09/20/07 Terms Part 3

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. We are embarking on a series defining wine terms and giving you correct pronunciations for wines and grapes alike. Today we continue. My goal is to help listeners learn the definitions of terms used to describe wine and to pronounce some of the more interesting and sometimes literally foreign words. Today we begin with the terms aftertaste and finish used interchangeably to describe the taste or flavors lingering in your mouth after you swallow your wine. It is that simple. Hopefully those flavors are pleasant and you savor them  if so it is an indication of a high quality wine. Next speaking of long finishes the term buttery often contributes to a wine with a long finish. The term buttery is describing a rich, oily, weighty quality found in many oak aged wines such as Chardonnay. It may even have a fragrance or implied flavor of butter. Which leads me to the concept of legs  those syrupy streams of wine running down the inside of your glass after you swirl it. They indicate the texture or viscosity of the wine and nothing more. They are not an assurance of quality so don't make that assumption  smell it and taste it - to find out how good it is. Join me tomorrow as we continue to explore the definitions of the words used to describe wine. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at Vine to Wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.