Have you ever heard of a wine being described as flamboyant? It seems like an odd way to describe a wine, but you best believe that some people do use this term! In Wine Terms Explained, we unpack some of the weird wine terms that are out there. These terms can be confusing and make wine hard to understand. By looking at what they actually mean, you’ll know what on earth they are talking about. This article unpacks: what is a flamboyant wine?
What is a flamboyant wine?
Flamboyant is a very fancy term and seems like it would mean the wine is like some sort of party in your mouth. Well, that’s what I think of anyway. But a Flamboyant wine is actually a really easy term to unpack. A flamboyant wine has high levels of fruit that is easily noticed. The fruit-forwardness in the wine grabs your attention. It really is as simple as that.
This doesn’t mean that the wine is sweet, although it might be perceived that way. It just means it has a lot of fruit flavours that are dominant. Other words that are similar are fruit-forward, jammy, juicy, ripe.
Where you might find it
Flamboyant wines aren’t necessarily varietal specific. A winemaker can make plenty of decisions to make the wine fruit-forward in its profile from when they pick the grapes to what the wine is fermented in.
Although this used to be a characteristic typically describing new world wines, the lines have been blurred between old and new and this distinction doesn’t really exist anymore. So it isn’t as simple as assigning a whole wine or region as producing flamboyant wines.
However, a couple of red varieties, in particular, are identified as more often having these characteristics. Grapes that produce fruit-forward wines such as Shiraz, Zinfandel and some Pinot Noir can have this characteristic. But once again it really depends on the winemaking.
Is a flamboyant wine good or bad?
So is it a good thing? As with most wine terms, it all comes down to personal preference. If you like wines that are quite fruit-forward, then you most likely enjoy flamboyant wines. Although this term is sometimes used to negatively describe a wine out of balance, for the most part, it is just a way to describe fruit in the flavours. So if you like it, great, if you don’t, great too!
Find more Wine Terms Explained here.