Red wine styles  

Question: “Can you please let me know, in order, which wine is the driest to the sweetest?”

Answer:

There is however a much more helpful way to organize red wines. 

This organization was suggested by Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan and arranges reds according to their texture and body.¹ I will explain exactly what these terms refer to but first will present the classification of wines and some examples.

Crisp & light-bodied: Bardolino, Valpolicella, Beaujolais, less expensive Pinot Noirs

Firm & medium-bodied: Chianti, Rioja, wines from Bordeaux

Soft & medium-bodied: many Pinot Noirs, inexpensive Zinfandels, wines from Burgundy, Australian Shiraz

Intense & full-bodied: more expensive Cabernets, Merlots, more expensive Zinfandels, Barolo, Barbaresco.

Texture refers to the feeling of the wine in your mouth, i.e. the impression it leaves.  Acidity and tannin influence the texture of the wine, along with the alcohol.

Higher levels of acidity in a wine create a “crisp” impression; if the acidity is too low it causes a “fat and flabby” impression. 

Higher levels of tannins in a wine create an “intense” impression, while lower levels of tannins (in other words, the mid range) of tannins cause a “firm” impression; and finally, lowest levels of tannin cause a “soft” impression. 

You might be asking “How do I distinguish between acidity and tannin?”

While it’s true that both tannins and acidity create a dry sensation in your mouth (i.e. dry your mouth out), the trick is determining whether or not the wine causes you to salivate.  Saliva is produced in response to acids to neutralize them.  So if you’re salivating, it’s caused by acid, and if you’re not, the dryness is caused from tannins.

A tip: If you spend some time exploring the above terms with a dictionary and thesaurus, you’ll discover other synonyms used by others to describe them.  One example would be “soft.” If you check out a dictionary you’ll notice a synonym for “soft” is “supple”.  You have probably heard a wine described this way.

Body refers to whether the wine is “light-bodied,” “medium bodied,” or “full-bodied.”

Again this classification refers to an impression you're left with when you take a drink of wine.  To judge whether a wine is medium, light, or full bodied you need to imagine your tongue as a scale measuring weight.  In other words, imagine you are weighing the wine with your tongue.  To do so, take a sip of the wine, hold it in your mouth and, keeping the analogy of a weight scale in mind, see whether it leaves you with the impression that it is light (light-bodied), heavy (full-bodied) or somewhere in between (medium bodied).

I would recommend committing the above criteria to memory and putting them into practice each time you try another red wine.  Try and put the wine you’re drinking into one of the categories.  Over time you will find yourself getting better and better at it.

1.         *McCarthy E. & M Ewing-Mulligan (1996). Red Wine For Dummies. Foster City:IDG Books Worldwide.