Some wine, a corkscrew and glasses.

A fellow wine lover (or at least someone interested in sharing the winetasting experience).

10 minutes to become familiar with the terms, and 20 minutes to a few hours to taste and discover what characteristics you can pick out.

Tannins: these are acids that give wine an astringent quality. They can nicely balance a fruity taste, or overwhelm the mouth with acidity. A more tannic style is often an acquired taste, but one worth developing.

There are, of course, many more terms which are used to describe wine. As you may have noted, most of them are descriptions of what the wine reminds a person of. As everyone sees, smells, and tastes things differently, people frequently disagree about the wines that they're tasting. While you may grow to respect one person's opinions, don't dismiss another person's view simply because they don't find the same qualities in a wine that you do.

Remember, as you taste a wine, you're not looking for unpleasant characteristics at the start. There are few wines that have no redeeming qualities, and for the most part what's in your mouth can be enjoyed in one fashion or another. Try to appreciate a wine rather than knock it.

2torial #0585: Learn2 Speak Wine Yo hablo vino! Perhaps you've enjoyed wine on some occasions and disliked it on others. Or maybe you've heard wine enthusiaists discuss wine and you understood little of their conversation. If so, this 2torial can lead you out of the darkness of wine confusion. It's best read in conjunction with our other wine-related 2torials: Choose Wine, Open and Serve Wine and Champagne and Hold a Wine Tasting. Since the taste of a wine is a subjective experience, a wide variety of terms have developed to describe it. Some people might consider this as an example of elitist snobbery, but actually these terms are a useful and enjoyable way to explain what you are tasting. You might feel a bit self-conscious (if not pretentious) the first time you start talking about "a leggy, round Cabernet with a okummy finish," but you'll adjust. As long as you're legitimately trying to convey your winetasting sensations, you're not a snob. Wine is generally judged on its color, its smell and its taste. Speaking about wine is merely an attempt to convey your opinion about these characteristics in descriptive terms. Many of those terms have become widely accepted, and will pop up in most wine conversations. Some are fairly straightforward, while others are more obscure and require explanation. Interestingly, you'll find that many terms are applicable for more than one aspect of wine. Know your wine regions   Quite a few areas of the world are well known for producing good wine. Of course they also produce some real stinkers, but the first indication of good wine is where it comes from; unlike beer (which can be made almost anywhere), quality wine can be made from grapes growing in relatively few places in the world. Here are a few: The United States makes great wine. The best-known has traditionally originated in California, particularly from Napa and Sonoma counties. Oregon is also highly regarded, but solid wineries are developing from coast to coast. The French have been famous for wine for so long that it's not funny. Wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy regions are probably the most widely available, along with Champagne, of course. Italian wines can be marvelous. Chianti and Tuscany are the best known worldwide. Spumanti is a popular Italian sparkler. The Spanish make very good sparkling wines, called Cava, along with their Rioja (reds) and Sherry. Chilean wines are known for being good values. The United States imports a lot of reasonably priced, but very good Chilean red wine. Australia is an up and coming wine producer on the world market, and their Shiraz is generally a good bet. Smell the wine When you smell the wine, it may remind you of certain things. Aroma is almost a synonym for bouquet. It is sometimes used to describe the grapelike smell of young wine, as opposed to the more complex smell of a mature wine.   Bouquet describes the fragrance of a wine. Sometimes used to specifically denote a complex "winey" smell, rather than a simple grapelike smell.   Corky refers to an unpleasant musty odor or taste in wine, often caused by a moldy cork.   Flinty is used to describe the fragrance or taste of some white wines, especially a White Bordeaux. If you can remember what flint smells like when struck with steel, you'll have an idea of this characteristic.   Fruity is used to describe a wine that has few tannins. It may smell or taste like any number of fruits, most commonly berries and citrus. A fruity wine is not always a sweet wine.   