Wine grape table

berrycrush · Oct 6, 2014

I am looking at this wine grape table/chart, with full size at
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/A1s+TIOANGL._SL1500_.jpg
I guess the horizontal is acidity ( left high -- right low) and vertical is SG ( top low -- bottom high ). Is it right?

salcoco · Oct 7, 2014

I don't think so, white wines can have higher acidity than reds. there seems to be a discussion of the organization of the table in the top left corner but print is to small to read. it looks to me a color chart of wines. sg and acidity not implied.

sour_grapes · Oct 7, 2014

The organization of the chart differs for reds and whites. For both colors, the vertical organization means:

Top: Light-bodied
Bottom: Full-bodied

The left-right organization is by acidity. However, there are complications. The dividing line between acidity categories wanders left and right as you go from top to bottom (like a time-zone boundary!). More importantly, whites and reds are organized differently.

For reds:
Left: low acidity
Right: high acidity

For whites:
Left: high acidity
Right: low acidity

I have no idea why it is organized this way.

Boatboy24 · Oct 7, 2014

sour_grapes said:
For reds:
Left: low acidity
Right: high acidity

For whites:
Left: high acidity
Right: low acidity

I have no idea why it is organized this way.

It's like a bell curve. The highest acidity is found in the middle. Further from the middle = lower acid? Not a very nice bell, but that's the closest image I could get in my head.

sour_grapes · Oct 7, 2014

Sort of right, Jim. The diagonal skew for reds and whites means that the high-acid varieties are towards the middle. As you go left or right from there, the acid goes down.

I just looked at Amazon's peek inside feature, and, at least in the material available, they don't provide a rationale for this arrangement.