How to Talk About Wine

Guide Note

Connoisseurs discuss wine in a language that many people can barely fathom. But, like any other craft or hobby, the sometimes exotic terms one finds in serious wine discussions are based on concrete tastes and flavors. This guide will teach you not only how to understand complicated wine talk, but also how to describe the many flavors of different wines.

Table of Contents

Tips on Talking About Wine

  1. Different people appreciate different tastes, so take reviews with a grain of salt.
  2. Complex descriptions for flavor often have more easily-understood synonyms.
  3. Certain terms like "nose" have different meanings amongst wine enthusiasts than in typical English.
  4. Wine flavors are determined by five major factors: tannins, alcohol, fruit, acid and glycerol
  5. Wine terms can describe more than just how it tastes on your tongue.

More Mahalo Wine Tutorials

Newest How To Guides

Beat the cold of winter by making the perfect cup of hot chocolate

Count down the days to Christmas with a homemade advent calendar

Get into the holiday spirit by roasting chestnuts

Need to save money? Learn how to spend less on food

All the information you need to make the digital TV switch

Introduction

  • If you're unfamiliar with flowery wine-speak, you might think wine connoisseurs are just a bunch of drunken, failed poets. Who else would compare the taste of Pinot Noir to a tree, or find "notes of chalk and oregano" in a beverage containing neither? While anyone who's seen Sideways knows how silly it can sound, Winese does contain some rhyme and reason. Read on if you don't believe it.

Sources of Confusion

  • Before attempting to define an "oaky, fruit-forward, vivid Pinot Noir," let's try to identify what it is exactly that makes wine-speak so impenetrable. Here are a few of its more troublesome attributes.
  • Don't let wine-speak make you nervous. It's actually somewhat comprehensible. (Creative Commons photo by Harry Heng)
    Don't let wine-speak make you nervous. It's actually somewhat comprehensible. (Creative Commons photo by Harry Heng)
  • Use of synonyms
  • Maybe because wine is the official beverage of romance, connoisseurs tend to wax poetic. In the process, they use a bundle of different words for the same concepts.
    • For example, the terms "juicy" and "fruit-forward" mean essentially the same thing, while off-dry and slightly sweet are often used interchangeably, as are purity and clarity, and on and on.
  • Non-intuitive definitions
  • A word can mean one thing in wine parlance that means something else in conversational English.
    • "Nose" means smell, for example, while "aroma" has a more specific connotation.
    • "Fruity" has nothing to do with sweetness.
  • Subjectivity
  • The flavor of wine, like taste in music, is subjective.
    • What's "oaky" to one reviewer might taste "leathery" to another.
    • It doesn't help that wine reviewers are sometimes drunk, making their perception even less reliable.
  • Nonetheless, let's attempt to sort out what these terms are supposed to mean.

Elements

  • The first step in cutting through the colorful language is to zero in on what's most important. There are five essential building blocks of wine, the interaction of which determine how it will taste.

Tannins

  • Tannins are the astringent compounds in fruit that make your mouth pucker when you taste them.
    • The skins of red grapes are high in tannins, as are red wines.
    • Tannins break down with age, so older vintages are less astringent.
    • In a 2006 study published in the journal Nature, the tannins in red wine were shown to be linked to a reduced risk of heart disease. [1].

Alcohol

  • In the fermentation process, a portion of the wine's natural grape sugar content is converted to alcohol.
    • Whatever sugar is not converted to alcohol accounts for the wine's level of sweetness.
    • Alcohol has little or no flavor in itself, but does impact flavor by interracting with other elements in wine.
    • As you may know, alcohol is reported to have certain intoxicating properties.

Fruit

  • Just what it sounds like: the flavors and smells of fruit themselves (but not the sweetness).
    • Obviously, this attribute comes from grapes, but depending on the wine, the fruit element is said to be reminiscent of various other fruit, such as apple, raspberry and melon.

Acid

  • The acid in wine comes from the fruit acids in the grape, including acetic acid, malic acid, lactic acid and citric acid.
    • Its content and character is manipulated during fermentation for proper balance with the other elements.
    • White wines are more acidic, reds generally less so.

Glycerol

  • Glycerol is a syrupy, slightly sweet substance that's produced during the fermentation process.
    • Though less noted as an element of wine than tannins, fruit, acidity and alcohol, it is important in conferring a sense of smoothness to wine.



Paul Giamatti as Miles in Sideways, waxing poetic over Pinot Noir. His monologue is far more accessible than most wine writing.


Concepts

Certain terms of wine-speak refer to broader topics than individual flavors or characteristics. Here are a few essentials.

