The “wine world” can be a bit confusing. And, some of the terminology can seemingly make no sense. So, let’s take a look at a few obscure terms and what they mean…
Angular - A wine can be described as being “Angular” when it has sharp or pronounced flavors in your mouth. The most common is a wine with high acidity being described as “angular.” Also, a young red wine can have a higher amount of tannin which can result in a extreme mouthfeel of dryness or astringency.
Chewy - Wines that are described as “chewy” are in reference to their bold tannin. These tannin compounds can make your mouth feel dry making you want to chew or otherwise clean out your mouth.
Clean - These wines are typically higher in acidity and refreshing. They have no off-flavors.
Fat - A ‘fat’ wine refers to the fact that it big and bold in flavor, but not in a good way. It can feel heavy in your mouth usually due to it lacking balanced acidity.
Flabby - Flabby wines lack acidity and structure making them taste dull or out of balance.
Grippy - This has to do with the mouthfeel of a wine due to big and bold tannins. These wines create a noticeable drying or puckering sensation in your mouth.
Lively - These wines are high in acidity resulting in a refreshing, invigorating experience.
Minerality - This refers to non-fruity, non-herbal, non-spicy characteristics in a wine that remind tasters of stones, wet rocks, chalk, flint, or even salty sea air.
Stemmy - A ‘stemmy’ wine has green, herbal and sometimes bitter characteristics that comes from the wine being fermented in whole clusters, i.e., with the stems.
These are just a few of the many terms that get thrown around in the wine world. Hope this helps in your future wine tasting encounters. Cheers!