We realize it can be useful and fun to know a little bit about how to describe what kind of wines you like and don't like – just enough to get you through the door at the bougie wine bar down the street, because we all know the three scenarios of guessing when ordering wine. We get our glass and we love it, can't stand it or are bored by it.
So we're here to help you choose a glass you know you'll love, every time.
12 WINE TERMS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW
Wine Terms for How a Wine Tastes
1. Fruit forward. A wine that has a noticeable aroma and taste of fruit. Our Profiles Three and Six are fruit forward and oftentimes so are gamay, malbec and sauvignon blanc. Keep in mind that tasting fruit in a wine doesn’t necessarily mean it’s sweet – see definition for dry below.
2. Dry. A wine that isn’t sweet. Dry wines generally have between 1 and 11 g/L (grams per liter) of residual sugar. All of our BOXT wines have zero grams of sugar per serving except for our slightly sweeter Profiles Three and Six, which only have 6 g/L, so are considered dry. Generally wines like chardonnay, pinot gris and pinot noir are dry, while wines like gewurztraminer and port are made with levels of residual sugar that land them in the sweet category.
3. Crisp. Similar to bright, crisp wines will be higher in acidity, they have little floral or fruit notes and will not taste sugary or sweet.
4. Sweet. Wine that has been allowed to keep some of its residual sugars during fermentation. Though sweetness is subjective to the drinker, the strict definition of a sweet wine has sugar levels above 35 g/L.
5. Floral. Most wines have some floral notes. Apple and citrus blossoms in whites, and lavender and rose in reds, are some of the most common floral aromas found in wine.
6. Approachable. This describes a wine that balances tannins (dry) and acid (mouth watering), is not complex, is widely appealing to different palates and pairs well with a variety of foods.
Wine terms for how a wine feels
7. Acidity. Acidity makes your mouth water (think Granny Smith apples) and is felt on the sides of your tongue and salivary glands in the back corners of your mouth.
8. Tannins. These are responsible for the bitter or astringent feel of a wine, and they hit you at the back of your palate.. They can coat your mouth with a drying sensation (think when your lips stick to your teeth) and add complexity and depth to a wine – and FYI, tannins are not responsible for your red wine headache.
9. Body: light, full and medium. The body of a wine is a measurement of how light or heavy it feels in your mouth.Light. Clean, crisp, white wines, like our Profile One, sauvignon blanc or pinot gris are light bodied. A light-bodied wine generally has less than 13 percent alcohol.
Full. These are your big reds – cabs, zins, syrahs, and our Profile Five. Full-bodied wines have over 14 percent alcohol.
Okay, we couldn't stop at 12. So here's one extra for you.
13. Soft. Used to describe wines on the sweeter side, like our Profiles Three or Six, that feature ripe fruits and are lower in tannins and acidity. Soft wines are considered very approachable.
We hope this helps you avoid the wine-menu roulette, so you can order a glass you know you’ll like – without having to overthink it. Because that's why we created BOXT, to take the hassle out of wine.
We hosted a wine tasting at our BOXT Clubhouse this week and one of the women summed it up perfectly. She said, “I love this idea! BOXT is perfect for me, because I taste a wine, and someone tells me what’s in it and why I like it - all the words you’re supposed to know- and then I forget and I still don’t know why I liked it or what it was. I love that BOXT is just a number!”
You don’t need fancy winespeak to describe or enjoy our wine, (or any wine for that matter). But with BOXT, you just decide what you like and remember the Profile number - and you’re good to go.
Use code: UNBOXT for $20 off your first order
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