. Whether of not there is any real merit in the argument, you can see the reasons why. The focus of viticulture and winemaking in the New World has largely been to produce and then capture fruit flavour, so many wines taste overtly fruity to entrenched Old World palates. Furthermore, New World wines are more susceptible to market trends, be they for high levels of oak, alcohol or extract, each of which has the potential to adversely affect the balance of wines.

Old World wines are traditionally – and by no means correctly – grouped together to fit an image of restraint, tightness and elegance. This is certainly changing, as younger Old World winemakers pay more attention to their vineyards than the previous generation, and use winemaking techniques invented and perfected in the New World to make better wine, which in many cases, has much in common with the brightness and intensity of New World wine.

Complexity relates to the number of different flavours, textures and subtleties a wine might exhibit. The greater the diversity of expression, the more complex the wine. Great wines are usually complex, while cheaper, everyday wines are one-dimensional by comparison. That doesn’t mean they can’t make for delicious drinking, but they won’t reveal the layers of interest and intrigue one might expect from a truly great wine.

Some argue that Old World wines are more complex than New World wines, and there is still some truth in that. While the best of the New can rival the best of the old, perhaps in different styles, it is true that in general terms, the New World can improve its complexity – and therefore its quality – with greater attention to detail in the vineyard and winery. That’s not to suggest that the New World doesn’t make great wine at a range of price-points, but at the very top end, that’s where the New World’s challenge lies. Please login to post comment