Getting Your Wine Education - Language

Most of us learn about wine on a "need to know" basis. We may already know we like it and how to drink it but learning to taste wine has a learning curve so there are a few things you need to know right from the beginning if you want to talk to others about your tasting experience.

The Language of Wine -Basic Terms

AROMA - is the an individual component used to describe the smell of the grapes reveals a lot about its flavor before you actually taste the wine. All of the individual aromas combine to for "The Wine's Bouquet"... the total smell of the wine. The wine's "nose", a term used to describe the bouquet and aroma, are further released by constantly swirling the wine in the glass which exposes the wine to more oxygen, making it release more aromatics. Smells also helps to determine whether the wine is faulty.

Any wine can have many different aromas and the best will often have a complex collection. As knowledge of different wine grape varieties increases, so will your ability to identify different aromas and which belong to each grape.This is learned over time by trial and error.

Smelling the wine should not be rushed. The aroma of the wine, which in most wines corresponds to its flavor, is one of the most important aspects of tasting a wine. It tells the taster about most aspects of the wine's quality. To do this properly, you should inhale deep and long to learn the wine's secrets and to anticipate the taste that will soon be on your tongue.

Check to see if you can detect a musty smell - a wine that presents unpleasant "mildew" or "moldy" aromas can be the result from improperly cleaned storage vessels, moldy grapes or cork and could indicate bacteria growing on the surface of your wine. The wine is said to be "corked" and should be poured out.

BALANCE - a good wine will have elements of acidity, astringency and fruit

BODY - is the sense of fullness a wine gives as it enters the mouth.

FINISH - is the aftertaste left in the mouth after the wine has been swallowed. A wine with a finish that lasts for a longer than usual period is said to have a long finish.

TASTING - described with two different impressions - first, as it tastes first in the "mouth" or "palate", followed by the "finish" or aftertaste.

VARIETAL - refers to the type of grape you will be tasting, it's helpful to learn about the characteristics of each grape so you realize what you are tasting and how you would expect it to taste based on the grapes used.

SCORING WINE - trust me, everyday people wine lovers are not expected to score wine nor do they want to. Should you be so inclined to learn more about it you should know that cork dorks use it to have a consistent way to evaluate wines so they are able to make a comparisons between wines they've tasted. There are several systems used to score wine. A very simple one is the UC Davis Wine Scoring system.