Monde des Vins ✦ Explore

Wine glossary

Twelve useful terms for reading a label, describing a wine and choosing with more confidence.

Acidity

The fresh sensation that makes your mouth water. It can balance a rich wine and help it pair with fatty food.

Compounds that create a drying or gripping feeling on the gums, especially in reds. Their intensity and texture vary.

The sense of weight and volume of wine in the mouth. Light, medium and full describe style, not quality.

The year the grapes were harvested, as shown on the bottle. It gives context, while producer and storage also matter.

A vine variety grown for its grapes. The same variety can make different wines depending on place and winemaking choices.

The conditions of a place, including climate, terrain and soil, interacting with human practices. It means more than soil alone.

A designation tied to a geographic origin and production rules. The exact rules differ by country and appellation.

A combination of wines or grape varieties to create a particular style. Its composition depends on the wine and producer.

The period and conditions between fermentation and bottling. Vessel and duration can influence the final style.

A wine in which sweetness is not dominant. A dry wine can still taste fruity: fruit flavour and sugar are different.

Wine containing carbon dioxide that forms bubbles when opened and poured. Production methods and styles vary.

Pouring wine into a decanter. It may aerate the wine or separate sediment; fragile wines call for care.