Glossary

Acidity

Acidity is one of the major wine components detected on the palate and is necessary for a pleasing wine experience.  Acidity causes your mouth to water and can be detected by holding wine in the mouth, then spit or swallow and see how quickly the mouth fills with saliva.  Wines without enough acidity taste flat (like a flat cola).  Wines with too much acidity make you pucker.  Acidity comes from the grape themselves or is sometimes added during winemaking.  Acidity is also necessary for a wine to age well.

           

Alcohol

Alcohol is the reason we drink wine, right?  Ha Ha.  Just kidding.  Alcohol is a component of wine that can be detected on the nose and palate.  On the nose, high alcohol may cause the eyes to water and a warm sensation in the nostrils.  On the palate, alcohol can feel warm to hot.  Wines have varying degrees of alcohol with low levels in the 8% range, medium 12.5% and high 13.5% and above.  Yeasts eat sugar and convert it to alcohol in the fermentation process.  Alcohol is important to preserve wine and my calm demeanor.

Barnyard

Describes a set of flavors that are comprised of soil, hay, meatiness, and yes animal.  Sounds kind of gross, but in the right proportions it can make for a really interesting complex wine.  This wine style is more typical in “old world” or European style reds like Pinot Noir and SHOULD be paired with food.

Body
Body describes how heavy the wine feels in the mouth. Light bodied wines feel like skim or 1% milk.  Medium bodied wines feel like 2% milk.  Full bodied wines feel like whole milk up to heavy cream for wines that are very viscous.  Body is a result of alcohol, wood influence, tannin, varietal characteristic, and wine making techniques.  Red wines tend to have more body than whites because most experience some wood influence and all have longer contact with grape skins.  There are of course several exceptions.  Chardonnay can reach high alcohol levels, often undergoes malolactic fermentation creating a creamier mouth feel, and often is influenced by wood (even new oak barrels).  The Gamay grape grown in Beaujolais that undergoes carbonic maceration will be thin and fruity with very little tannin and no wood influence.  Wines from grapes grown in warmer climates tend to have more body because the grapes ripen to higher sugar levels and produce wines with more alcohol.  New world wines tend to be grown in warmer climates and grape growing laws allow interventions that can result in riper grapes or richer wines.  As red wines age, their tannins soften, resulting in less body.

Climate
Climate is the weather that is normally expected each year (the historical average weather.)  Weather is the current forecast.  Site climate refers to a single vineyard or sometimes part of a vineyard.

Color

Color can offer clues about the wine.  If tasting blind it can help determine the grape(s) used and sometimes the age.  It can also point to a fault in the wine.  White wines tend to get darker and more brown as they age.  Red wines tend to get move from red to brick or garnet to brown as they age and become lighter in color density.

Dry (see sweetness)

Dry is the opposite of sweet.  Sweet wines have a level of sugar that is detectable on the palate as a sweet sensation.  Dry wines do not have a level of sugar that is detectable on the palate.

Earthy

Earthiness is an aroma and a flavor.  It is more common in Old World or European style wines.  It is smells and taste as you would imagine – like soil and is desirable in complex wines.

Extraction/Extracted

Grape juice is almost always white.  Red grapes get their color because the juice soaks in the skins and “extracts” the color.  Tannin and flavor is also extracted.  The skins float to the top and have to be moved back into contact with the juice through various methods.  This concept often only surfaces in conversation if the wine is “over-extracted”.  This means the juice spent too much time on the skins or maybe the skins were very harshly reintegrated.  Tannin and fruit will not be balanced in over-extracted wines.

Finish

Finish is what the wine is like after you swallow (or spit).  Wait, isn’t that when you are supposed to just drink more?  Pause before you take that next sip and you will have an opportunity to evaluate the finish.  Can you still taste the flavors, feel the acidity and tannin, and get warmth from the alcohol. That is a great finish.  Can you still taste the flavors but the other components are gone?  That is still a good finish.  Are you left with just a lot of tannin or a burning alcohol?  That is not such a good finish.  Does it change and just taste bad?  That is an unpleasant finish – OR – it may be a wine that really needs food to be appreciated.  Tied into finish is the concept of length and that just means how long can you feel or taste these components.  You can imagine the better the finish the longer you want it to last.

Fortified Wines

Fruit

Wines have many fruit flavors and aromas.  The fruit can be described by the name of the fruit (i.e. blueberry) and by the nature (i.e. dried, unripe, fresh, cooked, jammy).  While there are some fruit wines made from fruits other than grapes, fine wines discussed in this blog are made from grapes.  Someone really good at science will have to explain why a wine made from only grapes can smell like peaches.

Fruit Bomb

My personal term used to describe wines that are nothing but fruit in a way that makes them seem lacking in complexity.

Fruit Forward

Used to describe wines where fruit is the dominant flavor.

Hot

Alcohol can have different qualities that are felt on the palate and sometimes the nose.  Alcohol that is well integrated may feel warm or you may not even notice it.  Some wines have a hot burning sensation in the mouth and throat – similar, although less than, felt when drinking a spirit.  In many cases this means the alcohol is overpowering the other components of the wine, therefore causing the wine to be out of balance.

Jammy

A term used to describe fruit that smells and tastes like sweet, fruity, cooked jam.

