|
Wine Tasting Terms
Wine tasting terms can be confusing to those of you who are learning how to taste wine. If you attend wine tastings or read a wine magazine you will experience all sorts of new descriptors for how to describe wine aromas and flavors. Some may be quite obvious in their meaning but others can be quite confusing and foreign. So that you can understand others and so that you can communicate your impressions about wine, it can help to have definitions for some of these more commonly used wine tasting terms. If there are any wine tasting terms you don't see here that you would like explained, Contact Us and let us know. We will be happy to add them to the list! Acidity - Acidity is a term that refers to the amount of acid in a wine. Acid is the chemical compound that makes things taste tart, like vinegar or citrus foods. Acidity is part of the structure of wine, giving it lift and intensity. Without acidity wines taste flat or flabby while with too much acidity they can be seem shrill, tart and excessively lean. Aroma - The aroma, also known as the "nose" of a wine, is what the wine smells like. It includes all the various smells you get when sniffing the wine. Backward - This is a wine tasting term used to describe a wine which is young and not showing well. It is backward because the structure (acid and tannin) are in the forefront while everything else (fruit flavors, etc.) are hiding behind the structure. Sometimes a backward wine will open up with additional aeration in a decanter, but it often means the wine is young and needs more time. Balance - The best wines have perfect balance, meaning that all the components of the wine (the structure, fruit, alcohol, secondary flavors, etc.) are all in equilibrium, none sticking out in the forefront too much. When all the parts harmonize like this, the wine has a sense of elegance and completeness which is the hallmark of a great wine. Barnyard - You will often hear people describe a wine as having barnyard aromas or related terms like "horsey, manure, animal, etc." This literally means there are aromas that smell a bit stinky. However, this isn't always a bad thing! You'd be surprised but many people like a little stink in their wines, adding to the complexity. Too much may be off-putting, but a bit can be nice. This is sometimes just a product of the wine and where it came from, but in some cases can be related to a bacteria called Brettanomyces, or Brett for short, which can have these characteristics. Don't worry, it is harmless! Some people like a bit of Brett in wine and others don't. Berry - Berry aromas and flavors are very common in wine. When someone describes a wine as smelling like berries, it doesn't mean that there were berries used to make the wine. All traditional wines are just made from grapes. But those grapes, depending on the type and where they were grown, can develop complex aromas, often imitating various other fruits. Common berries and related fruits to find in wine include cherries, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, blackberries and currants. You can use any of these and more as wine tasting terms or descriptors. Body - The body of a wine is the size or heft of it in your mouth. While a light bodied wine glides over your palate softly and without weight, a full-bodied wine feels heavy and big in your mouth. Bouquet - The bouquet is another term for the aroma of a wine. It is usually used to describe the smell of a wine which is complex, offering many different types of aromas. Creamy - This is a descriptor of the feel of the wine in your mouth, the mouthfeel. A creamy wine literally feels creamy in your mouth, having a richness similar to heavy cream. This is common in rich wines with low acid such as is common with California Chardonnays. It is usually a result of both malolactic fermentation and oak aging which adds a rounded texture to wine. Chewy - Another wine tasting term describing the mouthfeel of the wine. A chewy wine is big and burly, feeling almost like a solid in your mouth rather than an ethereal light liquid. This is a common descriptor for full-bodied wines that are a bit rustic like some Syrahs, Chateauneuf-du-Pape and others. Closed - Another one of the wine tasting terms that is often used to describe a wine which is too young or going through a phase that it is not showing that much. Similar to backward, a closed wine may hint at greatness but isn't giving up the goods. Many wines that require aging go through closed phase where you don't get much aroma or flavor out of it only to later blossom and show its depth and complexity. Again, aerating a closed or backward wine may help bring out some of its personality, but in some cases this won't work. Complex - This describes a wine which has a myriad of aromas and flavors. The opposite of a "simple" wine, a complex wine has various aromas and flavors that compliment each other. Corked - This is one of the confusing wine tasting terms for beginners. It does not mean that the cork has been pulled out. It also does not mean that the wine smells like cork (good cork doesn't really smell like anything). What it means is that the wine is flawed because it has been exposed to a compound called TCA (2,4,6-traichloroanisole). TCA generally comes from mold which has infected the cork. This compound has a distinctive musty aroma that some people describe as moldy, wet newspaper or cardboard, wet dog or a damp basement. Even a small amount of this can obscure the normal aromas and flavors of a wine and thus this is a faulty wine. Some people are more sensitive to TCA then others. Dry - Another of the more confusing wine tasting terms, dry can be used a couple different ways. Most accurately, dry describes a wine which has no residual sugar, the opposite of sweet. However, most newbies use dry to describe the mouthfeel of a tannic wine. Tannins have a mouth drying feeling. When many people say that a wine is very dry, they mean it has lots of tannin, they are not commenting on the level of sugar in the wine. So try to avoid using dry to describe tannins, be as specific as possible so that people know what you mean. Just as an example of how this can be confusing, young Vintage Port, a dessert wine from Portugal, is very sweet with residual sugar, but at the same time has large amounts of tannin. Therefore, someone could potentially say these are sweet AND dry! Quite confusing indeed! Earthy - Grape wines grow in dirt (and stones and rocks, etc.). Therefore, it is not surprising that some wines have aromas or flavors resembling earth and are described as earthy. This is not a bad