I have a confession to make… Last night I open a bottle of wine.
It was a wine I never had before, so I was trying to describe the flavor and smell of it. While attempting to do this I realized that beyond fruity, smooth, a nice kick at the end I did not know any words to describe the wine.
So long story short, I went on a mission to learn “the wine language”. And I must confess my friends, a new world has been open up in front of my eyes.
Here are some of the words I find the most interesting
Austere
Basically, it means that the wine is not good. It is high in acidity and not fruity flavor. These wines can be the young ones or poorly made. It can also be said that these wines are harsh and tannic. You want to stay as away as possible form these wines.
Chewy
It means the tannins are so strong that they dry out your mouth, causing you to chew to create saliva and moisten up your mouth. Simply saying the wine is drying out your mouth, causing you to need to make more saliva, is saying the same thing.
Decadent
These are the wines we all want to have. They are rich, sexy, the bomb! They are just over the top of awesomeness.
Fat
A fat wine takes up your whole mouth and stays in weird places without any acidity to help balance it. As a result, these kind of wines are the least desirable of all because it is flabby.
Hedonistic
This word is saved to be used for the joyful and pleasurable wines beyond its taste. These wines are aromatic, visually appealing, and obviously taste very good. Wines like these would just blow you away. If you forget this word while drinking wine, you can just say this wine is damn amazing!
Hot
It is not be used to refer to the temperature, but to its high alcohol level. These wines are not well balanced and leave a taste of heat when swallowing it.
Jammy
This word as it might not sound fancy at all, it can be frequently heard in wine tasting. It is well applied to sweet, fruity wines. It is mostly used when describing wines from the New World (The Americas, Australia, South Africa).
Velvety
A desired attribute in a wine. Wines that are smooth, easy to drink and delicious fit into this characteristic. You can use the words smooth, lush or silky to describe these wines.
There are hundreds and words and phrases use in wine tastings. Some are special use for this situation, others are normal words but applied differently. Next time I go to a wine tasting I am going to throw one or two of these words and see who catches them or whom I confuse with them 😊.