Nose

  • Nose is essentially the smell of the wine, generally split into two categories: aroma and bouquet.
    • Aroma: the smell deriving from the grapes themselves.
      • Younger wines are typically said to have a strong aroma.
    • Bouquet: the more complex smell deriving from aging and fermentation in bottles.
      • Older wines gain a stronger bouquet.

Body

  • Body is the texture or consistency of the wine.

Dryness and Sweetness

  • As wine ferments, part of the sugar inherent in the grape juice turns to alcohol.
    • Wines with very little sweetness, in which nearly all of the sugar has been fermented, are called dry.
    • By contrast, sweet wines retain a high proportion of residual sugar from the grapes.

Balance and Structure

  • Some connoisseurs claim to taste the soil itself, or "terroir," in the wine. (Creative Commons photo by Dominic Rivard)
    Some connoisseurs claim to taste the soil itself, or "terroir," in the wine. (Creative Commons photo by Dominic Rivard)
  • Balance and structure both refer to essentially the same thing: the relationship between the different elements of wine that lends it a particular character.
    • The chief attributes in wine that require balance are acidity, fruit, tannins, alcohol and sweetness.
    • Wines with unpleasant combinations of these elements are said to be unbalanced, or poorly structured.

Finish

Terroir

  • Terroir (pronounced "ter-wah") is one of those French terms (like "deja vu") that require about a paragraph of English to translate. A common rough translation, though, is "sense of place"—the flavors, fragrances and other qualities imbued in the wine by the actual location in which the grapes are grown.

Adjectives

  • Wine connoisseurs can become very lyrical under the spell of a certain vintage, but they're not always just pulling adjectives out of the fog. There are a number of words that are commonly used, and whose meanings are generally agreed upon.
  • Note that this list could go on indefinitely. For more terms, see Epicurious.com's Wine Dictionary.
  • Fruit-forward: wine with strong flavors of fruit.
    • This does not necessarily connote sweetness.
    • Synonyms: Fruity, Juicy, Fresh
  • Sour: wine with excess acid.
    • Synonyms: Harsh, Vinegary
  • Crisp: wine that's nicely acidic.
    • Synonyms: Bright, Lively, Brisk
  • Flabby: wine with too little acid.
    • Bears as negative a connotation as it does in reference to a "flabby" person.
    • Synonyms: Flat, Oxidized
  • Vivid: a wine whose flavors can be readily distinguished and appreciated.
  • Muddled: wine of low clarity, whose flavors are difficult to taste and identify.
    • Synonyms: Murky
  • The taste of "oakiness" comes from oak barrels. (Creative Commons photo by Jim G)
    The taste of "oakiness" comes from oak barrels. (Creative Commons photo by Jim G)
  • Oaky: wine that has assumed a hint of oak from the oak barrels in which it was aged.
    • This is generally considered a positive attribute for red wine.
    • Oakiness is sometimes identified as hints of vanilla or coconut.
    • Synonyms: Woody
  • Corky: wine whose flavor has been contaminated in the bottle by a rotting cork.
  • Minerally: the literal flavor of minerals, or rocks, and generally a good thing.
    • Think of the taste of mineral water and you'll get the idea.
    • Whites are generally more minerally.
  • Earthy: containing overtones of herbs and tar, but not necessarily form the soil in which the grapes were raised (see Terroir). This flavor is often said to come from the wood in the aging barrels.
  • Toasty: wine that has assumed a hint of toasted wood from the barrel.
  • Tannic: high in tannins and astringent, making your mouth pucker. Not necessarily negative, unless unbalanced.
  • Round: wine with an agreeable balance if tannins and fruit.
    • Synonyms: Full-flavored
  • Young: wine of younger vintage, not necessarily green.
  • Old: wine of older vintage, usually at least ten years.
  • Hot: wine that's highly alcoholic, or unbalanced wine whose chief impression is that of bare alcohol.
  • Spicy: literally spicy, as in being reminiscent of clove, cinnamon and basil.
  • Complex: a well-balanced wine with an interesting array of flavors that work well together.
  • Simple: Not complex, but not necessarily a bad thing.
    • Can connote straightforward or uncluttered flavors.
  • Ripe: Tasting of grapes ripened to perfection. Generally, a combination of sweetness and fruitiness.

Self-explanatory adjectives

  • The following are just a few of the adjectives applied to wine that need no explanation. They imply exactly what they seem to imply, in terms of nose, flavor, or both. Keep in mind that these do tend to be highly subjective, as well as occasionally redundant.
  • Peppery
  • Sappy
  • Zesty
  • Citrusy
  • Turpentinelike
  • Aromatic
  • Floral
  • Perfumy
  • Smoky

Subscribe to Mahalo's Weekly How To Email Newsletter

  • Get our best How To tips and ideas in your inbox each week

Resources for How to Understand Wine Jargon