Wine Types

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

wine types, may be classified in several ways, the most usual being by alcohol level. Those whose alcoholic strength is entirely due to fermentation, and usually in the range of 9 to 15%, are what we tend to call simply ‘wine’ or sometimes ‘table wine’ (although table wine used to have a specific meaning within the eu). Such wines may be further classified by colour into red wines, white wines, and rosé wines. Or they may be classified according to their concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide as sparkling wines, still wines, and a host of terms in between such as perlant and frizzante. Wines may also be classified according to sweetness.