With a nod to Charles Atlas and Bruce Lee, I have been thinking a lot about the role of Dynamic Tension in wine and winemaking. My notion is that balance in wine is fundamentally built upon the two main opposing structural forces of ‘angles’ (acidity and tannin) and ‘rounds’ (glycerol, which is proportional to alcohol, and/or residual sugar, if the style relies upon it). Striving for balance means having these two opposing forces in equivalent prominence. And while ‘balance’ is not a new concept, ‘angles and rounds’ in wine is my own original idea of expressing it in a way that is easy to understand without jargon. I’ve looked this subject up in the published literature and am stunned to find that it appears not to have been previously elucidated in any similar simple manner. While it seems so self-evident to me, I suppose simplicity in communicating concepts isn’t always evident to those deep in the scientific world.
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