- Acidic: Citrus or tartaric, low acidity makes a wine dull and flabby, high acidity make a wine sharp and tangy such as a lemon or lime, balanced acidity makes a wine refreshing.
- Appellation: In the U.S., it typically indicates the geographic origin of the grapes and wineries, specifying "Russian River Valley" on the bottle means 75-85% of the grapes come from that origin, specifying a vineyard on the label requires 95% of the grapes to be from that vineyard.
- Astringent: a drying or chalky feel from too much tannin.
- Aroma: wines with a noticeable smell typically floral, berry, oaky or spice
- Balance: combination of all factors that make up the structure of the wine including acid, residual sugar, tannin, alcohol or heat, weight, texture and fruit.
- Barrel Aged: a wine that has been stored in oak barrels typically 55 to 60 gallons to gather flavor and mellow the wine compared to tank or bottle aging.
- Body: the fullness of the wine, the wine's weight due to alcohol and soluble solids.
- Bottle Aged: allowing the wine to mature and mellow in the bottle under proper conditions.
- Bouquet: smells from the wine that comes from the production techniques and bottle age.
- Buttery: usually sensed in Chardonnay, flavors and aromas that come from malolactic (secondary) fermentation.
- Clean: a well-made, fresh, wine pleasing to the nose and palate.
- Complex: shows a variety of subtle scents and flavors
- Dry: wine allowed to ferment and convert more sugars to alcohol, not sweet.
- Earthy: smell and sometimes taste that invokes the sense of freshly turned, clean soil.
- Flabby: lifeless, dull, soft or flat due to low acidity.
- Finish: length of time the wine's feeling or flavor remains in your mouth. Ideally, it should be refreshing and linger. A long, smooth finish is a sign of a high quality wine.
- Fruity: sense of apples or pears usually associated with white wine.
- Grassy: the smell of grass or newly-mown hay.
- Heat: body of the wine creates heat usually associated with high alcohol content.
- Legs: trickles of liquid lines forming on the inside of the glass after swirling the wine, the spacing, quantity and speed of decent are dependent upon density and alcohol content.
- Light: lacking in aroma, body, color, or alcohol, may still be pleasant.
- Lively: usually refers to young, fruity wines with a bit of carbon dioxide.
- Nose: name for initial smell, aroma or bouquet of the wine.
- Oaky: having oak flavors or aromas from being aged in oak barrels.
- Residual Sugar: fermentation converts grape sugars into alcohol, residual sugars retain the sweetness of the grape.
- Spice: aroma and taste of cinnamon, cocoa, coffee, or pepper, typically found in Syrah.
- Supple: a quality wine with smooth or few tannins.
- Tannin: compounds that occur naturally in the skins, seeds and stems of grapes that make wine astringent, tannins can also come from the barrel, tannins soften with barrel and bottle aging.
- Tank Aging: period of time wine is stored in stainless steel tanks during fermentation, typically synonymous with a white wine.
- Tart: acidic; excess acid makes you pucker.
- Texture: the sensation provided by body of the wine, and the tannins.
- Thin: lacking in body and alcohol; watery.
- Varietal: type of grape, a variatal wine is made from at least 75% of the grape on the label.
- Vintage: the year in which the grapes were picked, at least 95% of the grapes must be harvested in that year.
 

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