Is there really such a thing as "sweet tannins"...

Sweet, Hoke! (Sweet is a favorite phrase of my young nephews).

Salute

Jeff, there's the problem, isn't it: the connotation of what "sweet" means.

Or to loosely quote one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite movies: " I don't think that word means what you think it means."

All words, but especially certain words, can carry certain connotations for people, and conversely not carry much connotation for other people.

To most folks I would imagine "sweet" simply means "presence of sweetness, i.e., sugary". That's not necessarily what it means to me, and definitely not what it means to me in a wine.

Hi Hoke,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, when I see that phrase (sweet tannins) I was taking it more literal, as if the taster was taking the texture component of tannins and trying to assign a tasting term of sweet to it somehow. I see how one, in natural form, could eat an actual grape skin and thus could make (in theory) a taste judgement of it (sweet vs sour vs salty etc). But once a part of the wine itself (a liquid), I always assume the tannins to be reduced to just a texture-only component (as far as the mouth is concerned) therefore it struck me odd that notes would say "sweet tannins", as if texture is to be tasted like the liquid. That's what most confused me.

However, I'm probably just showing my ignorance in regards to some winemaking/tasting usage. I do understand that tasters don't mean sweet when saying that a wine (the liquid) is off dry or even fruity but I actually wasn't aware that they might describe tannins (texture) in the same light. But if, like you said, the phrase doesn't imply that the taster is making a judgement of sweet as a literal taste sensation term but rather is just using sweet as a sort of slang for the tannins not being hard/harsh, then that at least explains everything! And does make sense (I think...)

Jeff