People use a lot of different English words to describe wine. From zesty and angular to full and jammy and even earthy and austere, there are so many wine keywords in fact that it can feel overwhelming to try and learn them all, particularly if you’re new to wine. The thing to understand about describing wine is first you have to be able to fully taste the wine, and when you’re tasting the wine, you need to know what to look for and which attributes to pay attention to.
There are a few major characteristics we commonly touch on when we describe wine. The body, texture, acidity, and alcohol content are all key, as well as the aromas and flavors. Which aromas did you perceive first? Which fruits could you taste? Were there notes of strawberry or was it more cherry and blueberry in your glass? There’s also the length of those flavors to consider. For example, how long did the taste of the wine hang around in your mouth? In other words, what’s the finish like?
We also tend to discuss the integration of these elements. How did the wine come together to give you an overall mouthfeel and impression? Is it elegant, powerful, austere, vivacious… we could go on, but these tend to be the English wine words most poked fun at by wine aficionado characters in movies and books. While you don’t have to jump straight to the more odd-sounding descriptors, don’t be afraid to get a little out there when you’re talking about wine. It’s not an exact science after all!
If you’re new to wine
One thing you can do when you’re just starting out is to learn about different grape varieties and what their overall characteristics are (here is a beginners guide to red and white grapes). Some grapes have high acidity and some have low. Some are known for their earthy profiles and others have more upfront berry-like fruit. If you know which grapes are in your wine, this gives you a framework for what it might taste like.
We also recommend going through a series of steps (see below) every time you taste a wine, and making notes. You can use the descriptions that you find on the bottle to guide you. Another idea is to attend a tasting. This is a great way to discover new wines and hear how other people describe them.
Overall, the more wines you taste, the more your palate will develop so can identify the more subtle notes and secondary flavors in your glass.
Describing a wine
Aromas
Start with describing the aromas you can smell when you bring the wine close to your nose. These are often referred to as the nose of the wine, e.g. the nose on this wine has apricot and melon with a hint of vanilla. Are the aromas quite prominent or more subtle? Sometimes you’ll find bold and full aromas that come right out at you, like in a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc which has gooseberry and tropical fruits on the nose. However, the aromas can also be more mild and closed, it depends on the wine and its development.
Note, you may also want to discuss the bouquet. Bouquet is a bit different from aromas in that it’s more commonly referenced when you’re talking about the secondary characteristics that develop as a wine ages. For example, you could say a young red wine has primary aromas of currant, cherry, and violet whereas you might say the bouquet on an older wine is giving you earthy tones like wet leaf, mushrooms and leather.
Body and texture
After you smell the wine, you want to swirl it a bit in the glass. This will give you an indication of its body and texture. A wine can be light-bodied, medium-bodied or full-bodied. A good way of thinking about it is watered down orange juice, regular orange juice, or orange juice with pulp. A wine’s body doesn’t impact the kinds of aromas and flavors you’ll get, but it does change the concentration and intensity of these elements, and the overall mouthfeel.
Body is also related to texture. A wine can be silky and smooth, or mouth-filling. If it has a lot of tannins, like a Cabernet Sauvignon, you might even call it chewy! Tannins are what make your mouth pucker when you taste red wine. Pinot Noir is a red with low tannins whereas Syrahs have medium tannins and Cabernets are highly tannic.
Top Tip: Before you smell the wine, lift your glass up to the light and observe the color. Different grape varietals are associated with different colors. Learn more about describing a wine’s color in this article.
Primary fruit and floral notes
Wines can have vastly different flavor profiles that become easier to untangle the more your palate develops. You’ll often find fruit is one of the easiest elements to identify, but you may also find floral tones, like rose petal and violet, stand out. Here are some common fruit notes in red wines: cherry, cassis, raspberry, strawberry, currents, blueberry, blackberry, and plum. In whites you can get lemon, citrus, grapefruit, lime, tropical fruits, gooseberry, green and yellow apple, stone fruits like apricot and peach, and melon, among others.
Secondary flavors and length
Many wines also have secondary flavor profiles that emerge later on. There may be spices, earthy tones and mineral notes like granite and wet stone. Here are some secondary flavors you can find in red wines: tobacco, chocolate, white pepper, leather, forest floor, vanilla, cinnamon, exotic spices, mushroom, wood, and bacon fat. White wines can have tea, mineral notes, baking spices, anise / licorice, hay and grass, and wild herbs. Remember, these elements may take longer to develop and you might not discover them until your third sip (or later).
Acidity and alcohol
All wines have a certain amount of acid and different degrees of alcohol. These properties are dependent on the grape varieties, where the grapes were grown (the weather and climate they were exposed to), as well as the fermentation process the wine underwent. A wine with high acidity, like a Riesling, might be quite tart and sharp. A medium acid wine, for example, a Chardonnay or a Syrah, can be crisp but still bright and fresh. Low acidity is more common in red grapes that were grown in hot climates. You might find low acid wines to be more mild and some people even describe them as flat and flabby in their overall mouthfeel.
Alcohol content is related to a wine’s body. Usually the more alcohol, the fuller in body the wine is.
Balance, integration and structure
When we taste wine, we talk about the individual characteristics of the grape varietal(s), but also how they come together. Is the wine balanced or is there too much fruit? Is it rough or smooth? Is it highly structured or more straightforward? Often more expensive reds, which can be aged, will be more structured and have greater depth to their flavor profiles.
