Fundamentals
Wine vocabulary can be intimidating. Good news: 80% of wine conversations revolve around 50 words. Here are the essentials, sorted by use, no formalism.
Appearance — The wine's color and clarity. Clear / cloudy — Bright wine vs wine with particles (often normal for natural wines). Legs / tears — The trails that run down the glass when you swirl. Indicate alcohol or sugar level, not quality. Hue — Color nuances at the rim. A red with "purple hues" is young; "tawny" is aged.
Bouquet — The full aromatic complex of an aged wine (vs "primary" aromas of young wine). Aromatic — Wine that smells strong and clearly, generally fruity or floral (Sauvignon, Gewurztraminer). Closed — Wine that barely smells at opening. Often young or just out of the cellar. Aerating helps. Notes — Identified aromas (red fruit notes, vanilla notes, leather notes). Tertiary — Aromas that emerge with aging (forest floor, leather, truffle, tobacco).
Attack — The first sensation when wine hits the palate. Mid-palate — What you feel at the heart of the tasting. Finish — What lingers after swallowing. A "long finish" signals quality. Tannins — The grippy sensation felt mostly in red wines. Tannins come from grape skins and seeds (and oak). Too much = astringent; well-balanced = structure. Acidity — What makes you salivate. Without acidity, wine is flat; too much, it stings. Residual sugar — Grape sugar not converted to alcohol. Present in off-dry, semi-sweet, sweet wines. Body — Unctuous, almost "oily" sensation. Not negative: a Burgundy Chardonnay is full-bodied. Minerality — Hard to define, often associated with stone, chalk, flint notes. Mark of certain terroirs (Chablis, Sancerre).
Body — Wine density on the palate. Light, medium, or full-bodied. Balance — When alcohol, acidity, tannins and fruit coexist harmoniously. The holy grail. Structured — Wine with lots of structure (tannin + alcohol + acidity). Velvety — Smooth, silky wine on the palate. Dry / off-dry / semi-sweet / sweet — Residual sugar scale. Still / sparkling — Without bubbles / with bubbles.
Grape variety / cépage — The grape type. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet… these are grape varieties. Single-varietal / blend — Wine from one grape (Burgundy) or several (Bordeaux, Châteauneuf). Terroir — Soil + climate + know-how combination that gives wine its personality. Vintage — Harvest year. A "good vintage" = good conditions that year. Harvest — Grape picking. Maceration — Stage where juice stays in contact with skins to extract color and tannins. Fermentation — Sugar transforming into alcohol via yeast. Aging — Period between end of fermentation and bottling (stainless tank or oak barrel). Bottling — Final step before sale.
AOC / AOP — Appellation of Controlled/Protected Origin. Guarantees origin and specs (grapes, yield, aging). IGP — Protected Geographical Indication. Less strict than AOC, more freedom. Cru — A terroir recognized for quality. Premier Cru, Grand Cru, Cru Bourgeois (depends on region). Domaine / Château / Clos — Words for the producer. No quality hierarchy between them. Estate-bottled — The producer bottled themselves (mark of authenticity). Old vines — No legal definition, but usually vines >40 years, more concentrated wines.
Decant / aerate — Pour wine into a carafe. Aerate = open up a young wine; decant = separate an aged wine from its sediment. Aeration — Letting wine breathe to open up. Serving temperature — See our dedicated guide. Aging potential — A wine's ability to age and improve in the cellar. Peak — The moment a wine is at its best.
Corked — Wine that smells of wet cardboard, damp cellar. Caused by a contaminated cork. Undrinkable, return to your wine shop. Oxidized — Wine that got too much air. Brownish color, cooked apple taste. Volatile — Slight vinegar taste, from poor fermentation. In small doses, some appreciate; in large doses, it's a defect.
You don't need to memorize everything at once. Vocabulary comes with drinking. Keep these five most useful words handy: body, acidity, tannin, balance, finish. With these five, you can describe 90% of wines.
→ Try Verso — every wine sheet uses this vocabulary, in context.