Understanding "wine language"

Have you ever been in a situation where you want to order wine and ask for advice from a waiter, manager or sommelier, and they start to describe the wine with unusual words like "tannins", "full body", "oaked", "long finish" etc?

To help you understand what these words describe, here are some of the 4 main factors that affect the taste of wine. 

1. Aroma

When describing aromas, there are two key points to consider: 

1-Intensity of the aroma (is it highly aromatic, powerful and inviting or is it more subtle?)

2- A description of what the wine’s aroma reminds you of.

Aroma is the smell of the grapes used to make the wine. Wine-making modifies these aromas in different ways. Malolacting fermentation produces butterscotch aromas, while aging in oak barrels contributes to the hint of vanilla.

2. Flavor

Even though all wines are made from grapes, the process of fermenting and cellaring wine creates a myriad of flavors that reminding you of fruit characteristics that are not a part of the ingredients, just a development. 

Commonly, many white wines taste like tree fruits (such as apple, pear or peaches), tropical fruits (such as pineapple, melon or banana) and citrus fruits (such as grapefruit, orange and lemon/lime).

Red wines are often placed in two camps: red-berry and black berry fruits. Red fruit flavors include cherries, strawberries, raspberries and currant. Black fruit flavors include blackberries, blueberries, plum, raisins or blackcurrants. 

In additional to fruits, some other flavors may be detected such as oak, spice, vanilla pepper, herbs, chocolate, coffee, tobacco.

3. Body

The term “body” refers to the feeling of weight a wine seems to have in your mouth. 

A good way to understand this is to imagine a difference between the feel of skim milk, whole milk and cream. 

A wine’s body can simply be described as light, medium and full. Other words are heavy or light, thick or thin, velvety or powerful, sleek or robust. 

A wine’s body is usually linked to the level of alcohol content within.

4. Tannin

Tannin and oak are usually present together. It is detected primary in red wines since it’s an acid found in the pigment of grape skins and new oak. 

The effect of tannin is best compared to the sensation you feel when drinking strong, unsweetened tea.

Of course, the main differentiation are the type of grape and its place or country of origin.