Written by Holly Salt DipWSET
Talking about wine should be easy.
You taste something. You like it, or perhaps you do not. You notice a flavour, a texture or a feeling. Then you try to put that experience into words.
Simple enough.
And yet, somewhere along the way, wine developed a vocabulary capable of making perfectly confident adults suddenly wonder whether they are qualified to comment on a drink they have just paid for!
Is it mineral? Is it linear? Does it have tension? Should you be detecting graphite? What exactly is a forest floor supposed to taste like, and should we be worried that somebody apparently knows?!
The good news is that you do not need an encyclopaedic wine vocabulary to talk about wine well. In fact, some of the most useful conversations about wine use remarkably simple language.
The aim is not to sound impressive. It is to communicate what you are experiencing in the glass.
First of all, there are no prizes for sounding complicated
Wine has a language of its own because it is surprisingly difficult to describe taste and smell.
We can point at a colour. We can play someone a sound. But if you want to explain the aroma of a wine to another person, you have to compare it with something they already know.
That is why people talk about lemons, cherries, herbs, vanilla, leather, toast, flowers, smoke and occasionally some rather more adventurous things.
There is nothing inherently pretentious about that. Descriptive language is useful.
The problem begins when the description becomes more important than the wine.
If somebody tells you that a wine tastes of blackberries, that is useful. If they tell you it has a haunting whisper of blackberries carried across an autumnal woodland at dusk, you are perfectly entitled to ask what they had for lunch!
Even professional wine tasting works best when language is clear and consistent. The Wine & Spirit Education Trust explains how its Systematic Approach to Tasting provides a common framework for describing appearance, aroma, flavour, structure and texture.
So simplicity is not the enemy of expertise. Quite often, it is evidence of it.
Start with the easiest question: do you like it?
Before worrying about acidity, tannins or whether you can detect wild thyme, ask yourself something much more useful.
Do I actually like this wine?
There is no wrong answer.
You can recognise that a wine is beautifully made and still not particularly want another glass of it. Equally, you can thoroughly enjoy a simple bottle that will never cause a wine critic to reach for their thesaurus.
Personal preference and wine quality are related, but they are not the same thing.
Once you know whether you like the wine, ask yourself why.
You might say:
- I like it because it is really fresh;
- I like the ripe fruit flavours;
- It feels quite light and easy to drink;
- I like the creamy texture;
- it is a little too oaky for me;
- I find it slightly too sweet/dry;
- the tannins are stronger than I normally enjoy.
Congratulations. You are now talking about wine.
So far, no crushed granite required.
Learn a few useful wine words
You do not need hundreds of tasting terms. A handful of basic concepts will allow you to describe most wines surprisingly well.
Fruit
Start broadly.
Does the wine remind you of citrus fruit, green fruit, stone fruit, tropical fruit, red fruit or dark fruit?
If you can be more specific, great. Lemon, apple, peach, pineapple, strawberry, cherry and blackberry are all perfectly useful descriptions.
But you do not need to identify the exact variety of Sicilian blood orange you once ate on holiday!
Acidity
Acidity is one of the most important structural elements in wine, and one of the easiest to recognise once you know what to look for.
It makes your mouth water.
Think about biting into a lemon or a crisp green apple. Wines with higher acidity often feel fresh, lively or zesty.
You do not have to say, “This wine displays elevated acidity.”
“That is really fresh” works perfectly well.
Tannin
Tannin is mostly associated with red wine.
It creates a drying or gripping sensation in your mouth, particularly around your gums. Strong black tea provides a useful comparison.
A wine with more tannin might feel firm, structured or grippy. A wine with less tannin might feel soft or smooth.
If you would like to put this into practice, compare a lighter red with something more structured from the Hay Wines red wine collection. Tasting contrasting styles next to each other is often far more useful than trying to memorise definitions.
Body
Body simply means how heavy or substantial the wine feels in your mouth.
Think of the difference between skimmed milk and full fat milk. The flavour is not the point. It is the sensation of weight and richness.
A light bodied wine feels delicate and refreshing. A fuller bodied wine feels richer and more substantial.
Again, there is no need to make this more complicated than it is.
Sweetness
Is the wine dry, slightly sweet or obviously sweet?
One common source of confusion is that very ripe fruit flavours can make a dry wine seem sweet even when there is very little residual sugar.
So if a wine tastes intensely of ripe peaches or blackberries, ask whether you can actually perceive sugar, or whether the fruit simply feels very ripe.
Oak
Oak can contribute flavours and aromas such as vanilla, toast, spice, smoke or cedar. It can also influence texture.
You do not need to know what type of oak barrel was used to recognise that influence.
If a Chardonnay feels creamy, toasty and rich, saying exactly that is already useful.
If your preference is for something fresher and brighter, browsing contrasting styles in our white wine collection can be a good way to discover where your tastes sit.
Finish
The finish is simply what happens after you swallow the wine.
Do the flavours disappear almost immediately, or do they linger?
Does the wine leave you with fruit, spice, freshness, bitterness, warmth or a savoury sensation?
A long finish is generally considered a positive sign, as it means the wine shows aromatic concentration.
You are allowed to use normal words
One of the easiest ways to talk naturally about wine is to describe sensations rather than trying to produce a formal tasting note.
A wine can be:
- fresh;
- rich;
- light;
- powerful;
- soft;
- crisp;
- creamy;
- fruity;
- savoury;
- spicy;
- floral;
- smooth;
- dry;
- refreshing.
These may not be spectacular words, but they communicate something.
That matters far more than producing an impressive sounding description that nobody quite understands.
