Wine is like apples
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These seven apples range in sweetness from very tart to very sweet. In the middle is a sweet-tart mix, the Red Delicious. To the right are Honey Crisp, Gala and Fuji. On the other side are Golden Delicious, Pink Lady and Granny Smith. 

 Kenneth Boone

Finding the right words to describe a wine’s taste can be difficult. Of the hundreds of terms used to characterize the flavor and aromas of a wine, most are subjective and broadly interpreted. Zesty, floral and woody, for example, don’t identify a taste as well as chocolatey or lemony. For a better understanding of taste, we need only consider five basic characteristics that are unique to wine.

 Acidity is easy to identify because we have so many points of reference, like lemons and tomatoes. The palate is very familiar with the tartness stemming from acids in our foods. Tannins, however, are not as readily identifiable, even though this phenolic compound is present in a wide variety of foods like legumes, coffee, tea, nuts and some leafy vegetables. The tannins in wine come from the seeds, stems and skins of the grapes and provide structure and texture, particularly in red wines.