Wine Styles
I received a great question today, and I wanted to share it and my answer with you:
Q) I have a quick question. I see marketing-described “style” becoming more and more important in consumer’s purchasing decisions. However, I see “style” being used so very differently by different establishments. For example, a place called “Best Cellars” here uses a total of 8 style categories “soft, luscious, smooth, fresh, fizzy, big, sweet, juicy” and a raw food restaurant (Pure Food and Wine) uses 3 “aromatic, big, lean”.
My question is, what is the industry standard for style? Is it simply “light-, medium-, and full-bodied” or is it something else? Please let me know your thoughts to this perplexing question. -SS from NYC-
A) Styles such as you are asking about, are one of those nebulous things in wine speak that have no real meaning, or agreement.
Each of the categories you list have merit, but as you can see, the lack of any standardization leads to confusion.
In my book Juice Jargon I attempt to deal with this very issue, by simplifying the way we talk about wine. I feel that wine is all about balance, and the words we use to describe wine should concentrate on what the balance of the wine is like.
To that end I emphasize the following general traits:
Aroma (how much smell it has)
Acid (the tart flavors)
Tannin (the bitter flavors)
Fruit (everything else)
The words I use to describe a wine have to do with the perceived balance of the wine. So I might describe a (red) Zinfandel as having: a Fruity nose, and jammy fruit, with balanced acidity and light tannins.
Of “soft, luscious, smooth, fresh, fizzy, big, sweet, juicy” only Fizzy has anything approaching an universal meaning (a cute term for sparkling wines). Soft and smooth both usually relate to wines with few tannins. Smooth has a specific technical meaning as well, but it is unlikely that they are using it the same way. Fresh usually implies a young wine with a tart acid balance. Luscious really has no meaning in wine at all - it implies the wine is pleasing to the senses, but I for one would not want any wine that is not pleasing. Big usually infers that the wine has notable tannins (I use the term "hard"). Sweet should only be used for wines with residual sugars, such as dessert wines. Juicy is a really tough one. The term for a wine that tastes like grape juice is "foxy" and it is a bad thing to say about wine. Perhaps they mean it the way I mean "jammy" in that the wine has abundant fruit.
“aromatic, big, lean” is a not a very generous list. Aromatic would be a wine with more than average aromas, and big, as we touched on, would mean tannic. Lean presumably means acidic, without much tannin (although lean usually means lacking in acidity).
“light-, medium-, and full-bodied” only refers to the amount of the tannins in the wine. It leaves out everything else about the wine, and while it is a good start for a restaurant wine list, it is not very descriptive.
I have always used grape varieties rather than styles for the wine lists I have produced, but should I want to create a list based on styles, I would probably stick to Fruity, Acidic (or the less intimidating term "Tart") , and Tannic.
Fruity wines are great by themselves, or with food preparations that include fruit. An example would be Zinfandel (a red wine) served with Turkey and cranberry sauce, or Gewurztraminer (a white wine) with Orange Roughy with a mango chutney.
Tart wines are great with most foods, especially those that have more natural oils (fats). For example, a Sauvignon Blanc (a white wine) with Veal Piccatta (a butter sauce), or Pinot Noir (a red wine) with Poached Salmon with lemon.
Tannic wines are harder to put with food, but certainly the classic Rare Roast Beef and the red wine Cabernet Sauvignon (or a Bordeaux) works well, as does the white Chardonnay (tannins here are from oak barrel aging) and Raw Oysters.
Styles are hard to assign to wine, not only because they are subjective, but because few wines fall into only one style. It is a question of degrees - a question of balance.
Q) I have a quick question. I see marketing-described “style” becoming more and more important in consumer’s purchasing decisions. However, I see “style” being used so very differently by different establishments. For example, a place called “Best Cellars” here uses a total of 8 style categories “soft, luscious, smooth, fresh, fizzy, big, sweet, juicy” and a raw food restaurant (Pure Food and Wine) uses 3 “aromatic, big, lean”.
My question is, what is the industry standard for style? Is it simply “light-, medium-, and full-bodied” or is it something else? Please let me know your thoughts to this perplexing question. -SS from NYC-
A) Styles such as you are asking about, are one of those nebulous things in wine speak that have no real meaning, or agreement.
Each of the categories you list have merit, but as you can see, the lack of any standardization leads to confusion.
In my book Juice Jargon I attempt to deal with this very issue, by simplifying the way we talk about wine. I feel that wine is all about balance, and the words we use to describe wine should concentrate on what the balance of the wine is like.
To that end I emphasize the following general traits:
Aroma (how much smell it has)
Acid (the tart flavors)
Tannin (the bitter flavors)
Fruit (everything else)
The words I use to describe a wine have to do with the perceived balance of the wine. So I might describe a (red) Zinfandel as having: a Fruity nose, and jammy fruit, with balanced acidity and light tannins.
Of “soft, luscious, smooth, fresh, fizzy, big, sweet, juicy” only Fizzy has anything approaching an universal meaning (a cute term for sparkling wines). Soft and smooth both usually relate to wines with few tannins. Smooth has a specific technical meaning as well, but it is unlikely that they are using it the same way. Fresh usually implies a young wine with a tart acid balance. Luscious really has no meaning in wine at all - it implies the wine is pleasing to the senses, but I for one would not want any wine that is not pleasing. Big usually infers that the wine has notable tannins (I use the term "hard"). Sweet should only be used for wines with residual sugars, such as dessert wines. Juicy is a really tough one. The term for a wine that tastes like grape juice is "foxy" and it is a bad thing to say about wine. Perhaps they mean it the way I mean "jammy" in that the wine has abundant fruit.
“aromatic, big, lean” is a not a very generous list. Aromatic would be a wine with more than average aromas, and big, as we touched on, would mean tannic. Lean presumably means acidic, without much tannin (although lean usually means lacking in acidity).
“light-, medium-, and full-bodied” only refers to the amount of the tannins in the wine. It leaves out everything else about the wine, and while it is a good start for a restaurant wine list, it is not very descriptive.
I have always used grape varieties rather than styles for the wine lists I have produced, but should I want to create a list based on styles, I would probably stick to Fruity, Acidic (or the less intimidating term "Tart") , and Tannic.
Fruity wines are great by themselves, or with food preparations that include fruit. An example would be Zinfandel (a red wine) served with Turkey and cranberry sauce, or Gewurztraminer (a white wine) with Orange Roughy with a mango chutney.
Tart wines are great with most foods, especially those that have more natural oils (fats). For example, a Sauvignon Blanc (a white wine) with Veal Piccatta (a butter sauce), or Pinot Noir (a red wine) with Poached Salmon with lemon.
Tannic wines are harder to put with food, but certainly the classic Rare Roast Beef and the red wine Cabernet Sauvignon (or a Bordeaux) works well, as does the white Chardonnay (tannins here are from oak barrel aging) and Raw Oysters.
Styles are hard to assign to wine, not only because they are subjective, but because few wines fall into only one style. It is a question of degrees - a question of balance.
posted by Wineguy at 4:14 PM
2 Comments:
Hello,
I was very interested in reading your postings on wine. I am still trying to feel my way around the very long isle at the local store and really appreciate the information you posted.
I am hoping you would be kind enough to help me with a dilemma. I am hosting a party this weekend and serving whole poached salmon. I am planning to serve Pinot Noir as a red and can not figure out what white wine I should make available. Do you have some suggestions?
Thank you in advance,
Valeria
Sauvignon Blanc is always a good safe wine to go with food. The French versions Pouilly Fumé and Sancerre are particularly good with food, since they are balanced towards the tart side.
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