The Shape of Acid

Movement Part 1: You Spin Me Right ‘Round

We’ve explored linear acid shapes, both horizontal and vertical, and looked at the square shapes that high acid varietals can create. Now it’s time to add dimension. Varietals that express their acidity in more dynamic ways: expanding, shifting, and dancing around the mouth. This is part 1 of a 3-part “movement” series.

The Set-Up: Let’s Move Tonight

I picked two high acid white varietals that seemed to offer different kinds of movement: Sauvignon Blanc and Loureiro. Sauvignon Blanc often leans into green notes.

Vinho Verde, of which Loureiro is one of that wine region’s primary grapes, typically offer a more citrus-driven expression. To keep the comparison within the Old World, I chose a French Sauvignon Blanc and a Portuguese Vinho Verde.

The Sauvignon Supernova

• Wine: Charme de Loire Sauvignon Blanc 2025, Vin de Pays
• Producer: Jean Marie Reverdy & Fils
• Viticulture details: old vines on flint and sand hillsides.
• Aroma: Pronounced aroma, jumping out of the glass like SB often does. Passion fruit is prominent, surprising given its French origins. The typical SB greenery of dried herbs, particularly Mediterranean scrub and thyme. Lemon zest.
• Flavors: Palate has similar notes, but I welcome the less passion fruit-iness! The structure leads, like a typical Old World wine, with additions of minerality, flintiness, and dried grass.
• Acid:

The potent acid starts as a circle wrapped around my tongue. Then it becomes more of a thick acid blanket around my tongue. It continues to grow until it seems to wrap around my entire mouth.

There’s also a prickly, tickling sensation. My tongue wiggles around as if trying to scratch the different parts of mouth where the acid is tingling.

• When I drink the Sauvignon Blanc after the Loureiro:

It’s more static. The prickliness disappears. It’s still circular in my mouth, but not the ever-growing circular shape from before. The supernova salsa dance has become more of a slower waltz.

The Virtual Vinho Verde Shower

• Wine: 2023 Vinho Verde, Lima Valley, Loureiro
• Producer: Quinto do Ameal
• Viticulture details: On the right bank of the Lima River on yellow granite bedrock with granite sand and clay topsoil on 5–25-year-old vines.
• Aroma: Less pronounced aroma than the SB, but still a good showing. Shows a greater depth of citrus with lemon zest, lemon juice, and lemon curd. Also expresses minerality, flint, and saline on the nose.
• Flavors: Medium body with lemon zest pushing forward on the palate. A medium plus intensity of flavors including lime peel, wet stone, and citrus tartness. There is a nice balance with some earthy and bready undertones.
• Acid:

The acid starts at the roof of my mouth and trickles downward. There’s an initial fizzy spritz before the sensation reaches my tongue, then spreads to the bottom and sides of the mouth. Like a refreshing acid rinse, washing through the mouth from top to bottom.

Master of Wine Nick Jackson in his book “Beyond Flavour” describes Vinho Verde as a “shower” –like a refreshing sea spray.

• When I drink the Loureiro after the Sauvignon Blanc:

There’s a lighter feel to the wine. A lighter perception of the acid. I know it’s still quite acidic, but it feels less so in my mouth. It becomes more of the “rinse” and less of an intense “power shower”.

The Structural Summary: Moving In & Out and All About

The Sauvignon Blanc delivered a circular expansion: an acid supernova, growing in intensity and spreading outward like a big bang.

Loureiro offered something entirely different, with acidity trickling from the roof of my mouth downward in a refreshing shower.

These wines reminded me that acidity isn’t just about intensity or a fixed shape. It can move, expand, prickle, and rinse. And the order in which we taste wines can change how we perceive that movement.With these two wines, the acid didn’t just have a shape. It had choreography.