Wine 101: What does wine taste like?

I had a bunch of posts queued up but then realized none of them will make sense unless we start with the basics of what wine tastes like. The best way to figure this out is to try a bunch of them, but since you  may not be up for doing a tasting right now, let’s talk about the basics of wine flavors and where they come from.

“Doesn’t wine taste like grapes?”

I’ve overheard this question at more than one tasting, and it makes sense. You squish apples and get apple juice. You squeeze cranberries and get cranberry juice. You press olives and get…olive oil. Just making sure you’re paying attention, but the comparison brings up a good point – olive oil doesn’t usually have the briny flavor of olives. I love olive oil and dislike olives. Yes, I’m a bad Italian. But to get back to my point, sometimes when you start with one thing, it ends up tasting like another.

Just like with olives, wine doesn’t usually taste like grape juice. This is because of how it’s made. The fermentation process changes a lot of the sugar, which is the main flavor we associate with juice, into alcohol, which, let’s be honest, is a big reason why we like wine. There are also flavors that come from where it’s grown, which is what wine people mean when they speak of terroir, and how it’s aged. A chardonnay aged in a stainless steel barrel will taste different from one that’s aged in oak because the wine will pick up the oak flavors while the steel is neutral.

So what does wine taste like?

Let’s go through some terms that people use to describe wine. This is a complicated topic, and there are exceptions to just about every generalization, but we have to start somewhere.

Light vs. full-bodied

My favorite way to describe a wine’s body comes from wine educator Larissa Dubose, CSW, of The Lotus and the Vines. She compares wine body, or how heavy or thick it feels on your palate, to different types of milk. A light-bodied wine is akin to skim milk, a medium-bodied one like 2%, and a full-bodied one like whole milk. I guess that makes the fortified stuff like port and sherry similar to half and half or heavy cream.

Restaurants will often make figuring out the body of a wine easier for you by arranging their lists from light to full-bodied within red and white wine. For example, white wine lists often run from light-bodied Italian Pinot Grigio to full-bodied Chardonnays. Red lists can go from light-bodied Pinot Noir to full-bodied Cabernet. Again, these are examples. Wine lists definitely vary.

But what’s a palate?

It’s the area of your mouth that you taste the wine on, and it includes the tongue, roof of your mouth, and throat. And your nose, as I found out last Christmas. Related – you’ll get a fuller experience of the wine if you sniff it first.

Fruitiness

This one is fairly self-explanatory. Most wine has a predominantly fruit flavor. White wines tend to have fruit flavors of citrus (orange, grapefruit), stone fruit (peach, apricot), tropical fruit (pineapple, mango, kiwi), apple, and other fruit I’m not sure how to classify like lychee. Yeah, I’ve never eaten a lychee, but I’ve tasted it in wine. Red wines can have flavors of berries and other darker fruit.

Acidity

One of the wonderful things about wine is how it goes with food. Just as you need your own acids – saliva and stomach acid, for example – to break down the food, the acidity in wine is a big part of pairing it with food. We’ll talk more about how in future posts. For acidity, think about the sharp quality of lemon juice. That’s acid.

Oakiness

This comes from the barrels that wines are aged in, or, if a winemaker can’t afford barrels, they’ll sometimes throw oak chips into the wine as it ferments. Some people consider that cheating. It depends on who you ask. I don’t care as long as they keep oak away from my white wines, but that’s a personal preference. Oaked white wines can taste toasty, buttery, and/or creamy. If you’ve ever had a cheap California chardonnay, that’s probably what it was. Oak also adds flavor to red wines and helps to smooth them out, but that’s a bit harder to explain, so we’ll get more into that later. I do find I like oak on reds much better than on whites.

Old vs. New World

When it comes to winemaking, the Old World is Europe, and the New World its former colonies such as the U.S., South America, and Australia. Old world wines tend to be more acidic and lighter bodied, some say more restrained, and new world wines tend to be fuller-bodied and more fruity.

Earthiness

When someone describes a wine as having notes of forest floor, I’m tempted to ask them if they’ve ever tasted a forest floor, or, even better, a funky barnyard. These are descriptors of earthy flavors. One earthy flavor that you may have actually tasted is cocoa, and another would be coffee.

Herbaceousness/Floral notes

I like the word herbaceous. Sometimes wines have these flavors like green bell pepper, fennel, freshly cut grass… And floral notes like gardenia or rose petals. Thankfully these are not usually the main flavor, but will rather accompany some sort of fruit. I wouldn’t want to drink fermented bell pepper juice. However, I will not judge you if that’s your thing. I’m pretty sure someone’s won prizes making cocktails out of it.

Minerality/Salinity

This one has as much to do with how a wine feels as its flavor, but it’s hard to explain. Have you ever smelled sun-warmed rock? Or sand when you walk on to a beach? Minerality is kind of like that, but on the palate. Salinity is a little easier to pick up on. Remember the olives?

Wood/Leather

I’m putting these together because some people pick up on this quality as cedar, others as leather. It’s typically found in bigger red wines.

Tannins

When someone says they don’t like red wine “because it’s too dry,” they’re typically picking up on tannins. These are bitter, drying characteristics usually found in red wine, although I’ve encountered a couple of tannic white wines, too. Like hops in beer, they’re good for giving the wine structure and balance, but too much makes for a bitter product.

There are many other flavors in wines, but these are the main ones. If you’re just starting out, it may be easier to stick with what fruit do you taste, how full-bodied is it, and how acidic? You can incorporate the rest later. When I talk about wine pairings over the next few weeks, these will be the parts I focus on the most.

What do you think? Did I miss anything? Please comment and let me know your thoughts below.

Cheers!