With the growing popularity of wineries, oenophiles (wine lovers) from all over the world positively contribute to the culture of wines. 

These influencers have given rise to unique and interesting terminology that has become associated with wine tasting.

These terms help you give useful feedback about the wines you taste, while also are very helpful in figuring out and communicating your personal preferences as clearly as possible.

Let’s take a look at some common wine tasting terminology.

Angular wines are fizzy, sharp, and pointed. They usually have greater acidic content and thus have austere and crispy effects on your mouth.

This is a flat and plain wine as the name suggests. A Flabby wine has a complete absence of acidic contents. It feels soft, loose, and watery. This lacks fizziness.

Full-Bodied

With a high alcohol composition, full-bodied wine refers to heavy viscous wine that gives you a mouth-watering feeling and an exceptionally delicious taste.

Hollow wine refers to a flavored wine without any mid-palate sensation. Due to the absence of complexity and lower alcohol composition it has less effervescence.

Tannins are complex compounds with an astringent taste. They are the cause of dry mouth after each sip. You will usually find tannins in red wines with higher fizziness.

Wines that lack tannins are soft and plain such as white wines.

Wines with a sweet jam-like taste, fruity smell, and low fizziness, and tannins are called Jammy. They are delicious and sweet, but have soft and flat effects in the mouth.

'Corked' wines are contaminated wines with a damp cardboard-like smell. They are the product of the chemical reaction between the chloride content in the wine with the fungi present in the cork forming a complex compound called TCA. They are not harmful, but they are not recommended for consumption.

Earthy wines cause a dry sensation and have smells or tastes associated with earth. For example, these would include soil, mushrooms, dry leaves, etc. Generally, you will find these flavors in red wines.

Complex wines have the ideal balance of fizziness, tannins, sweetness as well as the respective flavors and smells. This creates a mouth-watering wine with rich flavors, intensity, and aroma.

This is the final sensation of wine. We use 'Finish' to describe the impression left by the wine in your mouth after the last sip. It may be dry, fizzy, or even plain. In general, the longer its duration on your palate; the better the quality of the wine.

These are some of the more important terms related to wine tasting coupled with their respective uses.

We hope that you are now more confident when wine tasting.