Sweet, soft, refreshing, tart - for laypeople, the language of wine is a science in itself. No wonder, because real wine connoisseurs have practiced it for years. In this article, you will find out how you can still have a say and how wine tastes can be classified in general.

Table of contents

1. How to classify a wine by taste
2. Taste and describe the wine

Summary

The good news first: To describe the taste of a wine, you only need a few clues. Acidity, sweetness, bitter notes and aromas are enough. Then there is the appearance, color and texture.

It all starts before you even try a drop: What does the wine look like? What color is it? Is it clear or cloudy, thick or thin? A first sniff of the wine reveals which aromas want to escape quickly. If you swirl the wine gently in the glass, the deeper aromas come out. Floral, fruity, nutty - the variety of aromas is clearly recognizable just by the smell.

The tongue and palate are the real judges of the wine. They can be used to evaluate the sweetness, acidity and bitterness. The other tastes, salty and savory, are rare in a wine.

To classify the taste of the wine, it is best to go through the tastes one by one:

• The tip of the tongue tests whether a wine is sweet or not. This is where the taste zone is located that detects sweetness. Fruit aromas in particular can trigger these senses in wine. But of course also the alcohol itself, which is nothing more than fermented sugar. If a wine is not very sweet, it is called strong. A wine can also be too sweet, in which case it often seems sticky. Sweeter wines with a lot of alcohol can also be described as "warm".
• The acidic taste can be detected on the back edges of the tongue. Acidity is more noticeable in white wines than in red wines. There is everything from rather bland to refreshing or racy, aggressive acidity.
• The bitter note is determined in the back of the tongue. The tannins and tannins contained in the wine play a particularly important role here and also determine the finish of the wine, i.e. the aftertaste. Soft to bitter is a possible range here.

The palate notices scratchy tannins and can easily judge the temperature of the wine - another important description in the taste of wine. Other typical words from the language of wine are: light (unobtrusive aromas), fruity (reminiscent of fruit notes), earthy (reminiscent of damp earth), harmonious, complex and edgy (each refers to the mix of aromas).