What is a structured wine?

When wine people say a wine is 'structured,' they're talking about its architecture — the backbone that holds everything together. Just like a building needs good foundations, beams, and supports, a wine needs tannins, acidity, alcohol, and concentration working in harmony.

Think of it this way: if flavour is what a wine tastes like, structure is how a wine feels. A structured wine has a defined framework you can sense on your palate — firm tannins that grip, acidity that lifts, alcohol that warms, and concentration that fills. Take any of those away, and the wine feels shapeless.

Tannins are the most obvious structural element in red wine. A young Bordeaux or Barolo has tannins that feel firm and angular — sometimes almost severe. But that firmness is the wine's scaffolding. Over years of ageing, those tannins soften and integrate, and what felt austere becomes graceful. This is exactly why structured wines age so well.

Acidity is the structural backbone of white wines (and plays a crucial role in reds too). A Grand Cru Chablis gets its impressive structure from razor-sharp acidity, not from tannins or high alcohol. German Riesling Grosses Gewächs achieves decades of ageability through structure built almost entirely on acid.

The key concept is balance. A wine with massive tannins but no acidity feels heavy and dull. A wine with screaming acidity but no concentration feels thin and sharp. The magic of a truly structured wine — a great Bordeaux, a masterful Barolo, a top Burgundy — is that all elements support each other, creating something that feels complete, harmonious, and built to last.

Practical tip: if you want to understand structure, taste a structured wine (young Bordeaux) alongside an unstructured one (simple Merlot from a warm climate). The difference in architecture is immediately obvious, even for beginners.