Winespeak

Winespeak

Sure, wine snobs can toss around terms like "Brett effect"and "barrique." Don't let that turn you off. Like any activity, wine making and wine tasting have specialized vocabularies. Some words are showoff jargon, and some are specific and helpful. Here's a handful of core terms to know—and things you can say with a straight face. (Well, most of them.)

Aroma and bouquet. Aroma is the fruit-derived scent of young wine. It diminishes with fermentation and becomes a more complex bouquet as the wine ages.

Body. The wine's density as experienced by the palate. (A full-bodied wine makes the mouth literally feel full.) You'll also hear the word mouthfeel when tasters size up the texture of wine in their mouths.

Bordeaux blend . A red wine blended from varietals native to France's Bordeaux region—cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, malbec, merlot, and petit verdot.

Corked. When a bottle's cork spoils and the wine inside takes on a musty flavor, the wine is corked.

Estate bottled. A wine entirely made by one winery at a single facility. The grapes must come from the winery's own vineyards within the same appellation (and this must be printed on the label).

Finish. The flavors that remain in the mouth after swallowing wine. A long finish is a good thing.

Flight. A few wines specially selected for tasting together.

Horizontal tasting. A tasting of several different wines of the same vintage.

Library wine. An older vintage that the winery has put aside to sell at a later date.

Oaky. A vanilla-woody flavor that develops when wine is aged in oak barrels. Leave a wine too long in a new oak barrel and that oaky taste overpowers the other flavors.

Reserve wine. Fuzzy term used by vintners to indicate a wine is better in some way (through aging, source of the grapes, etc.) than others from their winery.

Rhône blend. A wine made from grapes hailing from France's Rhône Valley, such as marsanne, roussanne, syrah, cinsault, mourvèdre, or viognier.

Tannins. You can tell when they're there, but their origins are still a mystery. These natural grape compounds produce a sensation of drying or astringency in the mouth. Tannins settle out as wine ages; they're a big player in many red wines.

Terroir. French word that translates as "soil." Typically used to describe the unique environment (climate, soil, etc.) that influence the grapes and thus the wine.

Vertical tasting. A tasting of several wines of different vintages, generally starting with the youngest and proceeding to the oldest.

Vintage. The grape harvest of a given year, and the year in which the grapes are harvested. (A vintage date on a bottle indicates the year in which the grapes were harvested, not the year in which the wine was bottled.)