WINE DICTIONARY
Acid: the tart freshness of natural fruit adds in wine, giving it a liveliness in proper balance.
Amber: the color in wines of dark gold.
Appleness: a frequent characteristic of fine white wine.
Astringent: the puckery taste in young red wines.
Balanced: a wine with all elements in good harmony.
Big: a complimentary term for wines of robust character.
Bitter: excessive tannin from stems, stalks or seeds during crushing for fermentation; "too long in wood" means the same thing.
Body: the guts of a wine, elements tangible to the tongue, mouth, feel.
Bouquet: the fragrance to the nose, before tasting.
Breed: a complimentary term used for fine wines that are detectable after tasting.
Brilliant: a wine of remarkably high clarity.
Bronze: the amber hue apparent around the rim of a glass of aged red wine.
Character: a term used to refer to a wine's collective positive qualities; dull wines have little or no character.
Clean: a well made wine, well store, with no alien tastes.
Clear: transparent, without sediment or filmy cloudiness.
Cloudy: a sick- or imperfect- wine containing sediment
Coarse: a young wine without breed, lacking finesse.
Common: a simple term for an ordinary wine.
Corky: indicating an off-taste from a diseased cork.
Delicate: light wine, usually white, young and fresh.
Distinguished: balanced harmony of an exceptional wine.
Dry: without sweetness, measurable by degrees of sugar; not sour.
Earthy: the recognizable taste some vineyard soils give their wines.
Fine: as opposed to "beverage wine", which is pour la soif (to quench ones thirst only).
Flat: lacking acidity, insipid, in champagne, without effervescence.
Flinty: often used to describe chablis; dry, clean, sharp.
Flowery: appeals to the nose, with apple blossom delicacy.
Foxiness: a deplorable characteristic of some native Eastern American grape species, approximating animal den odors.
Fragrant: wine with a particularly pleasant bouquet
Fresh: young, lively and dean.
Fruity: wines with the bouquet and taste of fresh fruit; this is primarily a characteristic of young wines.
Full-bodies: rich in alcohol and viscosity.
Great: only a few wines, of a few vintages, qualify as great.
Heavy: an uncomplimentary term denoting a wine that is full-bodied but not delicate.
Light: less than 14% alcohol by volume.
Maderise: (mad-dare-eezay) past its prime with an acquired brownish color like Madeira.
Mellow: softness from proper age, balanced maturity.
Mild: lacking in character.
Moldy: an unpleasant taste extracted by wine from fungus on grapes, or from musty casks.
Noble: showing, by aroma, the origins of its aristocratic grape variety.
Nutty: a term frequently used to describe the unique taste of sherry; afino or Amontillado is said to have a "green walnut" taste.
Ordinary: a term for common table wine.
Perfume: Lyric description of a wine s bouquet
Petillant: (pay-tee-yaw) a wine that is slightly sparkling.
Powerful: expensive bouquet and strong, balanced character.
Ripe: at the peak of perfection in its life cycle.
Robust: a more flattering term than coarse.
Rounded: wines with all elements well balanced.
Ruby: resembling in color that brilliant red jewel.
Rough: of insufficient age.
Silky: the satin smoothness of some fine wines.
Small: unpretentious wines of humble origin.
Smooth: without harshness.
Soft: a loose term suggesting low acidity, or low alcoholicity.
Sound: a well made wine with no defects.
Stemmy: an excessive tannin from skins, stalks,seeds.
Sturdy: a wine that indicates it can stand aging.
Sweet: the detectable amount of residual grape sugar.
Tart: possibly too high in total acidity; green, fresh.
Thin: deficient in alcohol or body; watery.
Velvety: The soft mouth-feel of an excellent wine.
Weepen: a wine leaking from its cork or capsule.
Woody: wine with the aroma and taste of wood, from over long storage in oak.
Yeasty: young wine, still in the barrel, tasting of its yeast; a champagne after long contact with the odorous products of autolysis.
Young: a wine not yet at its prime.