thing. This can often be a very nice complexity that compliments the fruit aromas and flavors in a wine. Finish - The finish is the aftertaste of a wine. A great wine has a long finish which lingers pleasingly on your palate. It should be long and have good flavors and sensations in your mouth, tempting you to take another sip. A bad finish is one which is very short or has off flavors (bitter, astringent, etc.) which are not appealing. Flabby - A wine without enough structure, particularly acid and tannin, to stand up to its other components can be described as flabby. It feels flat and without intensity and can even seem syrupy. Floral - One of the wine tasting terms describing a wine with flower-like aromas or flavors. This can be a very pretty complexity in some wines. Herbal - A wine that has aromas or flavors of herbs. Again, this can be a nice complexity as long as it is not overpowering. Intense - This describes a wine which packs a punch flavor-wise. An intense wine explodes in your mouth with flavor, making a big impact on your palate. This doesn't mean that wine is necessarily full-bodied or heavy. Instead it means that it has powerful flavors and often has acidity that helps make those flavors stick out powerfully. So you can have a light-bodied wine, like a German Kabinett Riesling, which has intense flavors. Jammy - One of the wine tasting terms that describes a very ripe wine, often fairly low in acid, so that its fruit flavors and feel resemble jam. Musty - A damp, moldy aroma, often associated with TCA (a corked wine) but can also be present in some wines which are not corked. Oaky - One of the most widely used wine tasting terms, oaky describes a wine with noticeable oak aromas and flavors. While subtle oakiness that integrates well with the other aromas and flavors in wine is often desireable, excessive oakiness can be a flaw. Different people have different tolerance for oak, some loving heavily oaked wines and some prefering little or no oak influence. Generally, oak imparts a woody aroma and flavor but can also add others as well. Depending on how charred the oak barrels were, you can get mild contributions of vanilla and toast all the way up to heavily charred and roasted coffee, chocolate and even burnt toast. Oxidized - Most wines should not be oxidized, which is caused by excessive exposure to oxygen. Sherry, most notably, is made in a way that encourages oxidation, and thus oxidized wines are also described as "Sherried" as well. If you don't know what Sherry smells like, it tends to have a nutty aroma. Oxidized wine can also generally be somewhat flat tasting and darkens in color, turning brown. Silky - This describes the mouthfeel of the wine as being silky in texture. Silky is considered to be the most soft and caressing of wine textures, often reserved to describe light- to medium-bodied wines with a soft grained texture like silk. Great wines have great mouthfeel, feeling complete and balanced but also having a texture that is very pleasing to your palate. Simple - This is the opposite of complex, meaning that a wine has straightforward, one-dimentional aromas and flavors. It lacks depth and complexity. Smoky - Wines can have smoky aromas either from their own characteristics (for example, Cote-Rotie typically has a smoky bacon-like aroma) or from oak aging. Oak, particularly if it is heavily charred, can impart a profound smoky, roasted aroma. Spicy - While spicy generally describes something which is hot, like hot peppers or salsa, in food, spicy, in wine tasting terms, describes a wine with aromas or flavors of spices such as cinnamon, clove, pepper, or nutmeg. Structure - The structure of a wine is those components which tend to support the body of the wine, holding it together, giving it lift and intensity. Acid, tannin and alcohol can all be said to be parts of a wine's structure. A very structured wine is one in which one or more components of the structure are quite predominant. While a wine needs structure to be balanced and avoid feeling flabby and flat, too much structure can feel harsh if out of balance with the other components of the wine. In general, wines that age well have considerable structure when young. Sweet - Another wine tasting term that is often misunderstood or misused because of its various uses. Sweet can mean that there is residual sugar in the wine which gives a sweet flavor like sugar. This is true mostly of dessert wines like Port, Sauternes, sweet Muscat, and others. Most table wines do not have significant residual sugar, with the exception of some Pradikat level German wines like Kabinett, Spatlesen and Auslesen. Most "table wines" have no residual sugar and therefore are not sweet by that definition. However, sweet is also used to describe a characteristic of the fruit in a wine. If a wine has ripe, fruity flavors, it can often be described as sweet. In this context it does not mean that it is literally sweet with sugar in it, but rather that it simply gives the impression of sweetness due to the ripe fruit flavors. This can be true of many table wines, white and red. Tannic - Describing a wine with a lot of tannin, the compound found in grape skins and stems. This creates the drying, slightly astringent sensation in your mouth. Red wines generally have much more tannin than white wines. Full-bodied red wines are often described as tannic in their youth. Tannins can be ripe and fairly soft and velvety in texture, or if they are green, they can be quite harsh and astringent. Tannins tend to fade away slowly with age. Vegetal - Describes a wine with significant vegetable-like aromas or flavors. While a bit of this is often nice, too much can be off-putting and considered a flaw, often resulting from under-ripe grapes. Velvety - Another wine tasting term describing the texture or mouthfeel of a wine. A velvety wine is one that is caressing and smooth like velvet. This is usually used to describe a wine that is slightly less soft and fine-grained than a "silky" wine, often for slightly fuller-bodied wines. The best wines will have a great mouthfeel, being either silky or velvety in texture. We hope all those wine tasting terms help build your vocabulary so that you can communicate your impressions of a wine more clearly and you can understand other tasting notes. If we did not cover any wine tasting terms that you are still confused about, let us know about it by Contacting Us. Let us know which wine tasting terms you want help with and we will email you and update this page to include them! Cheers! Go back to the How to Taste Wine page. Return to the Wine Tastings Guide home page. |
