Wine Terms

Have you ever heard a sommelier describe the acidity of a wine and have no idea what the term meant? For that matter, what is a sommelier? It’s a restaurant employee who purchases wine for the establishment and assists customers in choosing wine to pair with their dinner. Below are a few common, but useful terms to help the wine drinker improve their wine savvy.

 Acidity: All wines naturally contain acids that need to be kept in balance. Sufficient acidity gives the wine a crisp, refreshing and a thirst-quenching quality. However, when acidity is too low the wine’s flavors are dull and might be called flat; too high acidity and the wine becomes tart or sharp.

Body: The impression of weight, fullness or thickness on the palate. These are usually the result of a combination of alcohol, sugar and glycerin.

Clarity: The wine’s reflective quality: brilliant, clear, dull or hazy. A pronounced haziness may signify the wine has spoiled.

Decant: A technique to remove sediment from the wine before drinking. Also, this allows the wine to breathe. Decanting is a simple process of pouring wine from its bottle into another bottle or container.

Fermentation: The process in which yeast metabolizes grape sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide and transforming grape juice into wine.

Finish: The length of time wine’s flavors linger in your mouth after swallowing. Generally, a longer finish indicates a higher quality wine.

Palate: The different sections of taste in the mouth. As the wine travels through the mouth, it contacts the front palate, then middle and finally the back palate. All of these can process different tastes, such as sweet, sour and bitter.

Residual Sugar: Unfermented grape sugar in a finished wine. Residual sugar adds sweetness and body to a wine.

Sediment: As wines age, color pigments and tannins bond together and fall out of solution producing natural sediment. Sediment is not harmful, but has a bitter taste and adversely affects the wine’s mouth feel.

Structure: The framework of wine consists of several components: alcohol, acid, sugar and tannins. Good wines must have a balanced underlying structure to support the other flavor components within the wine.

Tannin: A natural component found in grape skins, seeds and stems. It is prominent in red wines, where it creates a dry, puckering sensation in young reds. Tannins soften with age and are a major component in the structure of wine. Excessive, unbalanced tannins can taste bitter and leave the same drying, furry sensation in the mouth as strong tea.