Translate the Grape

When we attempt to put into words the sensations, aromas, flavors, and overall experience of wine, we’re often left struggling to find the right words, much like a traveler in a foreign land who doesn’t fluently speak the local language.  However, as anyone can tell you who has gone abroad with just a smattering of another language and returned with a much richer experience and a greater bilingualism, we learn new languages best when we use them on a daily basis.

So, too, with wine. Broad wine experience and close attention to the colors, aromas, and flavors of wine help everyone taste wines more successfully. In this installment of our attempt to “translate the grape,” join us as we explore a few more terms that try to put into words a decidedly non-verbal experience.

A

Acidity:  We taste with our tongue’s buds — around 10,000 of them.  Salt and sweet on the tip, sour down the sides and bitter towards the back.  When a wine is highly acidic, its tart or mineral aspect comes to the fore and the sweetness of fruit is subdued. If imbalanced, the acidity will taste sour, not spoiled like milk but immediately calling for some bread to cut the pinch.  A fine acid balance in relation to alcohol content, fruit, tannin and other qualities ages wines gracefully.  High acidity can cover up the overall shortcomings of what’s in the bottle and is often a mark of inexpensive reds.  With that said, acid does not refer to the brain-droppings of Woodstock flashbacks or die-hard Dead-Heads.

Astringency: Tartness is a hallmark of wine with heavy concentrations of tannin, a by-product in condensed form made by the crushing of grape seeds and skins.  The aging of certain wood, such as oak, can add to the tannic content of the finished wine.  If the wine comes across sharply with little fruit, its tannic content may be out of whack.  The astringency is not Listerine-ic, but the effect on the taste sensation may cause one to think the contents of the glass need to be gargled rather than quaffed.

Approachable: It is rather like Lolita, tempting yet ultimately less thrilling over time.  The wine may be called “friendly” but it’s more teasing than time-tested.  You may enjoy the first pass, but later you won’t remember the name.

Aromatic:  Aroma originates with the grapes in the wine.  Wines with appealing smells exhibit aromas of cedar, floral, fruit, leather, pepper, spice, tobacco or a hint of newly mowed grass.  Not in the same wine, of course.  These are aspects of the winemaker’s choices in producing the wine.  As you swirl the wine in the glass, you will garner some interesting fragrances.  Of course, filling the glass too full and trying this maneuver will probably drench your shirt before your olfactory senses (really, though, this splash of color doesn’t look any sillier than the flash of flesh from people wearing low-ride jeans at tailgate parties, bending down to grab a cold brewski).

A** (as in “pompous”):  Any person at the next table who loudly states how much he or she paid for a 2001 Screaming Eagle.

B

Balance:  The wine god Bacchus gave us vin to lead us into orgiastic abandon.   His brother god, Apollo, is all proportion, refinement and reserve.  So, a balanced wine can lead us into trouble as quickly as a well-fitted pair of expensive jeans.  But it also offers a refined harmony that expresses itself in fine acidity, noble fruit, beautiful color and sufficient alcohol to preserve the wine structure, not solely during the meal, but for some years to come.  This is the “it” wine.  Because the balance seems just right, you might choose to keep a few more bottles close at hand for future imbibing.

Bouquet:  A garland of flowers offers layers of sweet scent; so, too, does the character in wine known by the same name, bouquet.  These are aspects of how the wine is made, that is, what the winemaker is attempting given the elements of a particular harvest.  Bouquet connotes the mixed fragrances emanating from the glass.  A “hot” (very alcoholic) wine will overwhelm the layers of aroma. A mark of many finely made wines expresses itself in the simultaneous capturing of wonderful scents, often from floral or fruit combinations.

“Big”:  No, not as in Tom Hanks’ movie, but big as in the sense of power and presence, most usually describing red wine with lots of structure, flavor and body (usually 14%+ alcohol) that can stand up to food of similar generosity.  Big is also for “Big Format” wines, magnums (1.5 liter) that are great showpieces and collectors’ items and work well in serving a small army of close friends. For reasons derived from organic chemistry, larger-bottle formats tend to age better than smaller bottles.  It has something to do with having a great, big heart.

C

Chewy:  Such wine does not overwhelm us with tannins and may come off very fruit-forward with lots of sweetness on the tip of the tongue.

Closed:  A wine that’s not very aromatic or highly characteristic.  It may need “space” to breathe a little before it comes into full bloom.  Or it may require more time to age.  It may also be a not-so-hot vintage.  Suggestion:  a re-gift wine for the unassuming.

