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To help empower you with just the right amount of intel you need to feel confident enough to speak about, choose (or order!) and taste wine, I've put together this cheat sheet about wine basics. It's a collection of notes I've gathered from some of the best wine connoisseurs from around the country....Cheers!
Basic Wine Lingo
Appellation: A specific and "official" geographic region where the grape/s is grown. For example, Napa Valley in California, Rioja in Spain or the Loire Valley in France.
Aroma or Bouquet: What you smell after you swirl the wine in your glass and take a big sniff (the more you put your nose into the glass, the better!). As you taste more and more wines, you'll be able to recognize traces of anything from licorice and grace to leather and tobacco. You'll also be able to detect if the wine is off balanced or corked (see below for more information on flawed/corked wines).
Blend: When a wine is ome wines are made hen a wine is made from more than one grape variety.
Body: The perceived "weight" of the wine in your mouth. How does the weight of the wine feel in your mouth? Is it full, heavy and robust? Or is it light and crisp. Usually wines are classified as full, medium or light bodied.
Corked: This term is used when the wine has a defect. Typically, upon smelling the wine, you will notice an "off" and undesirable cork aroma that smells and tastes like soggy, wet cardboard. The more you drink, the better you will be at detecting corked wine...sometimes the smell is extremely faint, other times, it can be so intense, you'll know immediately after you open the bottle. You can NOT tell if a wine is corked, however, by smelling the cork...be sure to smell and TASTE the wine!
Decanting: Some wines need time and space to fully blossom and open. Decanting means pouring the wine from the bottle to another container, usually a "decanter," to allow the wine to "breathe."
Finish: How long the wine "lasts" in your mouth after you have tasted it....the "finish" is the lasting impression the wine leaves in your mouth. Was it smooth and silky or crisp and dry? Did it have no finish at all?
Legs: When you swirl wine in a glass, you'll notice streaks or tears of the liquid sliding down the sides...these are the "legs" of the wine. How thick or thin they are have no indication whatsoever of the wine's quality. However, the thicker and slower the wine trickles down usually indicates a higher alcohol level (so watch out!).
New World: Wines that come from outside of the traditional wine-growing regions in Europe are called "New World." These are countries such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.
Nose: Wines not only have legs, they have noses too! The nose of a wine simply refers to the smell of the wine in your glass. Essentially, it's the same thing as the wine's "aroma" or "bouquet" (mentioned above).
Old World: "Old World" as describing the "original" wine producing countries....so essentially, most of Europe! Wines from France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal are considered Old World.
Palate: The flavors, intensity and textures of the wine.
Sulfites: A harmless, tasteless chemical vital to wine preservation. While they've been said to cause headaches, there has been no conclusive evidence to prove that (it may just be that you've consumed one too many glasses of vino!).
Tannin: The word "tannin" or "tannic" can sometimes carry a negative connotation. However, tannins are critical to wines. They're a wonderful preservative and anti-oxidant. They provide structure and prevent fine wines from aging prematurely (too bad drinking tannins won't replace my pricey face creams and serums!). However, a wine with too much tannins can result in a bitter aftertaste that most people fine unpleasant. Note: Tannins are only found in red wines because the grape skins GIVE the wine tannins (grape skins are removed for white wines).
Varietal: This simply means what type of grape was made to make the wine. It's essentially what "kind" of wine you are drinking...Cabernet Sauvigon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, etc.
Vintage: The year the grape was used to make the wine. Some grapes have better years than others...some grapes are ready to drink now, some are ready years from now.
Cool Resources to Check Out
Want to dive deeper into the wide world of wines? Here are a few resources I've find incredibly helpful:Wine for Dummies - The name says it all...a fool-proof way to get familiar STAT with the basics of wine.
WineSpectator.com - My go to resource for everything and anything wine related.
WineFolly.com - A fabulous site that you'll find not only helpful, but hilarious and insightful.
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