How to talk about wine in English: Vocabulary & expressions

Welcome back!

Today's video is strictly for my over-18 audience, which I know is most of the people that watch

these videos.

The reason being is that I'm going to be talking about wine, and I need to put it out there

that I don't condone underaged drinking.

This is a video for people who are going to be, maybe being entertained in English.

If you go and do business in an English-speaking country, it's very likely that you'll be offered

a glass of wine.

So, this is to help you make informed decisions about what type of wine you might want to

drink and to also give you a bank of phrases that you can use to comment on your appreciation

of wine.

The idea from this lesson came from me going into an independent wine shop a couple of

weeks ago back in England.

I went into the shop and I said, "I'd like a bottle of red wine, please."

And the lady looked at me like I was half-mad and said, "Well, this is a wine shop."

So, this is partly from my desire to educate myself about the world of wines and I'm by

no means an expert.

I'm very much at the beginning of this journey, and you may know more than me about wine and

there are things that you notice in this video, drop me a comment and you'll be good, so I

can learn from that.

If you're not interested in wine, then just treat this as a listening comprehension and

test yourself with the quiz at the end.

Let's get started.

So, to begin with, I'm going to talk about the different types of wines, both white and

red.

I'll be talking about where they are grown.

We'll be looking at when you are tasting a wine, what kind of comments you might be looking

to make.

So, starting with white wines.

A Riesling, this is traditionally from Germany.

It's a dry - can be slightly sweet wine.

So, we've got adjectives here.

Dry and sweet.

It goes well with - it accompanies fish, chicken, and pork.

The aromas, that's the smell that you get when you put your nose to the glass, can be

fresh apple.

So, it makes me think of summer, this.

It sounds really quite refreshing.

Next white wine, a Chardonnay.

At its best, it is velvety with citrus tones.

Tone, that's a good word to use when talking about wine.

Tone, like flavor.

Chardonnay goes well with fish and chicken, and it's best grown in France, but it is also

grown in other parts of the world.

Our next one: Sauvignon Blanc.

Can you say that?

Sauvignon Blanc.

I'm sure some French listeners will probably say, "Not quite right", but it's about that.

Sauvignon Blanc goes well with seafood, poultry, salads.

Just a note on the pronunciation, so if you're coming to an English-speaking country, you'll

have to make yourself understood by someone who is, presumably, English behind the bar

or restaurant counter.

And they might not have beautiful French pronunciation.

Okay, so what is Sauvignon Blanc like?

Well, it's quite a light white wine, hint of herb, some can be quite fruity, and it's

grown in France and New Zealand to good effect.

Okay?

I always find it quite confusing because we've got Sauvignon Blanc and then we've got Cabernet

Sauvignon.

So, Cab Sav is red and Sav Blanc, blanc, French word for "white" is white.

Cab Sav, red.

Sav Blanc, white.

Red wines.

We've got Shiraz, sometimes known as Syrah.

It's a hearty and spicy wine.

The flavors you should get when you drink this wine are a sort of wild, black fruit.

Wild blackberries, okay?

And roasting meats.

So, this is more a sort of a winter drink.

Goes well with meat.

Best grown in France, California, and Australia.

Some of these wines can be quite average, so if you're getting a Shiraz, try to get

a good one.

Merlot.

I don't know much about Merlot; other than it's a pretty easy drinking wine and you can

serve it with any food.

So, if you've got any more knowledge about Merlot, then write a comment below and let's

keep this conversation going.

Malbec.

Malbec, dark fruit flavors.

It's got a smoky finish.

So, you know, it's good to sort of savor this.

It's not - all wine should be savored, really.

Malbec can be a very good value.

Does have a medium level of tannins.

I will be explaining what tannins mean in a moment, but it's to do with sort of the

lightness and heaviness of a wine.

And Malbec is best grown in France and Argentina.

Okay?

So, we've had Shiraz - hearty, spicy.

Merlot, quite an easy drinking wine.

Malbec - dark fruit with a smoky finish.

And Cabernet Sauvignon - by the way, these are not all of the wines in the world, yep.

I've just pulled out some of the most well-known wines.

