What would impart a taste of seaweed, or salt in a Napa, Mtn. Cab? Or any other of the handful of wines I've tasted these flavors in.

can you describe the taste? besides seaweed or salt... is it a mineral taste...

chemotherapy

Shipwreck....

PH

hi winemom,

jet's questions are good. generally, wine does not have a salt taste. you may be referring to some mineral flavors.

when it comes to seaweed, that might be the taste of umami that you're picking up, especially if your talking about well-aged wines.

best,
gloria

I seem to find seaweed (if we're referring to the same thing here, seaweed from the pacific might not be the same as in the northern sea ), as in "lying on the beach rotting seaweed" a lot in South African wine, as a nuance of the burnt rubber, smoky character they can sometimes have. Especially Pinotages and some Shirazes seem to have this characteristic. I know nothing really about american wines, but for a good example of this, pick up Jacobsdal Pinotage (Stellenbosch).

As for salt, I guess you can find salt as an attribute to some flavours just as some find dry but extremely fruity wines "sweet". I don't think there are any wines with a very high deposit of NaCl though. I've heard it elsewhere but the only wine I can recall being called salty is Manzanilla Sherries (not oxidized).

C. Fielden (for WSET) in Exploring the World of Wines and Spirits:

quote:

A Fino that has been aged in a bodega in the seaside town of Sanlucar is known as a Manzanilla. Because of the cooler climate, the flor remains active active throughout the year; this gives the wine an individual character, generally with a delicate, salty tang.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: thorn,

After some further research, it seems there actually is a bit salt in most wines, around 2 g/l - 3 g/l. I also came across this gem:

"A wide ranging survey of juices by the Australian Wine Research Institute showed that around 10% of the Australian juices selected for analysis would have produced wines that could not be exported to Europe because of their high chloride levels."

good research, thorn. makes me think of more questions:

... what's the sensory threshold for sodium?
... other than sherry, when's the last time anyone saw salt mentioned in a tasting note?

plus, let's make sure to keep the terminology clean and differentiate between taste (salt) and flavor/scent.

looking forward to more...

/gloria

I occasionally will describe a Loire Valley Muscadet or SB as "briney".

hey, purple. thanks for weighing in.

by "briney" do you mean salty taste or mineral scent?

(i admit to being completely fascinated by how people describe wine, the terms they use and what they mean...)

/geek girl gloria

I got a chance to ask chemist and Master of Wine Ulf Sjodin about this today in a class he held for us on defect wines. He said there was little to no sodium in wine, so whatever salty tastes there are (which are not really separable from mineral ones) are from other salts disposed in wine as ions of Cl, Ca, K and perhaps some more.

He also said there are a lot of wines where a salty taste is noticable except sherry.

quote:

Originally posted by The Schoolmarm:
by "briney" do you mean salty taste or mineral scent?

Both. But the briney taste is usually in conjuction with minerals or sea shells.

I too have found a saltiness in certain wines. Two examples are: Marquis Philips 2005 Shiraz and the Seventy Five Wine Company 2004 Cabernet. The first being from Australia, and the latter from California. Both wines were very rich and powerful. People think I'm crazy when I say that too. Curious.

hi thorn,

other than sherry, which wines can be described as salty?

/g

I didn't ask for any specific examples, and the taste isn't really familiar to me, but from the sites I found a few days ago it seems like Australian Shirazes have a very high deposit of salt ions and would to some taste salty.

Just received this from a retailer. Note the salty descriptor in bold.

“[The 2004 “GB” Rheingau Spatburgunder] is a delight to drink. A ravishing nose of fresh cherry and maraschino extract leads to a bright, elegant, invigoratingly salty, incipiently creamy, and amply fresh-fruited palate. This is polished and elegant with a fine, savory, understated but entirely satisfying finish. Few red Burgundies and no domestic Pinots I know of will deliver more character and fun for the price.” 88 points, David Schildknecht; from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate

I honestly have never tasted a salty wine but I have noticed that Pinotages and some Shirazes do sometimes have a "sea weed" taste like you suggested.