The wine lexicon is thousands of words long, but there are a few common terms you might hear when talking to wine people. Here are some typical words and phrases you should know.
“Fruit Forward” — The next time you pour a glass of wine, take a moment to think about its aroma (its “nose”) emerging from the glass. Wine is subtle, but there are a few easy tasting notes you’ll usually be able to find. A white wine will oftentimes have notes of lemon or green apple. A red wine will probably have a bit of cherry. There are hundreds of other possible tasting notes, though, ranging from floral to barnyard. If someone calls a wine “fruit forward,” its tasting notes are predominantly fruity.
Body — When someone talks about a wine’s body, they’re talking about several things coming together at once. There’s its alcohol level, which you can feel as a burning in the back of your mouth when you exhale — a “dragon’s breath” kind of sensation. (You can also just read the wine label — almost every wine lists its alcohol percentage right on the bottle.) Generally speaking, “full-bodied” wine likely has higher levels of alcohol and tannins. Other factors also come into play, such as the wine’s acidity. A dry, lower-alcohol wine with higher acidity is likely “light-bodied.” Pinot noir and Beaujolais are common light-bodied wines. Cabernet sauvignon and shiraz tend to be full-bodied.
Skin contact — A wine’s color is determined not by the grape’s juice (which is clear), but by the grape’s skin. Red wines — made from pressed red and black grapes — are fermented with their grape skins, which impart their color. When winemakers are making whites (made from green and yellow grapes), they press the juice and remove the skins immediately. Those in the middle — rosé wines and orange wines — are called “skin contact” wines. Rosés are made from red grapes that soak with their skins for about 12 to 24 hours — just long enough to impart a pink color; then the skins are removed. Orange wines, made usually with white grapes, soak with their skins for days to years, but typically a few months, usually giving the wine an orange hue.
Tannins — Sometimes, when you sip a red wine, you’ll feel a sandpaper-like texture as it slides across your tongue. Those are the wine’s tannins bonding with the salivary proteins on your palate. (Note that this has nothing to do with whether a wine is “dry,” and most people who say they dislike “dry wines” are talking about tannins — and that’s not what “dry” actually means in wine-speak.) A fine wine with high tannins will oftentimes age beautifully. Across many years and sometimes decades, those tannins will soften and yield sublime, complex wines with beautiful flavors impossible to replicate any other way.
Dry — When wine people talk about whether a wine is “dry,” they are talking about its level of sweetness — not its tannins. Dry wines have little sugar in them. As the sugar content increases, so too does the wine’s sweetness. Between “dry” and “sweet,” there are such designations as off-dry and medium, usually noted on the label. Most red, white and rosé wines are dry. Sweet wines sometimes include moscato and Lambrusco, and many dessert wines such as sherry and port. Note that just because a wine is “sweet” doesn’t mean it will taste sugary. Frequently, these wines also have high levels of acidity to balance out the sweetness.