Complex: Unlike the Freudian variety, a complex wine, red or white, will reveal layers of aroma, flavor and subtle elements of structure. Some complex wines make stunning first impressions but, if out of balance, may finish without a flourish.  Others are complex from first to last analysis.

Concentrated:  This is probably a no-brainer, but the term refers to the intensity of fruit in a wine.  Wines from the Carneros wine-growing region just above San Francisco Bay are very concentrated because the sea air, low elevation and cloud cover promote a slow, intense grape-growing cycle.  In this sense, C also stands for connected, which characterizes the wine’s place of origin. A trick name, like “Coastal” for a chardonnay, may contain grapes from numerous places meant to seem connected.  “Coastal” sounds better than “industrial park.”  God loves merchandising.

Color:  The appearance of wine in a glass; its deep ruby or lemony glow when held against a well-lit white background.  A pleasing color, its claret or blanc, stimulates anticipation of drinking pleasure.

Crisp:  The pleasing aspect of acidity in a wine, particularly whites where minerals and subtle fruit promote “clean” taste.

D

Dry:  Wines lacking pronounced fruitiness. A “dry martini,” for example, is a classic cocktail that calls for “dry vermouth” (as opposed to sweet vermouth), a mildly vegetal-tasting wine that, in greater proportion to the spirit (gin or vodka), makes the martini wetter. A dry white wine usually is crisp and suffers little when chilled like beer or cola because residual fruit has little presence in the overall impression made by the wine. Dry is not pejorative; it is, rather, a characteristic of many wines, predominantly white, but also noted in red and blush wines. Tannins in reds, for instance, contribute to the impression of dryness.

E

Expressive:  Wines don’t talk with their hands but they speak much of aroma (from the grapes) and boldness (from the winemaker’s response to the character of the soil).

F

Fat: A good attribute for wine; the viscosity is very apparent in the glass and the winemaker’s intentions concerning alcohol levels, aroma and fruit emanate as a bold statement. Fat wines are often “drink now” wines even though aging them for a relatively short time may bring the characteristics of the wine into a more appealing focus.

Finish: One of the pleasures of drinking wine. The finish is measured in length, another characteristic of wine appreciation that has nothing to do with actual units of measure, except for perhaps time. Finish connotes the afterglow of the wine once it’s swallowed —— superior wines seem to go on and on, echoing different aspects of flavors as they pass into our bodies.

Firm and Flabby: A wine with balanced acidity and tannins is referred to as firm, whereas wines lacking acidity (to help bind elements of the wine) are considered flabby. Such wines may benefit from personal trainers but, for the most part, never recover from an acid imbalance. Green wines, by contrast, seem too acid because they’re made from unripe grapes that haven’t matured. These wines may figuratively express an attitude of sour grapes and are referred to as “stemmy” since they have yet to ripen from the vine.

Fresh: Fresh wines that tend to accentuate fine acidity and modest fruit call to be consumed now, such as Pinot Gris, a staple grape of the Alsace.  Pinot Gris from Oregon or a Pinot Grigio from Italy’s Friuli Venezia Giulia region (extreme northeast) are often termed “fresh” without reservation. They also survive being chilled because their fine acidity accentuates their freshness.  But, if you let them warm a little, you will appreciate the structure of the wine more.

Fruit: We perceive the fruit of wine by the aroma and intensity of the principal grapes that produce the wine, the “varietal.” In a well-balanced wine, fruit will come across immediately and not be subsumed to alcohol. Typical adjectives to describe the fruit aspect of wine include “forward, intense, luscious, monster and seductive” —— all matters of finding the right word, which, as Mark Twain said, “is the difference between lightning and lightning bug.”  Choose wisely.

H

Hard: Wines that tend to be too acidic (as opposed to soft wines, which tend to lack any pronounced acid character). Wine drinkers accustomed to inexpensive bulk Merlots will often find them very soft — and pleasant — but not very memorable.  One might compare it to the impression made by American cheese.  It looks like cheese, it melts like cheese, and it’s soft but it leaves no lasting impression.

Heavy/Hot: Both refer to overly alcoholic wines; the wine may benefit, perhaps, from being cellared and opened at a later time.  Alcoholic content can enhance the aging process, unless other characteristics of the varietal(s) are too weak. Heavy wines are sometimes called “big” or “robust.” Hot wines will come across as rough in finish, if one is not hacking away by then because there is so little to subdue the alcohol.

Hollow: Wine that may start and finish okay with decent fruit and something of a finish, but in between is “one, big dark room,” where nothing seems to happen for the palate.  When you encounter a soft and hollow wine, you’re in a real black hole.

