Ah, wine. It is so delicious but it is also surrounded by an industry filled with snobby terms. Many of us just want to enjoy wine, but it can be hard to feel comfortable learning about it when so much of it is confusing. There are so many terms that don’t make sense and make it feel like you can access the weird and wonderful world of wine. So I’ve been on a mission to unpack some of these weird wine terms for you to help us all get back to enjoying wine. Understanding the terms helps to unpack what wine is all about. So I thought I would highlight some of my top weird wine terms explained.
There are so many weird wine terms out there which made it so hard to choose my favourites. But here is a list of some of the highlights so far. The funny terms I’ve enjoyed unpacking for you, the ones that get used a lot, and the ones that are downright weird. So let’s get stuck in!
Coconut
Coconut in wine had to make it to the top of my weird wine terms explained because it caused so much discussion. It really doesn’t seem right to have a wine taste like a pina colada, but in the right wine, it is a great thing!
Coconut generally is found on the nose and is a sort of dull sweetness, unlike something like fruit or honey. It is more aromatic than a flavour, similar to almond, coffee and chocolate in wine. This flavour is the sort of thing that you find in coconut milk (Pina Coladas), coconut oil or even desiccated coconut you find in a Bounty bar or on a lamington!
American Oak is known for giving strong flavours of vanilla and amongst other things, coconut to wines. So if you love tasting coconut in wines, look out for wines that use this oak in their ageing process.
Read the full guide here.
Barnyard
You may have heard a wine described as having a barnyard characteristic. “Oh yes, I distinctly smell barnyard in this wine” might be something you’d hear someone say if they are trying to be impressive (in my humble opinion). When I first heard this term, I laughed. Why on earth would you want to drink a wine that tastes like a barnyard?
Barnyard is a very unique and particular characteristic that you can find across wines. The thing about barnyard is that it isn’t something you’ll taste in the glass, it is something you will smell.
You can find barnyard in wine in any wine technically. Although you can find this flavour in white wines, it is usually found in red wines. Barnyard gives an element of rustic, rough, dry/dank hay to the wine which can work really well in complex red wines.
Read the full guide here.
Toasty
One of my favourite wine terms is toasty. Toast immediately makes me think of baked goods, which makes me hungry, but toasted bread and wine don’t have all that much in common, right? It is yet another example of one of the many wine terms that are just plain confusing to the everyday drinker.
Unfortunately, a toasty wine doesn’t have a lot to do with toast. A wine can have toast or bready flavours, that’s for sure. But toasty is a term used to describe certain flavours in wine. You’ll find them in both the bouquet (what you smell) and the finish (what you taste). These flavours can include bread and toast like flavours, but they also cover a lot more.
Basically, toasty is a term used to describe any wine that is aged in oak, giving the wine toasty flavours. You’ll find these particularly in white wines that are specifically oaked for these flavours, such as Chardonnay, but you can also find them in Red wines, and even some Sparkling wine and Champagne!
Read the full guide here.
Flabby
When I was looking back through my wine terms explained, I laughed when I came to this one and knew I had to include it in my top weird wine terms.
Flabby is generally a negative term used to describe a wine with low acidity and a high pH balance. The combination of this leaves the wine with an unbalanced flavour. Acidity gives a wine structure and activates it on your tastebuds. Basically, it leaves you with a ‘blah’ feeling in your mouth.
How do you tell if a wine is flabby? Well, the first thing to check is taste. Without acidity, the wine is heavy-tasting and limp. They can also be syrupy or too sweet. Basically, the wine will make you feel ‘blah’ in your mouth.
Read the full guide here.
Jammy
Jammy is a wine term we get a lot with the wines of Australia, particularly from our warmer climates.
This weird wine term is used to explain a fruit-forward wine. They are packed full of jam-making fruit flavours like strawberries, plums and blackberries. These wines are usually ripe, concentrated and fruit-forward. Jammy wines are also usually low in acid and tannins.
To create a jammy wine, the fruit usually is overripe. The grape berries have ripened in a warmer climate, or been left on the vine and are sometimes overripe. When they are harvested they tend to be high sugar and alcohol, low acid, usually low tannin and full of concentrated fruit flavours.
Read the full guide here.
In summary: my top weird wine terms explained
It was hard to limit the list to just five, but I’ve enjoyed revisiting some of the highlights of Wine Terms Explained. There are so many weird terms out there I feel like we’ve only just scratched the surface. But learning more about these wine terms helps to unlock the wonderful world of wine, so you can sip with confidence!
If you want to explore more, check out my Wine Terms Explained page.