Wine Words: A Glossary for Beginners
Sound as if you Know What You're Talking About
Want to sound like you know what you’re doing? Here are a few words commonly used when talking about wine. Take a minute to learn what they mean in relation to drinking, and then think about them the next time you have a glass. Knowing what to look for in a wine may help you better notice common characteristics. For example, if you know spice is something a wine may have, when you taste it in the next red you drink, you may be able to identify it as “spice” instead of just something happening on your tongue that you can’t quite place.
acidity— this describes the sharp, crispness of a wine and is what makes it taste clean and fresh. Think of lemons, green apples, or nectarines.
aroma — how a wine smells. Doesn’t it sound much more sophisticated to say “This wine has a nice aroma” rather than “This wine smells good”?
balanced — not showing any one characteristic too strongly, for example, a white wine that is crisp and acidic but with enough fruit to carry it. Or, the opposite, a big, juicy red that has just enough acid to clean up after itself.
big — usually used to describe red wines that are bursting with flavor and rich color.
bold — also usually used to describe reds, often in conjunction with “big”
bright — vivid flavors that stand out in a pleasing way. Think about black coffee (where you can really taste the coffee beans) vs. coffee with cream (which mutes the coffee flavor).
buttery — really, just what it sounds like. Certain white wines will have a quality that may remind you of butter or cream — a richness that you can taste and sometimes also feel on your tongue.
citrus — flavor notes that remind you of citrus fruit. You can get away with ambiguity by saying “citrus” or be bold and pinpoint it! Lemon or lime? Orange or grapefruit? It’s all about what you’re experiencing.
clean — leaving no unpleasant residual flavors or feeling in your mouth; nice, crisp flavors. This usually means a wine has enough acid.
color — wine lovers often talk about the color of a wine, something I heartily endorse because I think we should enjoy every aspect of it, from the beautiful colors to the delicious taste.
complex — when there are a lot of things going on with a wine — lots of different flavors that pop up, often non-fruit flavors like spice, even mushrooms(?), forest aromas… and maybe they change the longer you keep it in your mouth or after you swallow
crisp — pretty self-explanatory. You’ll know a crisp wine when you taste it, because it’s direct and clean and doesn’t linger in your mouth much. Usually applied to whites.
dry — just a fancy way to say “not sweet.” This is often confused with high-acid, but it really just means a wine that isn’t sweet.
finish — that feeling and flavor you get just after you swallow a sip. As a wine flows over your tongue, you’ll pick up different tastes, and then again once you swallow it. The little bit left behind can sometimes explode with a new flavor, or may linger and slowly disappear. The latter is known as a “long finish.”
floral — flavors that remind you of how flowers smell. Might be roses, or lilac, or cherry blossoms, jasmine. Often perfume-y and delicate.
focused — when one flavor or characteristic particularly stands out. (This is a tough one to pin down. What you said is not actually wrong, but it falls short of what I think of when I call a wine focused. Let’s try to work out what I think it really means)
herbaceous — flavors that conjure green herbs, such as oregano, rosemary, mint, or dill.
high-toned — flavors that are lively, bright and typically high-acid. Think of how a raspberry tastes vs. a baked apple.
hot — a wine that has a perceptibly high (often to a fault), level of alcohol. It’s known as “hot” because you can often pick up heat in the back of your throat.
Looking for a way to say “this tastes lemony?”
jammy — wine, typically red, that is fruity but with a deeper, almost cooked quality. Does that make sense? Just think about how strawberry jam has a deeper, more concentrated flavor than eating a fresh strawberry.
juicy — when really delicious fruity flavors burst through in your mouth. Usually used describing a red. Some people really like a juicy wine — I’m one of them — while others prefer more subtle expressions.
layered — one of the reasons for swishing wine in your mouth just a bit before spitting or swallowing is to allow the layers of flavors to erupt. When the initial flavor gives way to others, you can say that wine is layered.
lush / luscious — similar to juicy, but richer.
minerality — usually in white wines, this describes a taste or aroma of salt, stone, or slate. I know that sounds hard to imagine, but especially wines from coastal regions will pick up a saltiness; and wines grown in certain types of soil will display qualities that remind you of licking a rock.
mouthfeel — an expression of texture, or quite simply, how the wine feels in your mouth; often described as a richness, or lack thereof.
nose — the smell, aroma. “This wine has a lot of fruit on the nose.”
refreshing — you know what this is. 🙂 Use it to talk about crisp whites.
rich — just as chocolate can be rich, or milk can be rich, or gravy can be rich.
ripe — fruity flavors that taste, well, ripe, rather than tart and green.
spice — some wines, usually reds, will give you notes of spices, cinnamon or cloves, may anise or pepper. They may be subtle but you can still pick them up amongst the fruitier elements.
smooth — a wine that’s just plain easy to drink and enjoy.
tannins — that quality in red wines that seems bitter, but is actually more of a drying, cotton-mouth feel. Some tannins can add nice structure, but can be off-putting, especially when a tannic wine is young.
vegetal — green flavors. May remind you of bell peppers.