Terroir
The complete sense of a place — soil, climate, slope, even the people — expressed in a wine. Why two pinots from villages a mile apart can taste like cousins, not twins.
Tannin
The grippy, drying sensation in reds (and strong tea). Comes from grape skins, seeds, stems, and oak. Tannin is what lets a wine age — and what makes it crave fatty food.
Acidity
The brightness that makes your mouth water. Wines without it taste flabby; wines with too much taste like lemon juice. The good ones balance it.
Body
How the wine feels in your mouth — light (skim milk), medium (whole milk), full (cream). Driven by alcohol, sugar, and extract.
Vintage
The year the grapes were harvested. Great vintages happen when the weather behaves; mediocre ones happen when it doesn't.
Decanting
Pouring wine into a wider vessel before serving — to aerate young reds or to leave sediment behind in old ones.
Sommelier
A trained wine professional, usually working in a restaurant. Their job is matching wine to your meal, your mood, and your budget — without ever making you feel inspected.
Cru
French for 'growth' — a vineyard officially recognized for high quality. Grand Cru is the top tier; Premier Cru is the next.
Appellation
A legally protected place name (Chablis, Barolo, Rioja) that promises certain grapes, methods, and yields.
Brut
Dry sparkling wine. The scale goes (driest to sweetest): Brut Nature → Extra Brut → Brut → Extra Dry → Sec → Demi-Sec → Doux.
Corked
A wine fault from contaminated cork — smells like wet cardboard or musty basement. Send it back; it's not your taste, it's broken.
Oxidized
A wine that has had too much air contact — flat, brown-tinged, sherry-like when it shouldn't be. A fault, except in styles designed for it.
Legs (or Tears)
The streaks down the inside of the glass after swirling. They tell you about alcohol and viscosity. They do not tell you about quality.
Nose
What the wine smells like. About 80% of what we call 'taste' is actually smell — which is why you sniff before sipping.
Finish
How long the flavor lingers after you swallow. Long finish = generally a sign of quality. Counted in seconds, sometimes minutes.
Old World
Europe — France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal. Tradition, place-driven labels, restrained styles.
New World
Everywhere else — the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. Grape-driven labels, riper fruit, more sun in the glass.
Biodynamic
An organic-plus farming philosophy that treats the vineyard as a closed ecosystem and follows lunar cycles. Polarizing in theory, often delicious in practice.
Natural wine
Wines made with minimal intervention — wild yeasts, no additives, little to no sulfur. Funkier, faster-changing, sometimes magical, sometimes not.