Grassy is used for a wine that has a smell or taste reminiscent of fields of grass.   Heady is used to describe the smell of a wine high in alcohol.   Herbacious is almost a synonym for grassy. Depending on the other qualities present in the wine, it can be used to denote either an unpleasant "weedy" quality, or a pleasant, flowery one.   Musty is often used as a synonym for corky, but is more pronounced and unpleasant. Mustiness can arise from a bad cork, excessive moisture, or storage in a moldy wooden cask.   Nose is a synonym for smell. It's often used to describe how much of a smell the wine has, as in "this wine has a huge nose."   Sour is used for a that wine has an aroma or taste that indicates partial spoilage, often due to improper storage.   Spicy is used to describe a variety of aromas, or tastes such as pepper, cloves, or nutmeg, that give the wine a spiced charactor. Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc and Gewürztraminer are considered spicy varieties.   Stemmy describes a wine with an unpleasant aroma of grape stems. This will sometimes happen when too many stems are left in the fermenting wine.   Woody: discerning wood in the wine can be very desirable. Sometimes, though, a wine will have an excessive smell or taste of the wooden barrel in which it was stored, and this term will be used to describe it. Barrels made from American oak tend to give more of their flavor to wine than do barrels made from French oak.   Yeasty indicates a wine that smells of the yeast used in fermentation. Most often found in younger white, and sparkling wines. Taste the wine When the wine is in your mouth, more than one flavor may become apparent. After the wine leaves your mouth, additional tastes may surface (no kidding!). Here's a simple chart which may give you an idea of the directions a wine can take as it tiptoes through your tastebuds. Acrid describes a wine with overly pronounced acidity. This is often apparent in cheap red wines.   Body is a term that covers a lot of ground. It generally describes how "full" a wine is, or how much flavor is apparent.   Buttery is associated with some white wines, notably California Chardonnays. It refers to both flavor and texture or "mouthfeel."   Complex is used to describe a wine that has a number of discernable characteristics (generally good ones), rather than one or two. Good wines that have aged well will be complex wines.   Dry is used to describe a wine that is not sweet.   Earthy describes a wine that tastes of the soil in which it was grown. Red wines most often have this characteristic.   Finish is a synonym for aftertaste, used to describe the characteristics of a wine that remain after the wine has left your mouth.   Flat indicates a wine that does not have enough acidic qualities. A synonym for uninteresting.   Hard is generally used to describe a young wine that has a lot of tannins.   Jammy is used for a red wine that has the taste of dense ripe fruit. A wine can become overly jammy when not balanced by good tannin levels.   Neutral is generally used to describe a wine without any outstanding characteristics, but with no particular bad ones, either.   Nutty refers to a wine with an oxidized character--one that has had exposure to air. This can be a good thing in smaller quantities, but too much oxidation will make a wine taste like sherry when it isn't.   Oaky is used for a wine that has a noticable taste of the oak barrel in which it was stored. This term can be used in both a positive and negative context.   Plummy is used to describe wines with an overipe quality. Grapes that have been left on the vine too long can produce overipe tastes.   Rough usually describes a poorly made wine, one that has a raw quality to it--although it can also refer to a quality wine that happens to be immature.   Round describes a wine that has a good balance of fruit and tannins, with good body as well.   Simple is used to describe a wine that has few characteristics which follow the initial impression. Not necessarily a disparaging term, it's often used to describe inexpensive, young wine.   Strawberry is used mostly with blush, and nouveau wines. It denotes a very fruity, tangy taste.   Supple describes a wine with well-balanced tannins and fruit characteristics.   Toasty is often used to describe a white wine with a nice hint of the wooden barrel in which the wine was stored. Sweeter wines are rarely described this way.   Vinegary is used for a wine that has the excessive acidic qualities that indicate it has turned to vinegar. This generally occurs through cork failure, which exposes the wine to air, exposure to excessive heat while in storage, or excessive aging of the wine. -end- Learn More!