Tasting Notes Translated

By Cole Swanson
February 14, 2025

The wine industry has its own vocabulary. The list spans over 150 terms and phrases professional wine educators have decided are the most effective for helping tasters understand a wine’s flavors and structure.

Sometimes they are straightforward, other times a translator might seem helpful.

It may be easy to understand what “red fruit” tastes like. If you’ve ever had a strawberry or cherry, those flavors are pretty locked in. But it is not so common knowledge what minerality or earthiness mean.

For anyone who doesn’t want a translator by their side when tasting wine, below are typical words and phrases you may hear in the tasting room, what they mean, and synonyms to use instead, which are bit more colloquial.

“Body”

The term “body” refers to the structural makeup of a wine, and is most often synonymous with the term “weight.”

The weight of the body is articulated with the terms “light”, “medium”, and “full”. As examples, one might say "light-bodied”, “medium-bodied”, or “full-bodied”.

When attempting to analyze the weight, I suggest thinking of the wine’s viscosity — I know that may sound a bit unnatractive. But think about sugar syrup versus water. Syrup is incredibly viscous, and is therefore full-bodied. While water essentially has no body.

Wine can be anywhere in between based on it’s structural makeup.

A taster will declare thier guesstamate after considering the levels of sweetness, acidity, tannins, and alcohol, all of which contribue to how full the body appears.

The term “bold,” is synonymous with “full-bodied,” and is used in refference to a red wine with many tannins. Often, a taster may say “bold” or “tannic” enthusiastically as a way to proclaim there are a lot of tannins, and the wine is very grippy.

“Bold and tannic”

“Full-bodied”

Wine Industry Phrases: Full, bold, chewy, tight, smooth, round
Normal Phrases: Grippy, drying sensation, bitter, puckering feeling, great to pair with fatty foods

When describing a red wine as full-bodied, a taster will be refrencing the high amount of tannins present. Tannin is a structural component that is used to describe the body, or weight, of a red wine – because only red wine has tannins.

Often you’ll feel those tannins gripping onto your teeth and gums, of which only a toothbrush can remove. Additionally, tannins have a bitter taste, which can be pleasent or not depending on your preference and if the wine is balanced in flavors and structure.

White wine, having no tannins at all, therefore relies on winemaking techniques. Dry wines most notably rely on malolactic fermentation or lees aging, while sweet wines rely on residual sugar, which is when sugar left over after fermentation has completed.

“Tight”

A “tight” wine causes a pucking sensation as it dries out your mouth, and the phrase commonly dictates the tannins need to soften.

A simple and quick solution for de-tightening a red wine is to swirl the wine fast for about a minute or so. As air spirals with the wine, it will soften the tannins. This process is called “oxygenation.” Letting a bottle lay down for years before opening it has the same effect, as air will gradually seep through the cork.

“Smooth, Velvety, Soft, Silky”

We’re talking specifically about the wines texture via tannins.

To describe a red wine, as “smooth, velvety, soft, or silky,” would mean that tannins are present, but rather than be considered chewy or grippy they are more subdued, and the whole of the wine is more balanced. Possibly due to the type of grape, winemaking techniques, or bottle-age.

Merlot, Malbec, and Pinot Noir are great examples of wines that often have velvety tannins.

“Light-Bodied”

Wine Industry Phrases: Light, delicate
Normal Phrases: Approachable, easy-drinking

When talking about red wine, this means a wine has little tannic structure. These wines are often made from grapes that naturally have fewer tannins, such as Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Cinsaut. 

In many cases, red wines in this category will have a fruitier and softer quality than thier fuller-bodied counterparts.

White wine can also be light-bodied, and is much more common to be because these wines have no tannins. They often present themselves as crisp and fruity.

“Medium-Bodied”

Normal Phrases: Nice texture, but is not overwhelmingly grippy or bitter; can go well with food or be drunk on its own.

This refers to a wine that is in between light and full.

Red wines in this category can be made from grapes that have a medium amount of tannins, such as Merlot. Or, the winemaker may have implemented techniques to create a more medium-bodied style.