Dry vs sweet
How dry a wine is is the amount of residual sugar left over after the grapes in the wine have been fermented. Dry wines, like Sauvignon Blanc, tend not to be sweet. Medium-dry wines can sometimes be a little sweeter, for example, some Pinot Grigios and Chenin Blancs fall into this category. Beware that sometimes a wine’s fruit can be so lush, it gives you an impression of sweetness, even though the wine is dry.
23 Words to describe wine
- Acidic – When we say a wine is acidic, it typically means there’s a lack of balance. The acidity may be overpowering the fruit.
- Angular – If you taste a wine that feels somewhat one-dimensional in its characteristics, you might call it angular. It could be a young wine where the flavor profile hasn’t fully emerged.
- Austere – When you say a red wine is austere it means it’s not fleshy. It doesn’t give you that rounded fruit you’ll have with some reds.
- Balanced – You’d call a wine balanced if all of its elements (aromas, flavors, length of the finish, mouthfeel) are well integrated.
- Bone-dry – Bone-dry is a term used for wines where there’s absolutely no residual sugar. You’ll taste some fruit, but without any sweetness.
- Buttery – Buttery is a word reserved for whites, mainly Chardonnays that have gone through full malo-lactic fermentation. It tends to be used for big, rich and mouth-filling wines that were aged in oak.
- Citrusy – This is a descriptor for whites with a lot of lemon, grapefruit, and lime in their aroma and flavor profile.
- Complex – Wines that exhibit a lot of elements, from tannins to the ripeness of their fruit, you might say are complex, structured and full.
- Crisp – Wines that have good acidity, especially in their finish, are described as crisp.
- Dark – This is a red wine descriptor. If you have a wine that’s opaque (you can’t see your fingers through the glass, for example a Petite Sirah), you might call it dark.
- Elegant – An elegant wine is smooth. It might be a big wine but there’s some restraint to its fruit and its acidity is well balanced, with a long silky finish.
- Full-bodied – When you have a really full-flavored and mouth-filling wine, it’s full-bodied. It will typically also have a rich texture, a more intense flavor, and a long finish.
- Jammy – Jammy means that thick fruit dominates. It’s a word that tends to be reserved for red grape varietals.
- Light-bodied – A light-bodied wine will be less complex and have less intensity to its flavors. Light-bodied wines tend to be more easy-drinking. You can consume them young and they are often not as expensive as full-bodied wines.
- Oaky – A wine that has been aged in oak barrels may taste oaky and you may also smell a lot of oak in the aromas. It depends on how long it was aged in wood, the grape varietal and the kind of oak barrels used.
- Rich – If you find lush fruity flavors can say the wine is rich (or even voluptuous!). Rich tends to be a term used mostly for full-bodied reds and dessert wines.
- Savory – Savory tends to be reserved for reds that have more earthy and herbal tones.
- Smoky – Smoky aromas are often picked up in the nose of the wine.
- Smooth – Smooth can describe an easy-drinking wine that doesn’t have any rough elements. There won’t be strong tannins, and the fruit will be softer.
- Spicy – Use this word if you have a wine with spicy elements in its flavor profile, for example a Gewürztraminer or an Amador Zinfandel.
- Sweet – Wines that have some residual sugar in them are described as sweet. This might be a late harvest Riesling or a Recioto Valpolicella.
- Young – Young is a term you can use for a complex wine that still seems closed. The tannins might be too prominent, there could still be a lot of oak. In other words, it’s a young wine that hasn’t fully developed or matured. Young is also used to describe an early release white where the acidity hasn’t mellowed and it’s really fresh and bright tasting.
- Zesty – Zesty is usually used for a white wine that is bright and fresh in the mouth.
How to taste wine
Tasting wine isn’t just taking a sip, there’s a lot more going on. When an industry professional tastes a wine, they look at three things in this order, 1) the color and clarity of the wine, 2) the aromas and bouquet of the wine, and finally 3) the flavors and mouthfeel of the wine, essentially, how it tastes. The taste of the wine is of course the most important but taste is partially influenced by the aromas you can smell.
Top Tip: You always want to try a wine three times. The first sip is orienting your mouth to the wine, the second and third sips are where you really start to pick up on the flavor profile.
5 Top tips for tasting wine
- Taste whites before reds. This is because a red grape varietal will likely be big and have tannins that coat your mouth. These will prevent you from picking up on the more subtle notes in a white wine.
- Have some water and bland crackers to hand. You can use these between wines to help cleanse your palate.
- Try tasting a wine without food. Food can actually change how you perceive a wine. It might mask or alter the impression you have of the wine, particularly when it comes to certain cheeses and preserved meats.
- Take care when tasting sweeter wines. You always want to taste from dry to sweet within a category, whether it’s whites, reds or roses. This is because the residual sugar in sweeter wines will overpower your palate and you won’t be able to fully experience the more subtle characteristics of the drier wines.
- Spit the wine out if you’re trying multiple wines. When you swallow everything, at a certain point, the alcohol will dull your senses and you won’t be able to fully taste what you have left on your list.
What to say if the wine tastes bad
If a wine tastes strange and has off odors and aromas of wet cardboard and mildew, it might be corked. It could also be that the wine wasn’t stored correctly and was exposed to high temperatures or big temperature variations, or that something went wrong in the winemaking process. Wines exposed to too much heat often have stewed fruits and lack acidity. A wine that has gone bad will give you skunky and rotten egg flavors and aromas, and vinegar notes.
