What The Body Of A Wine Really Says

Question: “What does the body of the wine really say about the wine?  I've heard everything from complexity of the taste, to how much alcohol is in the wine.” 

Wines are classified as being light-bodied, medium bodied, or full bodied.

Light-bodied wines typically have a feel similar to water in your mouth and full-bodied wines are milk in terms of heaviness.  Of course a medium-bodied wine would be in between the two.

To judge whether a wine is medium, light, or full bodied, you need to keep the above information in mind and really imagine your tongue as a weight scale.  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 see whether it leaves you with the impression that it is light (light-bodied), heavy (full-bodied) or somewhere in between (medium-bodied).

This question also references “complexity” and “alcohol.”  These are different from the body of the wine. 

Complexity refers to the flavour impressions that a wine provides.  Some wines may be very direct or straight forward meaning the flavour right up front is the flavour of the wine.  Whereas a wine could be more complex in which more aspects of flavours of the wine keep coming out as you continue drinking the wine.

The alcohol simply refers to the level of alcohol in the wine.  Period.

There are various other aspects of wine that this installment may have got you thinking about. 

(The good news is that I’ve put together a concise guide on sampling and this enjoying red wine available for free for anyone who subscribes to my free newsletter. See details below.)

As there are many terms that are used to describe wine, taking some time to review the above free guide and then taking time to enjoy and discern between different wines over time will help you develop the basic foundation to learn all the other aspects of wine.

I highly recommend Fool Proof Wine Value by Ed Gandia. 

Ed’s resource comes in the form an e-book that you can instantly download and it is all presented - in plain English - without the snobbery that usually comes with the subject of wine.  

You may recall me mentioning that that this guide contains a comprehensive list of the top wine producers (and their best wines in the $10-and-under category) that you can easily purchase, without breaking the bank.

By having the ability to access high quality but lower priced wines you will be able to try many different ones without having to break the bank, and, again, this enables you to enjoy and discern between many different wines and over time ensure you have the proper basic foundational experiences to not only learn all the other aspects of wine but enjoy the experience each step of the way.

You can access a free copy of my guide to sampling wine when you subscribe to my free newsletter (called The Red Wine Academy Newsletter) and I'll also tell you can instantly get your hands on Ed's Guide.  Just enter your email address below and click the button to access my free newsletter.  I will not provide your email address to anyone and you can unsubscribe at any time.