Wine Terms You May Be Baffled By

Acid/Acidity:
Stuff that makes wine taste sharp.
Also contributes to
the bouquet and brilliance.
Can have too much or too little.

Acrid:
Describes a wine
with overly pronounced acidity.
This is often apparent in cheap red wines.

Aeration:
The process of letting a wine "breathe".

Aftertaste:
The taste or flavors that linger
in the mouth after the wine is
tasted, spit, or swallowed.

Age/Aged/Aging:
To let get older
under controlled conditions
in order to improve flavor.
All wine is aged
from a few weeks to many decades.
Aging in barrels
is a very slow oxidation,
and the barrels can impart flavors to the wine:
bottle aging allows the wines to soften and
various components within the wine
to harmonize.
After a certain point
all wine will decline in the bottle.

Alcohol:
The whole point.
The part of wine that makes you drunk.
Why am I telling you this?
You know all about alcohol, don't you?

Aperitif:
Any wine drunk before eating,
ostensibly to induce
appetite, but in fact
as an excuse to start drinking early.

Appellation:
Defines the area
where a wine's grapes were grown
such as Bordeaux or Burgundy.

Aroma:
Smell ( Next Question )

Attractive:
A lighter style, fresh , easy to drink wine.

Balance:
A tasting term, states whether
the fruit, acid, wood flavors
etc. are in the right proportion.

Blending:
The art and science
of mixing wines and/or spirits.

Blanc:
French word for white.

Body:
Hmmmmm......
Sort of the oomph a wine has.
The flavor
( or perhaps the character )
per unit volume.

Bouquet:
See Aroma

Brandy:
A liqueur distilled from wine aged in wood.

Brut:
French word for dry.

Buttery:
Associated with some white wines,
notably California Chardonnays.
It refers to both flavor and texture or "mouthfeel."

Carbonic Maceration:
Fermentation of whole, uncrushed grapes
in a carbon dioxide atmosphere.

Champagne:
Any lightish, whitish wine
that is sparkling ( ie:fizzy )

Cognac:
The finest of all Brandies
aged in oak vats for a minimum
of 3 years.

Complexity:
A combination of richness, depth, flavor intensity
balance, finesse, and lots of other fancy words
that let you know this is a really good wine.

Cordials:
See Liqueurs

Crisp:
A tasting term,
denotes a fresh, young, wine
with good acidity.

Decanting:
Slowly and carefully pouring
the wine from the bottle.

Developed:
A tasting term
referring to the maturity of a wine.

Dry:
Not sweet,
in the same way that "cold" means not hot...

Earthy:
Describes a wine that tastes
of the soil in which it was grown.
Red wines most often have this characteristic.

Extra-Dry:
Don't believe everything you read.
What this really denotes is
a sweet Champagne.

Fermentation:
The process that turns the lowly grape
into wonderful wine.

Finish:
See Aftertaste

Flinty:
Used to describe the fragrance
or taste of some white wines,
especially a White Bordeaux.
If you can remember what flint smells like
when struck with steel,
you'll have an idea of this characteristic.

Fortified:
More alcohol !

Fruity:
Surprise ! Surprise !
Having the taste of fruit.

Green:
Tasting of un-ripe fruit.
Not a bad thing really
especially in a Riesling.

Heady:
Used to describe the smell
of a wine high in alcohol.

Herbaceous:
The taste and smell of herbs in a wine.

Late harvest:
Wines made from grapes
that were allowed to hang on the vine
until their sugar content was very high, thus the
wine is sweet.

Lees:
Sediment remaining in a barrel
during and after fermentation.

Legs:
The droplets that form and ease down
the sides of a glass
when the wine is swirled.

Liqueurs:
Sweet flavored alcoholic beverage
distilled from
rum, brandy, or whisky.

Maceration:
During fermentation,
the steeping of the grape
skins and solids in the wine,
to extract color and aroma from the skins.

Malolactic Fermenation:
A secondary fermentation process
,which occurs naturally in most wines.

Mature:
Ready to drink.

Methode Champenoise:
The method by which
real Champagne gets its bubbles.

Mouthfeel:
How a wine feels in your mouth
and against the tongue.

Noble Rot:
The beneficial mold on grapes
that causes the grapes to
shrivel, concentrating the sugars and flavours.

Neutral:
Generally used to describe a wine
without any outstanding characteristics,
but with no particular bad ones, either.

Nose:
Smell again !

Nouveau:
New, okay bottled as soon as possible.

Oaky:
Aroma & Taste of Oak

Palate:
The feel and taste of wine in the mouth.

Potent:
Strong, Intense, Powerful ( Got It ? )

Round:
Describes a wine
that has a good balance of fruit and tannins,
with good body as well.

Short:
Term for a wine
which does not remain on the palate
after swallowing - see 'finish.'

Simple:
Used to describe a wine
that has few characteristics
which follow the initial impression.
Not necessarily a disparaging term,
it's often used to describe
inexpensive, young wine.

Smoky:
Term used to describe
a subtle wood-smoke aroma and
also some wines that seem
to pick up a smoky aroma from
the earth in which they are grown.

Soft:
Term to describe a wine
with low acid and gentle tannins.

Spicy:
Term to describe flavors that are spicy.
Now that wasn't too hard to figure out was it.

Supple:
Describes a wine with well-balanced tannins
and fruit characteristics.

Tannin:
Adds dryness and astringency.
Handy if you know
what astringency means.

Toasty:
Often used to describe a white wine
with a nice hint of the wooden barrel
in which the wine was stored.
Sweeter wines are rarely described this way.

Vintner:
Wine Merchant