Wine Term: Cloying Variations: Sweet, Flabby What it really means: The wine is noticeably sweet, to a fault. The wine is sweet. Destructively so. It’s flabby, unidimensional, and well…cloying. Nothing good comes from this description of a wine, it’s a fault, even if the winemaker intended to make…
Cloying
Angular
Wine Term: Angular Variations: Lean, Thin What it really means: the wine shoots straight through the center of the palate to the back of the mouth, generally the finish feels centered as well. This is the opposite of a round, smooth, or fleshy wine. Painting in broad strokes:…
Appellation
Wine Term: Appellation Variations: Viticultural Area, Wine Growing Region, Region Alternate Usages: AVA, AOC, DO, DOC, QbA, DVA What it really means: Where is the wine from? You never want to say, “What city is the wine from?” – that just sounds uninformed. It is best to ask,…
Customer Take Over Version: Knit
If you’ve ever been verbally accosted by a Sommelier at a restaurant or Wine shop/bar, you’ve probably heard them throw out something about a wine being “open-knit” or “tightly-wound” – but what does that actually mean? Our Customer (and fan of Jessica) Danielle P. asked that exact question:…
Customer Take Over Version: Minerality
Our customer Andrew writes: “I really want to understand what “minerality” means when applied to wine. Does “exhibits minerality” = “not fruity” or what? Thanks.” Aaaaaand away we go! Wine Term: Minerality Variations: Flint, Wet Stones, Gun Flint, Flinty, Pebbles, River Stones, Slate Alternate Usages: Dry, Austere, Chalky…
Customer Take Over Version: Graphite
Graphite, much like wet stones, as a wine term (believe it or not) is a hard pill to swallow for a few. We’ll let our customer Steve Dummit take it from here… “C’mon now, Cameron. Graphite has no odor or taste! It is a very inert 3-dimensional carbon…
Customer Take Over Version: Tannin
Wine Term: Tannin So, this one comes from our customer Bill Carroll: “I’d love a better understanding of tannins and how they effect (sic) the overall taste and enjoyment of certain wines.” Away we go! Variations: Grip, Grippy, Grab Alternate Usages: Unfiltered, sediment, solids What it really means:…
Customer Take Over Version: Jammy
Wine Term: Jammy Our customer Pete Hovde inquired: “I have seen some wines described as “jammy”. Is that considered a good or bad characteristic?” Well, here we go… Variations: Fuited, Fruit-forward, Juicy Alternate Usages: n/a What it really means: A wine with lots of fruit smells, generally sweet…
Customer Take Over Version: Foxy
Our customer Dan Sullivan writes: “Years ago a very famous wine editor described a wine from Bordeaux as being very foxy. Never having tasted a fox I asked him if there was a restaurant in NYC that had fox on the menu. No response.” Please hold while we…