What tannins are and how they affect your wine

1. Tannins are plentiful within the plant world. Tannins are polyphenols present in almost all crops — in bark, pores and skin, seeds and stems. With antioxidant and antibacterial properties, they’re considered one of nature’s defenses towards illness. Early mankind discovered methods to soak tannins out of crops and use them to “tan” animal hides and make leather-based, reworking one thing that will naturally rot into a robust, sturdy product. The expression, “I’ll tan your disguise!” — used to threaten a thrashing — is a little bit of an oddity, as tanning doesn’t contain putting the disguise. It does require eradicating flesh from the disguise, although, and which may be what the expression means.