No Stupid Questions, part 3

Part 3 of 3, dear readers, and this is a good one! In fact, it’s something Sarah wondered a lot about when she first got in to wine, so know that you are not alone in this query…

When the tasting note says “peaches,” does that mean you somehow added peach flavor?

Wine tasting notes can be as confusing as they are useful. Sometimes the aromas and flavors listed are things you’ve never heard of or tried (like Bergamot or lychee). Sometimes they are off-putting, like petrol, forest floor, or sweaty leather glove(!).

Lovely little lychee fruit, often a note for Gewurztraminer.

Can you smell these?

How about this?

These intriguing aroma and flavor compounds come from the grapes and are uncovered during fermentation by yeast and other microorganisms. Some of them (like petrol in Riesling) develop in the bottle as a byproduct of aging. They are never added to the wine unless it’s “beverage alcohol” that has an ingredient list. We don’t make any beverage alcohol wines at Silver Thread, so if your favorite Riesling smells like peaches, that is coming from the grapes.

Our 2023 Semi-dry Riesling is an especially peachy wine!

One of the most interesting things about wine grapes is that they smell and taste like other fruits, and using words like apricot, cherry, and lemon enable people to describe a wine to others in a way that makes the taster feel like the wine is familiar.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this short question-and-answer series! If you have any other wine-related questions that you can’t find a satisfying answer to online, feel free to email sarah@silverthreadwine.com