Velvet, rough, smooth, silky, chewy; these aren't flavor descriptors, so why do they belong in a wine review?

Although most of our appreciation of wine comes from flavor and aroma, we shouldn't forget that our other senses of sight and touch are also involved.

Sight is easy: looking at the beautiful colors of wine, from a hint of straw to the deepest, most opaque black. Gazing at wine is certainly part of the whole experience.

But what about the sense of touch? First of all, we think of touch as an activity dominated by our hands. Our fingers are ultra-sensitive, but we also experience touch by the rest of our epidermis and our mouth and tongue. Second, while not as easy to describe as a piece of salt-water taffy, wine—or any liquid, for that matter—has a textural aspect.

For the most part, the texture of wine comes from the presence of tannins, acid and alcohol, which result in a particular "mouth feel" or "weight." A good way to grasp this concept is to relate the weight of wine in your mouth to those of different types of milk. Think of nonfat milk. It feels thin in your mouth, like water. Two percent is a little thicker, whereas whole milk is heavier still. We all love the feeling of cream; it's like velvet, thick and heavy, coating your entire mouth. Wines can be described in a similar way. Some wines are thin and light, some are thick and heavy.

A wine does not have to be heavy or weighty to be a well-made and delicious wine. The trick is to know which wines should be heavy and which are meant to be light and know what you enjoy under which circumstances.

This discussion is all related to the topic of tannins. Tannins are naturally occurring in grapes. Try this: Peel a table grape and chew on the skin for a minute (add the seeds if you're really into it). That "feeling" you get in your mouth of astringency comes from grape tannins. Some wines are naturally more tannic than others because the grapes are smaller (resulting in more skin than flesh) and/or the winemaker leaves the grape skins and seeds with the young wine longer. In addition to this, some wine grapes are just more tannic than others. Scientifically, tannins combine with the saliva in your mouth, resulting in a dry or astringent feeling. Grape tannins are essential for longevity of the wine. They are part of the backbone that will allow a great wine to age and improve over many years.

But that's not all. Another type of tannin is introduced to the wine via wood. As a California-wine lover, I've come to recognize the flavors and aromas that barrel fermentation and barrel aging give to a wine; cream, butter, mocha, vanilla, cedar. These flavors are not attributes of the grape. They are not brought about by great vineyard management, nor are they subject to the weather during the growing season. They come from the cellar, and as such, they can be managed.

Oak, and the seasoning of the oak, will dramatically affect the flavor and texture of the wine. Some species of the oak tree produce higher levels of lignin than others and very low levels of resin. These features make the wood a pretty good choice for aging wines. The lignins and wood tannins are transmitted to the wine as it sits in the barrel. When it comes to the topic of American white oak, we get to add the effect of lactones. American oak produces a profound effect on wine.

Ever wonder why some California cabernets always taste the same year after year? Many winemakers achieve consistency by using very aggressive (and expensive) American oak programs. Wines such as these are dominated by oak-driven characteristics: harsh tannins and obvious woody flavors in the case of red wines; big, creamy, buttery flavors when it comes to white. It's about style really, kind of like fashion. Think of it as the long, pointy collars of the wine world.

Further textural aspects in wine are the result of the level of alcohol and acid. Alcohol in the wine produces a type of silkiness and viscosity and at higher levels a sense of heat. When you swallow a wine that is high in alcohol, you have a feeling of warmth. Warm or hot are not flavors in themselves, but rather are textural.

In the best of all worlds, the acidic qualities of a wine balance out the other components, resulting in a wine that tastes and feels orchestrated instead of segmented. It's the difference between listening to a four-piece band and to a symphony. When I taste a wine without this balance, my notes often read like a textbook, but when I come across a balanced wine, it takes great effort to figure out the individual components—more often than not, my professional opinion is reduced to "Yummy."

There are no absolutes when it comes to wine and food. It's about enjoyment, and that is a personal subject. Sometimes we want silk sheets, a cool ocean breeze through a window and thick carpet. Other times we go camping. A big part of the enjoyment of life is texture. So it's no small wonder that texture plays an important role in our discovery of wine.

Cara Finn is the owner of The Grapevine, a fine wine and cheese store and tasting bar. She can be reached at 408.293.7574 or at info@grapevine-wg.com.