Flavour Families

Appears in

Published 2010

About

You will often hear wines referred to according to groups of flavours. The main groups you will encounter are fruit, earth, minerals, spice and wood. These are generic descriptive terms that cover a wide range of flavours, and are a useful starting point when describing wines. They can refer to both red and white wines.

Glossary of Tasting Terms

Austere Lean, hard, without charm or fruit. Might just be too young.

Beefy Rich, weighty, solid. Applied to red wine only. Coarse Lacks elegance.

Complex Reveals many different characteristics.

Depth Has many layers of flavour.

Elegant A well-balanced, delicious wine.

Fat Often applied to sweet wines to denote a full mouthfeel.

Finesse Very elegant.

Firm Good acidic or tannic structure.

Forward Mature for its age.

Hard Overwhelming tannin or acidity.

Heavy Lots of alcohol and perhaps not enough freshness and acidity.

Herbaceous Grassy, leafy flavours.

Jammy Stewed fruit flavours. Lacks freshness.

Spritz Light prickle on the tongue from a touch of carbon dioxide in the wine. Found in young, light whites, often to their advantage.

Stalky A lean, somewhat green flavour that comes from vine stems. Found in red wines.

Stewed Tastes cooked. Think of stewed apple compared to fresh.

Steely High acidity, firmness. Applied to white wines, often young ones that will benefit from further ageing.

Structure The balance of the basic elements - fruit, acidity, sweetness and tannin. A wine has a good, firm structure, or a poor, weak structure.

Supple Silky, smooth, no awkward edges.

Thin Lacking roundness.

Vegetal Cabbage-like. Mature Burgundy, red and white, can be deliciously vegetal; in many other wines a cabbage-like flavour is a fault.

Zesty Fresh, lively.