Wine is a complex subject. It can also be mysterious, obscure, pretentious, and embarrassing. Everyone knows the language sometimes used can sound like utter nonsense. Talking wine can easily become an 'Us vs. Them' sort of thing. I know; you don't. Unfortunately, language is the only tool we have to help explain wine. Like most other useful activities, wine has its own special vocabulary.

They say that 'close is only good in hand grenades and horseshoes'. Close is as good as it gets with wine words.

When someone says a certain wine tastes or smells of something else, it obviously can't do that exactly. Wine basically tastes and smells of... well... wine. All it can be is itself. Words do fail absolutely. The best to hope for is to describe our way around such an intangible subject. Wine words simply suggest that certain parts of a wine can have some similarities to or remind us of something else. This can be useful, trust me on this. Besides, attempting to creep up on wine like this is a damned sight better than saying nothing at all. And a lot more fun. PAUL WHITE©


Glossary of Terms
balanced:
A wine is balanced when all of its characteristics work together in harmony, with nothing overpowering anything else.

botrytis cinerea:
Also called Noble Rot. A useful virus that infects grapes, generally late in the harvest, and is beneficial to dessert wine production. Botrytis sucks the water out of the grapes, leaving behind raisin-like fruit with concentrated sugar in its juice.

carbonic maceration:
A special fermentation technique used to soften acids/tannins prematurely, thus creating a red wine that is drinkable in its youth. Results in a fresh, deeply perfumed, fruity, wine that is also soft, juicy and viscous. Sometimes the technique produces a smell of bananas and bubble gum, which quickly disappears, leaving behind a wine smelling intensely of strawberries, raspberries and other freshly picked fruits.

complex:
A wine with many different positive qualities, often with compounded flavours.

corked:
A relatively common wine fault where a bacteriologically tainted cork flavours the wine with a wet cardboard/mouldy aroma. Usually the wine tastes of the same.

evolution:
How a wine changes, either in the mouth, in the glass or over longer periods of time in the bottle.

finish:
How the wine disappears in the mouth and down the throat. A great finish will either melt away slowly or linger with a residue of flavours. Balanced acidity often plays an important role in creating an impression of the quality of a wine's finish.

forward:
A wine that is maturing quickly or purposefully made to be drunk when young. Strong flavours tend to hit at front of mouth.

generic wines:
An outdated practice stilled used in New Zealand, California and Australia that is now outlawed by law. These old fashioned wine styles were labelled as Chablis, Claret, Burgundy, Sherry, Port pretending to have a stylistic relationship to the original European wines from each of these geographical regions. Rarely were the same grape varieties used, and rarer still would the generic wine actually taste like the original it was modelled on.

late harvest:
Designates extremely ripe grapes, hand-picked (often grape by grape) late in or after the harvest. These intensely sweet grapes produce either rich, low alcohol dessert wines or powerfully rich semi-dry, high alcohol wines.

length:
Describes how long the flavours last in the mouth: long, medium, short

methode Champenoise:
The method used in the Champagne region of France to produce the highest quality sparkling wines with the finest grade of bubbles. Wine is put through a secondary fermentation in the very bottle it is eventually sold in. Depending on where from, the words Cava, Methode Traditionelle or Fermented in this Bottle describe the same method.

mid-palate:
How the wine feels and behaves in the middle part of the mouth after its initial impression. Often a key factor in dividing a great wine from an average wine. Average wines often fall down in the middle part of their trip through the mouth.

mouth feel:
A common Southern Hemisphere wine term used to describe a wines texture.

nose:
The 'bouquet' or perfume or, sometimes, stink of a wine. When a wine is said to have a nose it is actually what a nose is getting from the wine when it is stuck itself down into the glass.

oxidised:
A fault that indicates a wine which has had too much exposure to air, possibly from a leaky cork, leaving behind an unpleasant caramelised, sherry-like aroma and flavour.

palate:
This is a general word used to describe how the wine behaves in the mouth cavity, primarily used to summarise flavours and textures. But it also helps to think in terms of an artist's palette full of dabs of colours waiting to become a completed painting.

short:
A wine flavour that suddenly disappears in the mouth

straight forward:
A wine that either functions well in a singular, uncluttered way or is simple in character. Often the opposite of complex.

tannins:
A naturally occurring chemical that helps to preserve red wine. Tannins are created by the stems (harsh), pips (harsh) and skin (soft) of grapes and have the capacity to ripen during the growing season, just as the grape's flesh ripens. Generally speaking 'fine' quality tannins are less astringent and easier to taste than 'hard' or 'coarse' tannins, which tend to sting the inside of the mouth.

up front:
The initial impact of a wine as it enters the mouth and touches on our most sensitive nerves (lips, tongue, gums, cheeks). Can also mean a wine that is 'forward' in nature.

weight:
A term used to describe the texture and overall impression of a wine's body. Words commonly used are thick, thin, heavy, light or dense.