Know Your Wine – A Beginners Guide

There are a wide variety of wines, and each has its own best meal matches. On the other hand, there are the “wine snobs,” who use the word “unctuous” to characterise grape juice after it has been fermented.

Unfortunately, wine is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and its absence would be tragic. You can elevate a simple dinner into something special with just a little knowledge of wine and how it complements the food. Or turn a boring old hangout into a one-of-a-kind experience.

There is, it turns out, an excellent justification for acquiring a taste for wine knowledge.

Knowledge about wine improves its enjoyment

The complexity of one’s description of wine has been found to improve one’s appreciation of that wine, both red and white. This seems reasonable on a gut level. The more words you have to explain what you’re drinking, the more your brain can pick out nuanced tastes.

To help you get the most out of your wine, we have put together this beginner’s guide to wine kinds, where we cover the fundamentals of what makes wine types distinct from one another, as well as the essential terms you’ll need to know.

Wine Tasting: Words to Describe the Flavor

Wines that have been fermented with their skins retain more colour and tannins, which is why red wines are the colour they are. Tannin is lower and acidity is higher in white wine. Dessert wines are often stronger in alcohol and sweetness than table wines, whereas sparkling wines are carbonated.

Simple, right? The answer is no. Wine tasting should not be limited to only deciding between red and white, much more than a discussion of transportation should be limited to automobiles and trucks. We’ll need additional specifics if we’re going to figure out what kind of wine you like. Then we’ll definitely have to discuss the flavour of the wine.

That’s where most of us stop becoming wine drinkers. Taste is one of the most personal aspects of a person, making it difficult to establish common ground while discussing wines. While there is no shortage of pretentious wine phrases to encounter, there is a select number that is universally understood.

Which Five Terms Best Describe Wine?

Sweetness

Is self-explanatory. A dry flavour is the antithesis of a sweet one. Medium-dry and off-dry wines also exist.

Acidity

In white wines, acidity plays a significant role in creating a pleasant and crisp flavour (or “sour” if it’s excessive) in the final product. A wine with less acidity will have a more fatty flavour.

Tannin

Tannins are the most important aspect of red wine. Wines with a high concentration of tannins tend to be harsh, and sometimes bitter and inky. Wines with lower levels of tannin are softer and smoother and may be easier to drink.

Body

This describes the wine’s apparent thickness and body. You can tell a wine has a lot of body because it leaves a thick film on the inside of the glass when you swirl it. A wine with a low body weight is nearly watery. A wine with a medium body is halfway between a light and a full one.

Making a pot of strong tea is the greatest approach to getting your taste buds to understand the four main categories of wine. Take it straight, with nothing else. This is how really astringent substances will taste (i.e., bitter). Put some lemon juice in it and give it a try. The presence of acidity has arrived. It should have an astringent flavour thanks to tannic acid. Add some sugar and mix it up now. This softens the overall flavour and texture.

The flavour is the fifth element to consider when describing wine. Flavour, in contrast to these four basic adjectives, is far more open-ended and subjective.

Flavours

Avoid jargon like “graphite” and “barnyard” and other tastes you’ve (hopefully) never experienced if you’re still unsure. Don’t go too creative; instead, focus on more universal tastes, such as fruity, earthy, spicy, smokey, or floral. Fruits including oranges, pears, apricot, black cherry, and peaches are also possible.

Wine Varieties

Red Wine

Because of the structural red tannins, red wines might be described as “firm,” “leathery,” or “bitter.” Red wine’s tannins are responsible for its varying degrees of smoothness, roughness, and chewiness. Tannin levels and overall “bolder” flavour increase with the wine’s darkness.

White Wine

The tannins in white wine aren’t the main attraction. White wines rely on acidity as their backbone instead of sugar. For this reason, certain vinos are described as “sharp” or “tart.” As an alternative, you may say that white wine is “flabby” or “flat” if it lacks sufficient acidity.

Rosé Wine

It’s no surprise that blush wine, also known as rosé, is a beautiful shade of pink. That’s because, unlike red wine, it only spends a brief amount of time in touch with the skins of the red grapes used to make it. Rosé lies in the low-astringency end of the colour wheel between red and white.

Dessert Wine

The term “dessert wine” refers to a kind of wine that is often served after a meal and is sweet in flavour. Since most of the wine’s sugars are used during fermentation, dessert wines sometimes have additional alcohol (often brandy) added to them to prevent them from completely disappearing.

Sparkling Wine

A substantial amount of carbonation, either as a byproduct of fermentation or by adding carbon dioxide after fermentation, defines a sparkling wine. Terms denoting sweetness or dryness will also appear on the labels of sparkling wines.

A Few Parting Words

You can’t go wrong no matter what you decide. Each bottle will bring you closer to the ideal wine if you focus on the aspects of wine that you don’t like. Don’t panic if you can’t identify the source of your confusion and take it one drink at a time. The objective of drinking wine is to appreciate it, therefore do so.