Integration: Why It Matters More Than Intensity

The standard

The separation threshold of components asks whether acidity, tannin, alcohol and fruit can still be named individually in the glass. It judges perceptibility, not the quantity of any single component.

Criteria

• No component steps in front of the others when the wine is at rest
• The impression stays stable over the course of a glass
• Alcohol appears as body, not as a stimulus of its own
• The judgement stays repeatable when the same sample is examined again

Distinction

Integration ≠ balance: balance judges the proportion of the components, integration their distinguishability. Integration ≠ intensity: a wine can be powerful and integrated or restrained and disjointed. The separation threshold of components therefore judges no level, but a connection.