The art of drinking wine can come with the dubious task of articulating what you smell or taste. Think about how many times you've tried to tell a friend about a wine, and your struggle with trying to find the right words...umm-hmm, thought so!

 

Describing wine requires a team effort - your nose, tongue and brain - to pick up scents, discern flavors and tastes and translate your experience to words. Not such an easy task, which is why most people often say I have no idea how to describe what I like. But I can tell you which brands I like.

So, here is where we come in. There are no wrong words in describing wine. Wine tasting is very subjective - you and the person next to you can have completely different words to describe wine. Enjoy the wine words and see what you know.

Acidity: an essential ingredient in wine, necessary to keep any wine fresh, acidity is often perceived as a level of tartness/zinginess. Acidity, ironically, helps to balance sweet wines by preventing them from being sickly-sweet.

Aroma (or "Nose"): the primary "smells" of the wine in the glass. As the adage goes, "The nose knows." This is certainly the case with tasting wine. The human nose can differentiate between thousands of scents, and it's the nose that allows us to get a handle on the various flavors a wine presents. The tongue is limited and can only truly differentiate sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. Try this: With an ounce or two of wine in a glass, swirl vigorously to aerate it. The wine's scents will be released and lifted toward your nose. Take a nice, slow breath in through your nose and think of what you smell. Jot down your initial impressions - go with your gut...don't worry about which words come out, even if it is shower curtain, green pepper or dirty socks. Now read them. What did you write down? "grass," "apple," "wet dirt," "fresh strawberries," "green pepper," "peach?" Interesting huh?

Balance: how the wine handles the four key components of alcohol, tannins, acidity and residual sugar. Ideally, these should be work together, and with one not more prominent than the others.

Barnyard: aromas and flavors that suggest an earthy, possibly musty quality, but not in a bad way. Think of the smell of a country road after a summer rain.

Body: the fullness, weight and concentration and total mouth feel of a wine - the way we categorize wines in the store. Think of wine's body like milk's body (skim, 2%, whole). Light-bodied wines have less body, while a full-bodied wine (like whole milk) would be notably more concentrated. Examples: light-bodied wines should feel similar to water in your mouth, while full-bodied wines should be more like whole milk, in terms of heaviness.

Bouquet: often used to refer to the complex layers or secondary scents on the nose.

Buttery: aromas and flavors that suggest butter - rich flavor, smooth texture and the reminiscent oily feel of butter.

Complex: opposite of simple - wine that has a lot going on in terms of aromas, flavors and concentration.

Creamy: a rich, smooth mouthfeel and fuller body. This characteristic is often brought about by having undergone a second malolactic fermentation process. Many barrel-aged Chardonnays are said to be "creamy".

Dry: presenting no sweetness at all. Not to be confused with bitterness or sourness.

Earthy: aromas and flavors that suggest wet or dry earth or minerals.

Finish: synonymous with "length." The amount of time a flavor lingers on the palate after the wine is swallowed. More is good.

Flabby: having no structure to the wine.

Fleshy: having a rich, texture and mouthfeel.

 

Harmony: having a graceful and pleasant balance of components.

 

Leather: rich aromas/flavors that suggest car leather, a baseball glove or jacket.

Lees: dead yeast cells that fall to the bottom of white wine after fermentation.

Minerality: flavors and aromas that suggest a mineral quality, such as flint, chalk, rocks, steel, etc.

Nutty: flavors and aromas of nuts in wine. Example: almonds, hazelnuts, etc.

 

Oaky: aromas/flavors imparted from being fermented and/or aged in oak barrels. These aromas and flavors can be represented by butterscotch, caramel, charred wood, smoke, toast, or vanilla. 

Palate: taste of the wine. Your nose tells you what you've smelled, the palate confirms the smells.

Petrol: aromas and flavors that suggest oil, rubber, tar, or gasoline.

Ripe: aromas and flavors that suggest perfectly aged fruit. Example: "The nose on that Pinot Noir suggest ripe strawberry and smoke."

Round: an agreeable balance of tannins and fruit.

 

Silky: having a smooth, supple texture.

Simple: not complex, but not neccesarily in a bad way. Simple can mean an uncluttered, straightforward quality

Spicy: having aromas/flavors that suggest spices - cinnamon, clove, pepper, etc.

Supple: having a fluid texture in the mouth, lacking roughness or harshness.

 

Tannins: this is the astrigent component of wine that dries out your mouth. A wine's pucker power. Derived from the skins, stems and seeds of the grapes used to produce the wine, tannins are largely responsible for the structure of the wine - think of tannins as the skeleton of the wine.

      Try this: Brew a strong cup of tea or coffee, and take a sip before adding any cream or sugar. That drying feeling in your mouth is from tannins.
 
Texture: how a wine feels in the mouth.

Varietal: the specific grape used to make a wine. Example: Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are two different types of red wine grape varietals.

 

Young: wine of a younger vintage.