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metallic

Description for a negatively bitter and angular flavour (also tinny, hard, inky) of a wine in the context of a wine talk or wine evaluation. High metal contents of aluminium, iron, copper or zinc in the wine can cause the wine defect black breakage (also white, grey and blue depending on the colour). The wine may have a flaky turbidity ranging from milky white to blackish green in colour; hence metal turbidity.

The metals may have already entered the grapes from the vineyard soil or through fungal attack, or may have been dissolved out of barrel nails due to the influence of acids and tannins during barrel ageing. In some cases (iron, copper) this can be removed by fining (blue fining). When opening a bottle, contact between the corkscrew spiral and the wine can also lead to a metallic flavour. Wines with a mineral flavour can also have very slight metallic tones, but in this case this does not mean that the wine is faulty. Metallic should also not be confused with the positively connoted term steely (acid-emphasised wines).

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26,469 Keywords · 47,044 Synonyms · 5,321 Translations · 31,802 Pronunciations · 212,599 Cross-references
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