An example of a winemaking tactic would be limiting the extraction of tannins. Common extraction techniques are to push the grapes around during fermentation so the juices and skins can mingle. The more this is repeated, the more tannins become present in the wine. Therefore, to extract less, this is done less. Heat also extricates tannins easily, and so ferementing wine more slowly at lower temperatures is helpful for prevention.

“This wine is fruit forward”

Normal Phrases: Fruity, juicy, approachable, crowd-pleaser

I often use fruit forward to mean the fruit flavors are bright and fresh.

Commonly, you will find lighter-bodied red wines to be fruit forward because they don’t have many tannins, which provide a bitter flavor, to counteract the fruit.

Most typically I associate this phrase with red wine because white and rosé wines are typically more naturally fruit forward. Red wine can have flavors of meat and charred wood or other obscure notes that shield any fruit. Therefore it helps me to more easliy compared flavors from one red wine to the next.

“This wine is very complex”

Normal Phrases: A lot going on

A complex wine is more than just a fruit bomb, and may have herbaceous or savory qualities such as charred wood, pencil shavings, smoked meats, hay, baked fruit, baking spices.

Any style of wine — red, white, rosé — can be considered so.

“Acidity level”

Wine Industry Phrases: Austere, acidic, acidity
Normal Phrases: Crisp, bright, zesty, mouth-watering, refreshing, sharp

The word acidity sounds a bit intense, so, when describing wine with much acidity, I often like to use words that are more approachable.

All foods and drinks have varying levels of acidity, and when it comes to wine grapes, some have naturally higher acidity than others. This structural component can not be tasted, but is rather a sensation that causes salivation. A fun way to test for a wine’s acidity level is to take a sip then tilt your head down. If much salivia forms in your bottom lip the wine is high in acid.

A note of importance — acidity is the antithesis of tannins. Wine like Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, have both high amounts of tannin and acidity. The amount of tannins to acidity helps to determine if a wine is balanced or not.

Notable wines with high acidity are Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Noir, and Nebbiolo

Out-of-the-Box Flavors

Some wines may have flavors that go beyond fruit. In this case, you may hear descriptions that sound more out of the box.

“Minerality”

Wine Industry Phrases: Pebbles, wet stone
Normal Phrases: Almost effervescent, prickly

Sometimes this can mean the wine has a salty flavor or maybe even pepper. This phrase can also describe a wine’s texture or how the wine feels on your tongue. The white wine Gewürztraminer (goo-verz-tra-meener) is known for being prickly.

“I taste earthiness”

Earthiness is less about actually licking the ground and more about what you think the ground might taste like (weird, I know).

Think about eating a root vegetable right after plucking it from the garden. While you will still taste the flavors of the vegetable, you will also taste all of the flavors that the soil has provided.

Beats, for example, even after being washed, still have a distinctly earthy flavor. Mushrooms are often described as having any “earthy” quality.

Even more obscure, earthiness can be reminiscent of what you assume a leaf to taste like.

“A lot of savory qualities”

Examples of savory foods: Meats, aged cheeses like parmesan, broths, soy sauce, mushrooms, garlic

This flavor type is best described by associating it with a food already considered savory.

When attempting to delineate what “savoriness” means, it is harder to pinpoint than sweetness, saltiness, or bitterness because this descriptor commonly accompanies other flavors. So, when sipping, you may actually taste a specific food that is known to be savory. Therefore, there aren’t really any synonyms for savory, just examples.

Savoriness can also be an indication that a wine is complex, or has a lot going on.

“I taste smokiness, but I kinda like it”

Normal Phrases: Smokey, chard wood, campfire, coals, grilling in the summer 

I often find that smokiness coincides with savoriness.

Syrah, for example, is known for having both qualities thanks to a natural compound in its skins called “guaiacol,” which is the chemical responsible for the smell of smokey wood – it’s actually added to liquid smoke for barbecue sauce.

It is also important to note there is a difference between a good smokey quality and smoke taint, which is usually the result of wild fires.

“Leather…? When have I ever licked leather?”

Rather than using the word “leather,” which sounds odd to a casual drinker — actually, anyone really — think of it as the combination of savoriness and earthiness.

Edited and updated April 3, 2025