There are only two ingredients in wine: grapes and yeast.  Yet, white wines can be described as having flavors that include lemon, lime, grapefruit, apple, peach, pear and orange.  And red wines can be described as having flavors of cherry, raspberry, strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, plum and fig.  And then there are descriptions of vanilla, butterscotch, caramel, chocolate, tobacco, leather, and even tar, just to name a few.  But, if wine is only made from grapes and yeast, how do wines get all those other flavors? 

In a past blog, we reviewed taste and smell as being the elements by which we get our perception of flavors.

But, let's go a bit deeper and do some further exploration of where all those flavors in wine come from.  Basically, wine's flavors come from the grapes, the fermentation process and through aging.

Each of these components provides its own set of flavor compounds that combine to give each wine its own characteristics.

So, next time we'll dive into the most important influence on wine's flavor - grapes. Until then, Cheers!