By Matthew DeBord
HQ 76 | WINTER 2011
What exactly is “winespeak?” It’s basically a special set of terms that people who like wine, write about it professionally or work in the wine business have developed to make communication easier. However, that doesn’t mean the terminology always makes sense, especially to outsiders. Some of the terms are silly, but some are useful. Here is a rundown of some essential terms; with some practice, you, too, can engage in winespeak with the best of them!
Nose: You could say this is simply the way the wine smells, but it actually goes deeper than that. A wine’s nose is the set of experiences it sets off when you sniff it. Sure, it will smell bad or good (usually good). But it can also be aggressive or shy, meaning that its aromas either jump out of the glass at you or hang back. When there isn’t much of a nose, the wine is sometimes said to be “dumb.”
Legs: After swirling, the wine will slide back down the sides of the glass. The streaks it leaves behind are referred to as its legs. If the legs are long and move slowly, the wine could be considered higher quality. But this is really more of an old superstition about wine these days.
Mouthfeel: Some wines are tart and acidic; others are soft and sweet. Still others taste crisp. When you put all of these sensations together, you have what wine lovers call the mouthfeel. It is what it says: the texture of the wine in your mouth, the way it makes your mouth feel.
Cut: A wine’s definition. The cut is typically used to characterize the metaphorical sharp edges of acidic, refreshing white wines. If you can sense clean, well-defined lines between how tart or sweet or rich a wine is, you might say it has good cut. Sometimes the word angular is used.
Tannin: A substance, found in red wines, that makes your tongue feel “furry.” Wines that have this effect are called “tannic.” Often, this quality is actually a good thing, as tannic wines will age well. Structure (or Depth): One way to think about this is to taste a wine to get a sense of how many different layers it seems to have. More layers usually mean more structure. Wines that are meant to last are usually made with more structure, but this can make them off-putting at first. An inexpensive, fruity, perfectly tasty wine may have no real structure – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a perfectly good wine.
Finish: A measure of both time and sensation. A wine’s finish is what it does to a drinker after the sip is swallowed. Do flavors persist? Does the sense that wine is still somehow lingering in the mouth go on and on? If so, the wine could be said to have long or complex finish.
Corked: A bacterial “infection” of a wine. A corked wine will often smell like wet cardboard or a dank basement. And nothing you can do will make the corked nature of the wine better; it will have to be dumped down the drain.
Flavor profile:What a type of wine is generally supposed to taste like. Chardonnay from California, for example, will be oaky and buttery, in most cases. Cabernet will taste like berries. Pinot Noir can remind you of cherries. Merlot can remind you of plums.
Rotgut (or Swill): A wine that is just terrible. Rotgut is a real rarity these days, even among super-cheap wines, box wines and jug wines.
Midpalate: Professional tasters will talk often about a wine’s midpalate. Tasting a wine can be divided into three key phases: the initial “attack,” the contemplative midpalate and the finish. Most great wines have a lot going on halfway through a taste, which is why you never want to swallow too fast.
Trophywine: A famous, expensive wine that either has an illustrious history or has been scored highly by the bigname wine critics (Wine Spectator, Robert Parker). Trophy wines are not so much about drinking and enjoying as about showing off and provoking envy.
Stickies: What Australians call sweet dessert wines.
Juicy: A wine that has good acidity, enough to make you feel like the wine is giving off juice, like a grape or an orange being squeezed.
Grapey: A simple, basic flavor. Ironically, grapey is typically used to characterize an inferior wine.
Oxidized: What happens to a wine when it’s exposed to too much air. You can sometimes tell when a wine has been oxidized by its color: a brick brown replaces bright red. This applies only to new wines, of course.
Herbaceous: Both reds and whites will sometimes have grassy, “green” flavors that are evocative of herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, cilantro and others. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is somewhat of an acquired taste.
Tough: A wine that’s highly structured, acidic, tannic and built to last. A tough wine doesn’t want to give up its charms any time soon.
Filth: A term used by the English wine writer Auberon Waugh to define a really, really bad wine. You never hear this one anymore – but that’s not to say it doesn’t do the job.
Watery (or Diluted): A wine that lacks concentration, sort of like how some light beers seem to contain less flavor than liquid.
A passion for wine is no different than a love for sports, cars or any other topic; talking to others who share your same interest requires a sort of specialized vocabulary. So don’t be afraid to try out some winespeak the next time you get a chance.
