There are many ways to talk about wine, seriously! This is why it can be so confusing. The terms are endless and vary on a scale of ‘say it as it is’ and ‘complete wine snobbery’. But one of the most popular ways to talk about wine is to talk about wine body.
Now I know most of you would never discuss someone’s body and might be appalled that we would analyse the body of our beautiful wine. Because all wines are beautiful right? Well never fear, we aren’t talking about the wine bottle having a pear vs hourglass shape.
I know, it’s confusing, and one of the many ways that wine becomes inaccessible to the regular wine drinker. But I’m here to help you understand this term and how to use it without making a note of the wine bottle design being shapely.
Wine body is not a discussion of physical appearances but rather how the wine feels inside your mouth when you take a sip. You’d think that would be called something like taste right? Well, taste is more about the different flavours within the wine, whereas the body is just about heaviness.
This conversation about wine body just gets more awkward when you bring heaviness into it! But I promise that this is more about taste than shape!
The three types of wine body
There are three main categories of wine body across all the wine varieties, making it quite simple to remember. Because we are talking about heaviness, thankfully this makes the names a lot easier to remember: light body, medium body and heavy body.
An example that gets thrown around a lot to get you thinking about how they differ is with dairy. Skim milk is light bodied, full cream milk is medium bodied, and cream is full bodied. Personally, I can’t taste the difference between skim and full cream, so I use coconut products. Coconut water is light bodied, coconut milk is medium bodied and coconut cream is full bodied.
Regardless of what metaphor you use, you can imagine the difference between these in your mouth. Something like cream is going to feel quite heavy and full in your mouth, while something like coconut water is very light. Wines are very similar in their body, although a heavy wine won’t feel like drinking a whole glass of cream, I can promise you that!
Those wines that are full-bodied are big, bold and powerful. Light-bodied wines are delicate and lean. Then you’ve got the middle, which is those wines that fall in between. Most wines will generally fall somewhere in between light and heavy.
The problem is that there is no real legal definition policed by the wine police (probably not a thing, but it would be great to witness) that determines the cutoffs between categories, but there are a few other factors that affect the body of a wine, which will help you pick it out for yourself.
Blame it on the al-a-a-a-a-alcohol
The main factor affecting wine body is alcohol. This is good because winemakers have to put this on the label like a little cheat sheet for us all, giving a hint of wine body before we even sip.
The reason for this is largely down to the science, which was something I was never good at so it often goes over my head. It’s related to a term called viscosity, which allegedly is something we learnt in high school, but I’ve clearly forgotten this lesson. It is something you can see in the wine ‘legs’ when you are tasting, which run down the side of the glass. Or you can just taste the wine and see how heavy it feels in your mouth (I know I choose option B). Wines with more alcohol become more viscous (no, not vicious…they aren’t like an angry drunk at the bar), and so become heavier. Hence the full circle!
Therefore the higher the alcohol content, the fuller the body. Because of this, it’s easy to pick how heavy a wine will be based on its alcohol content. As a general rule:
- Light body – wines with less than 12.5% alcohol. These are crisp and refreshing, such as Riesling and Prosecco
- Medium body – wines between 12.5% and 13.5% alcohol. Many wines fall under this category, and some examples include Rose and Sauvignon Blanc
- Heavy body – wines over 13.5% alcohol. These are your powerhouse wines, such as Merlot, Malbec, Shiraz and Chardonnay
If you are with me so far, you’ve got the basics of wine body. But there are some other contributing factors.
How does extract impact wine body?
Ok so when researching this article, I came across this weird wine term, and to be honest it doesn’t seem like a word that should be used to describe anything to do with wine. Extract, really? Sounds gross. Or like we should be baking.
Regardless of my thoughts and feelings on the matter, something called extract also contributes to the wine body. At the risk of going to ‘sciency’ on you all and this going over your head (I know it went over mine), a range of other factors makes up the extract. It includes the tannins, glycerol, sugars and acids in the wine.
Don’t freak out, you don’t need to get out your chemistry book! Here are a few general rules which are basically all you need to know about extract:
- Generally, red wines are more full-bodied than white wines because they have more tannins
- A wine that is fermented or matured in oak is heavier than wine that isn’t matured in oak
- White wines can be made heavier through certain winemaking techniques such as leaving the wine on its lees (those are the dead yeast cells, which sounds grosser than it is), and stirring the lees periodically
- Less tannin means a lighter wine
- The more acidic the wine, generally the lighter the wine is
Some of these you can work out from the label, but you may have to try the wine to determine what extract is impacting the heaviness in the wine.
But what about the grapes?
As you would expect, the body of a wine is also impacted by the grape variety, because this is what makes up the wine. Although winemaking technique can impact the body through when the grapes are picked, the producing and maturation of the wine, the type of grape plays a big part too. Some wines will have a higher sugar content when ripe, producing more alcohol when turned into wine. The skin of the grape also affects the amount of extract, with thick-skinned grapes containing more than thin-skinned varieties. This is why thick-skinned grapes such as Merlot and Shiraz tend to be heavier than thin-skinned grapes like Barbera and Gamay. So some wines varieties are pre-disposed to being heavier than others.
The climate that the grapes are grown in also impacts the body of the wine. A Chardonnay grown in a cool climate is going to taste very different from one grown in a warm climate. As a general rule, grapes grown in warmer climates produce riper grapes. Riper grapes mean more sugar, which leads to higher potential alcohol content. As we’ve learnt, the alcohol content is the primary determinant of the wine body. So the higher the alcohol content the heavier the wine.
The final word
So I know we got really deep into the depths of what makes up wine body. I hope I haven’t lost you! Here are the things you need to remember:
- Wine body isn’t the appearance of the wine but the feel of it in your mouth (think coconut water vs coconut milk vs coconut cream)
- There are three main types of wine body: Light, medium and heavy
- The main determinant is alcohol content. The higher the alcohol content, the heavier the wine (pro tip: you can guess the body by reading the wine label)
- Wines that are more tannic and less acidic are heavier than those that are less tannic and high in acidity
- Wine varieties with thick skins are heavier than those with thin skins (Shiraz vs Gamay)
- Warm climates typically produce heavy body due to producing high sugar grapes, leading to high alcohol potential
So next time you’re tasting wine, try this out! You can usually figure it out by reading the wine label, but if you want, try to taste the wine first and see what you think. Then you can use words like extract and body to impress, or annoy, your friends!