Lean vs Big

[megawill]

Okay so this comparison (Lean versus Big/Overblown) showed up in another post and I'm trying to distinguish in my novice wine knowledge exactly what is meant by each.

Can someone define a lean wine as well as Big Wine (and give some example of bottlings under say $20.00)?

Lately, I've been drinking a lot of Aussie Shiraz (Yangarra Park, Jacobs Creek, Alice White) and California Zin (Seghisio, Buena Vista, Rancho Zabaca)as well as some Italian Primitivo and Blends (A-Mano, Falesco Vitiano, De Majo Norante Sangiovesse)...so if anybody has some examples in these varietals it might help my untrained palate understand a bit...

thanks in advance....

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megawill

[Innkeeper]

It has a lot to do with hang time. The longer the grapes stay on the vine, the riper they get. The riper they get, the sweeter they get as with any fruit. These extra or overripe grapes produce wine with two characteristics one is that you will have jammy fruit, and the second is that you will have high alcohol, because more sugar has to be fermented into alcohol. If such wines have enough additional stucture to compensate for the first two, such as sufficient acid, other varietal characteristics, appropriate tannin, and others; then the wine can be fine, even a good ager.

Leaner simply means less ripeness, therefore less jamminess and alcohol. Such wines are easier to keep in structural balance.

The rub is really about whether wine with gobs of fruit and high alcohol is better or worser than leaner wine with balanced structure. A lot depends on what grape or grapes you are talking about. Some grapes or blends do better one way or the other.

Most of the wines you mention are more in the lean than the big category. There are not a lot of the latter under $20.

[Drew]

You know, I don't like the term "lean" as you compare to the overblown. We're not talking opposites but balance and good structure eg.(fruit, flavor, nose, acidity, use of oak, tannins, finish etc. are in balance and compliment each other). This would be the model wine. Now a wine with some of these components that are overdone, not across the board, would throw it out of balance aka, overblown. Reduce some or all of the components and the wine would appear "lean". And remember, it's how YOU experience the wine. In a post of Marquis-Phillips wines, in the Australia thread, eskinnyc writes that he enjoyed the shiraz and didn't find it to be overblown, but I did so who's right...we both are. Now, you want a challange to understand some terms...ask WW to describe the difference between a 4 1/2 and a 5 lapper wine. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

Drew

[winoweenie]

Good-Gracious Drew-patootie, It's a Half-Lap! WW