I

Impressive:  When every cylinder fires, this term can describe top-end as well as more modest wines. The sight of the color in the glass beckons, the smell delights, the first sip rolls like a timpani, the mid-mouth savors the flavor and the finish is memorable. Since the great thing about wine is that no two are exactly alike, two people can come away from the same vintage of the same vintner one ecstatic and the other under-whelmed.

Improved: This term may surprise you.  It refers to certain French and German wines where sugar was added to compensate for a poor crop, perhaps one where insufficient sunshine produced inadequate sugar. The process is called chaptalization, a cause for discontent in certain wine regions. It’s permitted in Bordeaux and Burgundy. It’s also permitted for German table wines. It is not, however, permitted in California or Italy.  It does not make for sweet wine but only higher alcohol content, often in an attempt to improve a less-than-stellar harvest.

J

Jammy: It’s not what you wear in the sack.  Think Smucker’s or maybe even your grandmother’s jam.  “Jammy” is supposed to describe wines that are on the upper limit of fruit ripeness.  Unfortunately, it is more often used to describe wines with “regular” levels of fruit intensity.  Use “jammy” sparingly.

Juicy: What is wine if it is not juicy?  It is grape juice, for heaven’s sake.  So, it is not surprising that “juicy” is a loose, proverbial term to describe wines that are full of sprightliness and life.  All kind of wines can be juicy but usually juicy wines have a good amount of acid to intensify the juicy sensation.

K

Know-it-all: This is the guy next to you at the wine bar asking what the brix and TA levels are on the wine.  Do not be like him and save the wine dissertation-speak for the chemists and oenologists in the cellar.  When tasting wine, just taste it and ask yourself one question: Do I like this wine?

Kick-ass: For some reason, some wine drinkers want to use forceful language to describe wines even if they wouldn’t normally ever use the same term in their day-to-day lives.  “Kick-ass” is just that word.  It’s a word more appropriately employed to describe a heavy metal concert than a bottle of wine. Free advice: if you have never before used the term “kick-ass,” then don’t start using it when describing wine. If your name is Guy Fieri, however, then by all means continue to employ your signature term.  Synonyms: powerful, strong, masculine or amazing, wonderful, outstanding. Insert your own illustrative synonym to describe the heft or quality of the wine.

L

Lean: Usually not a good word.  This term suggests that a wine lacks finesse, depth, or character.  “Insipid” is a close cousin of “lean.”  All the same, sometimes wines make their mark by being lean, steely, and austere so double check the context when you use “lean.”

Long: This word usually refers to the duration of the finish of the wine.  The finish can be short, medium, or long.  A long finish is only one benchmark of quality.  There is no official definition but usually a long finish is anything more than about 30 seconds.

Legs: Still one of the most misunderstood wine terms.  Wine legs are like human’s legs: nice to look at but they do not tell you anything about what’s inside.  Legs form on a wine glass because of very complex chemistry that is not understood except that it is a relative relationship between the water, alcohol, phenols and sugar in the wine.  Strip away all this jargon and it means you should look but please do not judge a wine based solely on how thickly streams of wine run down the inside of the glass after a swirl.

M

Meaty: Not an adjective that should be uttered frequently at a wine tasting unless your tasting happens to be at the Mr. Universe competition. This word is usually used to describe the characteristic of a wine rather than the flavor.  Although meaty is probably over-used in both instances, it certainly does have its place: the Northern Rhône.  Taste a properly aged Hermitage and then you will understand what the word “meaty” is supposed to reference. “Meaty” is a very specific term that describes certain wines that normally need to experience the proper cellar time for their greatest enjoyment.  Think aged prime beef. When used properly, “meaty” is usually a very positive attribute and should not be confused with moldy or damp aromas.

N

Nice: Euphemism for “plonk,” “swill,” or “crap.”  In an attempt not to be perceived as some kind of wine snob, try using “nice” instead of the afore-mentioned words.

• Before: “This wine is complete swill: take it away from me immediately!!”
• After: “This wine is nice but I do not think I will have another glass, thank you.”

Nose:

1. The most important organ needed to evaluate wine.  Without one, wine would be totally boring.  How to spot wine geeks: geeks will do one of two things with their noses—sniff their water before sipping or favor one nostril over another when sniffing a wine.
2. Term to describe the smell of a wine and all of its components.  Probably the single most important aspect of a wine.  Bouquet and aroma are both part of the nose of a wine.  Even though this term is used extensively in many wine circles, it is a classic term that will never lose its relevance and use.

–by  Doug Allan and Ken Friedenreich