Lees

Yeasts eat sugar and convert it to alcohol during fermentation.  Then the yeasts die and the dead yeast cells are called lees.  Allowing wine to sit for a time with the lees changes the flavor and texture of the wine.  In some cases the lees are stirred around to increase the effect. Time on lees increases the body of the wine, reduces astringency, and in barrel fermented/aged wines decreases tannin.  Lees adds bready, yeasty, toasted flavors – especially in traditional method sparkling wines.  Lees also encourages malolactic fermentation.  Lees contact and stirring is more common with white wines, but is also common with reds.

Malolactic Fermentation

Malic acid and lactic acid are two common types of acids discussed in wines. Malic acids are the tart sour acids like those in green apples.  Lactic acids are milder and are the same as those found in yogurt.   Malolactic fermentation converts malic acids to lactic acids and results in milder, creamier acids that reduces acidity and imparts flavors of butter and hazelnut. This is a standard procedure in red winemaking but is not always part of white wine making especially in white wines where pure fruit flavors are the highlight.

Mid Palate

Mid palate is the experience of the wine midway through the time it is in the mouth.  The experience progresses from attack to mid palate to finish.

Minerality

Minerality is a term to describe aromas and flavors.  Some examples are stone, steel, flint, earth, petrol, tar, smoke, etc.  These aromas and flavors are a result of climate, soil, etc and are often more prominent in Old World or European styles wines.  For example Chablis is known for flint.

Nose

Nose means what you can detect from smelling the wine.  People will say, “I get blank on the nose.”  This is usually aromas that allude to the taste and age or development of the wine and also alert of wine faults.  Smell is very sensitive and is often a more important part of enjoying the wine than the taste alone.  Just try tasting wine while holding your nose to see the effect.

New World

Wine producing regions outside of Europe are new world wines (i.e. US. Australia, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa etc).  New world also refers to a style that typically means more fruit, more alcohol, easier to drink.  New world wines often reflect a style of wine more than a place.  These are very general terms and new world wine producers often copy the classic styles of the old world while old world producers copy the popular styles of the new world.

Old World

European wine producing regions are considered old world (i.e. France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, etc)  Old world also refers to a style that typically has more mineral flavors, less alcohol, and requires aging or food to enjoy properly.  Old world wines often reflect a place because the type of grape grown is connected to the region.  These are very general terms and old world producers often copy the popular styles of the new world while new world producers often copy the classic old world styles.

Oak

The better term to define is wood influence.  Wine fermented or matured in a wood container picks up tannin and flavors from the wood.  These vary by the type of wood, size of container, whether the container is toasted, how old the container is, how long the wine is kept in contact with the wood.  The most common type of wood is oak and there are differences in French oak and American oak.  American oak gives sweet, vanilla, and coconut flavors.  French barrels are made by a more expensive process and impart a broader, yet more subtle spectrum of flavors. Less expensive wine making processes will sometimes impart wood influence through the use of wood stakes submerged in the wines or even powders for wood flavoring.

Palate

Palate means the mouth and is used when speaking of how the wine is experienced in the mouth.  Flavors, body, alcohol, acid, tannins, mouth feel and finish can all be detected on the palate.  Flavors cannot be detected by the palate alone, but require the sense of smell.

Pairing

There are classic ideas about pairing wines with food.  It is good to either match or contrast flavors and to match weight.  A heavy meat preparation gets a full bodied wine.  While there is much to be said for pairing “rules”; rules are meant to be broken and the goal is always to pair a food and wine that enhance, not overpower, each other.

Residual Sugar

Yeasts convert sugar to alcohol.  If yeasts die, are killed, or are filtered out then not all of the sugar gets converted.  Residual sugar is unfermented sugar that remains in the wine after bottling.  All wines have some, while sweeter wines have enough to detect as sweetness,

Structure/Balance

Wine is made up of components such as body, acid, alcohol, tannins, and flavor.  The way these components support each other is structure.  When all components are in harmony and none overpowers another in an unpleasant way then the wine is balanced.

Sweetness

Sweetness can be confusing.  Sweetness indicates a level of sugar that is detectable on the palate.  This is detected as a sensation of sweetness, not a flavor.  Most wines are not sweet, but are dry (the opposite of sweet).  Many wines have sweet flavors such as fruit, vanilla, even alcohol can seem sweet.  These are still considered dry wines.

Tannin
Tannin is one of the major wine components detected on the palate.  Tannin causes the mouth to feel dry – especially along the inside of the lips and gum line, tongue and roof of the mouth.  Tannins come from grape skins and wood treatment and are therefore most prominent in red wines, although some rose and whites have small amounts of tannin.  Tannins are necessary for a wine to age.  As the wine ages, tannins precipitate with other molecules.  They become ‘softer” on the palate and allow the fruit flavors to be more prominent.

Tasting Pour

The name of your favorite wine blog – ha ha.  A tasting pour is a small pour of usually 1.5-2 oz that allows a taster to properly swirl and examine the wine – without wasting so much expensive juice when they just spit it out!!!!

Terroir

Terroir is a French word that encompasses all of the things about a place that can be expressed in a wine.  They include: climate of the area, climate of the vineyard, soil, grape variety, slope of the land, if the vineyard faces the sun, types of yeast, and area winemaking practices or requirements.

Wood influence (see Oak)