As Decanter explains in its guide to reading wine tasting notes, tasting is inevitably personal because our perception of aroma and flavour depends partly on our individual references and experiences.
In other words, two intelligent people can taste the same wine and describe it differently without either of them being wrong.
What if you smell something nobody else does?
Say it.
If a wine reminds you of strawberries and everyone else says raspberries, the tasting police are unlikely to arrive.
Your brain recognises aromas by comparing them with memories. Those memories are personal.
Someone who grew up surrounded by rosemary bushes may recognise rosemary immediately. Someone else might simply call the same aroma herbal.
One person says lemon. Another says grapefruit. Another says citrus.
These descriptions can all be pointing towards the same general aromatic character.
The useful question is not, “Did I get the correct answer?”
It is, “Does this description help me understand the wine?”
And what about words like minerality?
This is where wine vocabulary becomes slightly more interesting.
Some terms describe an impression rather than a literal flavour.
Minerality is a perfect example. A wine described as mineral might feel stony, chalky, saline, flinty, precise or particularly fresh.
It does not mean somebody has squeezed a limestone pebble into your glass.
We explored this subject in much more detail in our guide to what minerality means in wine.
Words such as elegant, concentrated, complex and balanced work in a similar way. They can be useful, but only when you understand what the speaker is trying to communicate.
If you are unsure what somebody means, ask.
Wine knowledge is supposed to make wine more interesting, not make other people feel excluded from the conversation.
Talking about wine in a restaurant
You absolutely do not need to perform for a sommelier.
In fact, giving a few simple pieces of information is normally much more helpful than trying to name the exact wine you think you should order.
For example:
“I normally like crisp, dry white wines and nothing too oaky.”
That is useful.
“I would like a medium bodied red, quite smooth, with plenty of fruit.”
Also useful.
“We are having fish and chicken and would like one bottle that could work with both.”
Extremely useful.
Also tell them your budget. There is nothing sophisticated about pretending money does not exist.
A good wine professional wants to find you something you will enjoy at a price you are comfortable paying.
Talking about wine in a wine shop like Hay Wines
The same principle applies when buying a bottle.
You do not need to arrive knowing the grape variety, region, vintage and altitude of the vineyard.
Tell us what you enjoyed recently.
Tell us what you did not enjoy.
Tell us what you are eating, how many people are coming and roughly what you would like to spend.
Statements such as “I usually drink Sauvignon Blanc but I would like to try something different” are genuinely helpful.
So is “I love Malbec but I want something a little lighter.”
This is one of the reasons we enjoy holding regular wine tastings at Hay Wines. Tasting different wines side by side gives you a chance to discover preferences and build a vocabulary naturally, rather than learning wine terminology from a list.
There is also normally somebody else in the room who cannot smell the violet either. This can be reassuring!
Do not confuse knowledge with certainty
One of the curious things about wine is that the more you learn, the more you realise how much there is still to learn.
Wine involves agriculture, geography, chemistry, history, culture, food, weather and human preference. There are thousands of grape varieties and an enormous number of regions and traditions.
Nobody knows everything about wine... although Michele seems to think he is very close!
People who work professionally with wine still encounter unfamiliar producers, grapes, regions and styles all the time.
So saying “I do not know” is not evidence that you do not understand wine.
Quite often it is evidence that you understand it rather well.
Try comparing wines rather than judging them
One of the easiest ways to become more confident is to stop asking whether a wine is simply good or bad.
Instead, compare.
Is this wine lighter than the one you had yesterday?
Is it more acidic?
Does it have more tannin?
Is the fruit fresher or riper?
Can you taste more oak?
Does it feel more savoury?
Comparison gives your senses a reference point.
You could even choose two contrasting bottles from our full wine collection and taste them together. You will often learn more from comparing two different wines for twenty minutes, than from reading twenty pages of tasting terminology!
Forget the idea of having a good palate
People sometimes say they cannot understand wine because they do not have a good palate.
In most cases, what they actually mean is that they have not practised describing what they taste.
Tasting is a skill.
You become better at it by paying attention.
Smell fruit when you cut it. Notice herbs while cooking. Think about the difference between lemon and lime, fresh cherries and dried cherries, black pepper and white pepper.
Then taste wines from different grapes and different regions.
Over time, you build a mental library of aromas, flavours and textures.
There is no requirement to become obsessive about it. Nobody is asking you to sniff the contents of every spice jar before breakfast.
Unless that is your thing... of course, we won't judge!
Wine language should open the door, not close it
Wine terminology is useful when it helps us share an experience.
Words such as acidity, tannin, body and finish allow people to communicate efficiently. Descriptions such as cherry, lemon, pepper, vanilla or herbs give us reference points. More abstract ideas such as minerality can help describe sensations that are otherwise difficult to explain.
But none of those words should become a barrier.
The same applies to other areas of wine that can initially seem complicated. Terms such as organic, biodynamic and natural, for example, are much easier to understand once somebody explains what they actually mean. Our guide to organic, biodynamic and natural wine takes exactly that approach.
Wine becomes much more enjoyable when curiosity replaces anxiety.
So, how should you talk about wine?
Start with what you notice.
Say whether you like it.
Describe the fruit if you can.
Think about whether it feels light or rich, fresh or soft, smooth or tannic.
Notice how long its flavours linger in your mouth.
And if the best description you can come up with is, “This is delicious and I would happily have another glass,” that is still an entirely valid tasting note.
Possibly one of the most useful ones.
You do not need to prove that you understand wine.
You just need to pay attention to what is in your glass, ask questions when you are curious and develop your own vocabulary over time.
Because the least pretentious way to talk about wine is also the simplest.
Say what you actually think.
