What does "Chalky wine" mean?

Question

I am right now translating a passage from Theroux's 'The Great Railway Bazaar' to Bulgarian. I got this sentence: "It's a very drinkable Chablis, not all chalky - the ones they export often are, you know."

I've searched the Web and all the dictionaries I have, but I couldn't find what does chalky mean for a wine. I believe it's a winery term, but I know nothing about it. Can someone please explain it a little more detailed?

If I omit this sentence the editor will translate it but I got really interested in that so I would be really grateful if someone had an idea about it.

Answer 1

It means it tastes like chalk. White chalk tastes like vanilla, red chalk tastes like strawberry, etc.

Answer 2

Dry isn't the right substitution.  Dry means, literally, not sweet.  Wine starts out like grape juice -- very sweet.  After fermentation, the sugar is gone, and alcohol remains.  This is unique to alcoholic drinks.  Dry is opposed to semi-sweet, where the ferrmentation is stopped a little bit early so there is less alcohol; the result being a wine which is more sweet than a fully fermented dry wine.

I can tell you tannins make wine bitter.  Theroux is referring to chalkiness as something undesireable, and I'm not sure I can find a decent word to use in place of chalky.  Perhaps something which you know the Bulgarian reader would recognize as undesireable in a wine.  Any type of texture, mouthfeel, or finish adjective would make some sense...

Answer 3

The term "Chalky" refers to the  textural qualities of the wine.

"Chalky" wine has drying tannins, with a core somewhat elusive. A bit "dusty". It leaves an 'astringent-like' feeling in the mouth. A 'sandpapery' feeling.

Wine tasters use such earthy terms (for eg: flinty, chalky, stoney) to describe the feel of the wine. Simply put, that feeling which lingers in the back of the throat.

Hope this helps ! Cheers! :-)