Wine Terms - tannin

Today things are a bit slow in the world of wine news, so I decided it was time to bring back a feature I haven't done in a while - the useful wine term of the day. If you missed some of my earlier posts in this vein, the idea is exactly what it sounds like. Take a word commonly used in the wine world and, well, define it. Today's word - tannin

Tannin is a substance that naturally occurs in grape skins, seeds and stems. When you're drinking a wine, it's most likely the bitter taste you notice right up front. The taste gives wine a distinctive flavor, but it also works as a natural preservative. When used right, it helps to give a wine more balance and develops the taste the longer a wine stays corked and in storage. Tannin in wine is a tricky thing, because just enough adds balance, but too much can turn a bottle into something really, really awful.