About Calldera Wine Categorization and the Calldera Wine Wheel

Calldera recommendations are “sipping” wines

The Calldera wine categorization methodology is intended to identify “sipping” wines for each individual, where a “sipping” wine is a wine that can be enjoyed without food.  This approach implicitly acknowledges that food changes the taste of wine, and vice versa.

Note, however, that Calldera is an advocate of enjoying wine with food and encourages you to drink recommended wines with foods you love.  Calldera especially advocates pairing with food wines your friends recommend through the Calldera wine app.  This is because wines in categories not recommended by Calldera to a particular individual often are enjoyed, and perhaps preferred, by that person in combination with certain foods.

Wine can be described by six taste characteristics

The nature of our taste perceptions provides a simplification that allows all wine to be described by six taste characteristics:

1. Dry OR sweet
2. Low in acid OR acidic
3. Low in tannins OR tannic
4. Light-bodied OR medium-to-full-bodied
5. Earthy OR fruity
6. Oaked OR not oaked

Calldera chemically analyzes every wine it recommends

Each Calldera-recommended wine is chemically analyzed by Calldera using scientific instruments to determine the taste characteristics present in the wine.  These include tannin, acid, sugar and body.  In addition, Calldera notes if a wine has been oaked (and an oaky taste is discernible) and if a wine is earthy (the result of grape variety and soil conditions).

The Calldera Wine Wheel identifies 26 distinct wine categories

The identified wine taste characteristics are used to assign each analyzed wine to one of 26 wine categories, as exemplified by the proprietary Calldera Wine Wheel.

 

 

There’s a lot of information in the Calldera Wine Wheel.  Here’s how to understand it:

• There are 5 sections of the wheel, labelled on the outside of each section that identifies a wine category as either sweet or exhibiting one of four possible combinations of acid and tannin. Starting in the upper left-hand corner and moving in a clockwise direction:
  • Not Tannic/Acidic
  • Sweet
  • Tannic/Not Acidic
  • Not Tannic/Not Acidic
  • Tannic/Acidic
• Each wine category, labelled “a” through “z,” is either light-bodied or medium-to-full bodied.
  • Light-bodied categories are light colored (either light berry or light green).
  • Medium-to-full-bodied categories are dark colored (either dark berry or dark green).
• Each wine category, labelled “a” through “z,” is either fruity or earthy. 
  • Fruity categories are either light or dark berry colored. 
  • Earthy categories are either light or dark green.
• Each wine category, labelled “a” through “z,” is either oaked or not oaked.
  • Oaked categories have hash marks/diagonal lines.
  • Unoaked categories do NOT have hash marks/diagonal lines.

In short,

• See the section label for Sweet versus Acid/Tannin classification
• Light color = light-bodied
• Dark color = medium-to-full-bodied
• Berry = fruity
• Green = earthy
• Hash marks = oaked

For instance, a wine in the “s” category is dry, tannic, acidic, fruity, medium-to-full-bodied and oaky.

My Profile screen shows Calldera Wine Wheel with your wine categories designated

The My Profile screen of the Calldera app displays the Calldera Wine Wheel with icons indicating the white and red wine categories corresponding to your taste preferences.  On the Wine Wheel,

• Each of your white wine categories is designated with a wine glass icon
• Each of your red wine categories is designated with a grape bunch icon

 

 

Assigned wine categories are likely to change as you use the app

The wine categories and the order in which wines from recommended categories are presented may change over time as you use the Calldera wine app.

This is because the “learning” recommendation engine powering the Calldera wine app continually adjusts recommendations in accordance with your wine ratings and consumption history.  For instance, if the engine learns that you like oaked red wines but do not like unoaked red wines, the application will stop recommending unoaked red wines you. 

The priority order of wine categories from which recommendations are made also will change in response to your input.

In other words, the engine refines its knowledge of preferences initially garnered from the wine personality quiz as you give it feedback about wines you have tried. 

Recommended wine categories may also change.  This may be due either to a refinement of your initial taste profile or to your tastes changing over time.