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January 2015 Wines&Vines 157 wine east winemaking Basic Hoe comes with a Hillup and a Takeaway Blade. Additional attachments include .3 Tooth Cultivator, Undercutter Blade, Rotary head, " NEW " Rolling Cultivator and "Vine Auger". The Green Hoe Company, Inc. 6645 West Main Road, Portland, NY 14769 PHONE (716) 792-9433 FAX (716) 792-9434 WWW.GREENHOECOMPANY.COM GREEN GRAPE HOE fine these terms in meaningful ways. A few sensory characteristics can be tentatively as- signed causes; tannins with mDP < 5 are thought to enhance bitterness, for example, while mDP > 5 provides astringency. "Hard" tannins may be the result of high tannin con- centration and a greater percentage of seed tannin in the mix, but "soft" tannins are largely in the mouth of the beholder (that is, no one can agree on what that means, so tying it to a chemical phenomenon is impossible). General matrix effects are also at work, as ethanol, acid and sugar content all impact a taster's perception of tannin astringency and bitterness, and aroma and visual qualities are known to impact gustatory effects in a variety of ways. Most confusing is the fact that each person's perception of wine "texture" is indi- vidual and impacted greatly by variations in the quantity and quality of saliva. All told, developing a predictable standardized lexicon of tannin sensory effects is difficult because wines and wine tasters vary so widely, and without a standard lexicon, tying individual sensory attributes to chemical or physical phe- nomena is well nigh impossible. At the end of the day, chemistry and empiri- cal observation leaves us with a few truths and a lot of questions: 1. Increased skin contact time will increase tannin concentration but not anthocy- anin concentration. 2. Color stability is dictated by copigmenta- tion and "polymeric pigment" formation. 3. Interactions governing hybrid red wine color are largely unknown, due to variety and type of anthocyanin concentration. 4. Perception of tannin quality is compli- cated by matrix and cross-modal sen- sory interactions. 5. Many color and tannin effects are culti- var dependent. 6. Optimal production practices may be specific to site, season and even winery. In short, phenolic chemistry is very com- plex, making characterization of wine pigments and tannins a major challenge and linking sensory impacts to individual compounds (or winery processes) equally difficult. Until enolo- gists have all the answers, a good palate and a willingness to experiment will remain impor- tant tools in quality red wine production. WE Anna Katharine Mansfield is an assistant professor of enology at Cornell's NYSAES in Geneva, N.Y. Her research focuses on hybrid wine phenolics and fermen- tation nutrition