Wine Terms and What They Mean

Here’s a useful glossary to help you find your way around a bottle of wine.

Acid, Acidity - Acids occur naturally during the growing of grapes and as part of the fermentation process. Acidity describes a wine’s tart, slightly acerbic taste and a harsh feeling in the mouth. This undesirable characteristic is caused by excess acid in the wine.
Age - The maturing of a wine, usually in a bottle or wooden barrel, after the fermentation process.
Aftertaste - The flavor that remains after you swallow, sometimes call the “finish.” This is a good thing —if it’s a good wine.
Appellation Contrôlée (AC) - Under a French law established in 1935, the designation for areas in France where wine production is controlled by the government.
Aroma - The fruity smell of a wine, often referred to as “bouquet.”
Austere - Describes a wine that is hard and lacks fruit and richness.

Backbone - A term describing wines that are full-bodied and balanced by an ideal level of acidity.
Balance - A wine’s harmonious blend of acidity, alcohol, fruit and, where desired, tannins.
Big - A full-bodied, flavorful wine.
Blanc de blanc - French term for “white wine from white grapes.”
Bouquet - The complex fragrance a wine develops during the fermentation and aging process.
Brilliant - Used during a tasting to describe a wine as being exceptionally clear and transparent.

Character - Used to describe a wine with distinctive, obvious features, either pertaining to its style or its variety.
Chateau - Literally “castle,” it’s the French word for “vineyard,” “winery,” or “wine estate.”
Claret - Broad term for any red Bordeaux.
Color - A wine’s condition, quality, and age can be determined by its color. A good wine should be clear, and the less intense the color is, the more delicate the flavor will be.
Complex - Used to describe a quality wine’s combination of elements where none are necessarily dominant.
Cru Classé - French term for a vineyard that has been classified by the government as being of exceptional quality.

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Dry - The opposite of a “sweet” wine, in which all the residual sugar has been converted to alcohol.

Earthy - Refers to a wine’s organic aroma or flavor as being like damp, dark soil, perhaps resulting from oak aging or the nature of the grapes.
Elegant - Used to describe a well-balanced, high-quality wine.
Estate-bottled - Indicates that 100 percent of the grapes in the wine were grown in the winery’s own vineyards.

Fermentation - The natural process that turns grape juice into wine.
Fruit, fruity - A general term for a wine’s flavor and aroma of fresh fruit. Naturally, that includes grapes, but may also include apples, blackberries, currants, raspberries, and other fruits.
Full-bodied - Describes a wine’s texture as sitting heavily and lingering on the palate. The effect scales down to medium- and light-bodied.

Hot - Tasting term that refers to the usually unacceptable burning sensation at the back of the throat indicating a wine is high in alcohol.

Late-harvest grapes - Grapes that are picked late in the growing season. They typically have more sugar, and thus are used for sweet or high-alcohol wines.
Luscious - Term that indicates that a wine is full of fruit, well-balanced, and ideally ready to drink.

Mature - Meaning that a wine is perfectly aged and ready to drink.

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Oak, oaky - Oak is the preferred wood in which wine is aged, largely because it bestows desirable flavors and tannins. An oaky red wine exhibits a toasty, vanilla aroma and flavor. Oaky whites tend toward pineapple and tropical fruit.

Quaffing wine - Describes a simple, refreshing wine.

Regional - Term for a blend of several wines from different parts of a region or district instead of from a single vineyard, such as Bordeaux, Rioja, or Napa Valley.
Residual sugar - Natural sugar that remains in sweet wines after fermentation converts fruit sugars into alcohol.

Savory - Broad description of quality wines that are rich and full-bodied.
Sediment - Grainy matter sometimes found in wine bottles, a result of the aging process, typically associated with fine, older red wines.

Tannins - The general term to describe “mouth-puckering” astringents found in quality red wines — especially when they’re young. They can emanate from grape seeds, skins, and stems, as well as oak barrels during aging. Tannic properties dissipate as the wine matures and mellows.

Varietal - Wine named for the grape from which it’s produced, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, or Chardonnay.

Vintage - Reference to the year in which grapes were harvested and the wine produced from them.

Weighty - Term for a powerful, full-bodied wine.

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