Complexity

Complexity is the word we use for a wine that has many different aromas and flavours at once, and where they work together rather than feeling messy. Where a simple wine might just smell of one kind of fruit, a complex wine will reveal layer upon layer: fruit, flowers, spice, herbs, perhaps notes of oak, honey or something more earthy. It comes from an interplay between the grape variety, where the grapes were grown, how the wine was made, and how it has been allowed to mature. A wine contains many hundreds of aroma compounds, and it is the relationship between them that decides whether you experience the wine as flat or nuanced.

Complexity matters for the experience, because a complex wine develops in the glass and gives you something new to notice the longer you sit with it. Many aroma compounds also lie bound and invisible in the grape and are released slowly during fermentation and ageing, so ageing in the bottle or in barrel often builds extra depth and new nuances over time.

A widespread misunderstanding is that complexity is the same thing as quality or a high price. A simple, clean and fragrant wine can be entirely excellent for its purpose, while complexity is above all something you look for when you want a wine that invites you to study it. Notice how many different impressions you can actually put into words.