When someone says a wine is "balanced", what does that mean? Thanks
Answer From Expert Roger Bohmrich MW
This is a great question as the term "balance" is frequently employed by wine tasters, and the concept is not necessarily self-evident. In the most basic sense,a wine is balanced if the principal constituents appear to be in harmony, with no one element dominating the others. The attributes commonly assessed are the extract, alcohol and structure (acidity and/or tannin). Sweetness as well is relevant for those wines which customarily possess residual sugar such as late harvest examples or certain fortified styles. We could add pH, because that too will certainly influence balance. There are two tricky aspects of evaluating balance. First, some of the finest red wines - Bordeaux, Barolo, Hermitage, and Vintage Port to cite a few - only come into balance after bottle aging, as they may be assertively tannic when young. Second, as with wine evaluation in general, opinions may differ as to whether a given wine is balanced; however, experienced, competent tasters tend to find a consensus.