Cabernet Sauvignon - a full bodied, so that means it's quite - it's not light.

It feels quite sort of substantial, yep.

You don't want to sort of take a big sip, it's more like a little sip, okay?

Goes well with red meat.

Grown well in France, Australia, California, and Chile.

Okay, we're going to learn in a moment what to say when you are tasting a wine for the

first time.

Now, it's sometimes said that a great teacher is a really good student.

And with this subject, I am a student, not a teacher.

I told you earlier that tannins meant that a wine is full bodied.

Now, that's not quite correct.

Tannins mean that the wine has a bitter taste.

The tannins come from the skins and the stems - that's the kind of the pokey, knobby bits,

and the seeds, the slightly kind of nasty bit of the grape.

And you can notice that there's lots of tannins because it actually sort of dries your mouth

up, okay?

So, when I went into the wine shop to ask for a bottle of red wine, the lady recommended

a bottle of red that was low in tannins, and it was very nice and it actually felt quite

a light wine.

So, what we're looking at here is different things that you could say about wine when

you taste it.

I want to make you aware of the classification of Old World vs. New World.

Probably used more in Europe than anywhere else, but an Old World wine, you're looking

at Spain, France, Italy, all the kind of traditional wine growing areas.

Whereas the New World is more your sort of Chile, California, Australia, New Zealand.

And there used to be a sort of preconception that Old World wines were better than New

World wines, but that's kind of no longer the case anymore, and there's excellent wines

from all around the world.

One thing you don't want is a corked bottle.

A corked bottle - I don't know how it happens.

I had a corked bottle back in the summer and you pour it and immediately you can tell there's

something wrong with the wine.

It tasted like vinegar or something.

So, you definitely don't want a corked bottle.

I think it's the sort of air pressure, the air gets in through the cork or something

like that.

If you know, do let us know in a comment.

Now, this is quite an amusing comment you can make.

So, you're swirling the wine around in the glass and you're looking at whether the liquid

kind of comes down quickly, or leaves a sort of trail.

It's like kind of the trails that a slug might make.

Now, what that is is the speed at which the wine is evaporating back off the inside of

the glass.

But, so, if it's got good legs, then you get these little lines, little trails where the

wine has kind of left a mark.

So, it's got good legs, those, you know, if the wine takes some time to evaporate off

the glass.

But actually, it doesn't show that the wine is good.

It just shows that the alcohol content is high or that it's a sweeter wine, okay?

But it does sound quite cool if you can say "Oh, it's got great legs, this wine."

We've gone over tannins.

Acidity.

The taste here is sort of zesty lemon, and rather than drying your mouth out, it actually,

the moisture remains in your mouth.

So, you can also talk about the tension in a wine.

The tension between acidity and sweetness.

Which way is it going to go?

The body.

Is it a light wine or is it a full-bodied wine?

Yep.

Adjectival description.

Does it make you want to savor the taste, or is it easy drinking?

Always good to talk about the kind of flavors you are getting from a wine.

You could say that it has shades of blackcurrant or, you know, really, really try to taste

it.

What can you sense?

What can you - what's it make you sort of - what taste is it sort of bringing up in

your taste imagination, should we say?

It's got hints of elderberries.

Whatever you can taste.

Aroma is the smell.

It's got a fantastic aroma, this wine.

Okay?

Sounds better than "smell".

If the wine is energetic, then you have a sip and it's like woah.

Gives you some energy, makes you feel awake.

Whether it has depth.

So, resonate - it's a bit like, kind of, echo.

So, if you go into a cathedral and sing, then the sound resonates around the building.

If a wine has good depth, then it's like the flavor is resonating in your mouth.

A powerful wine.

That's, you know, what's the effect of the flavors.

Is it like, a strong, powerful effect?

Also relates to the alcoholic content.

If a wine has a lot of life, quite similar to it being energetic, yep.

It's vibrant.

And finally, we have some wine idioms.

So, a little hint for you guys out there: Girls like to be "wined and dined".

So, taking them out to a restaurant and making sure that there's a nice bottle of wine and

some nice food.

"Wined and dined": given a nice meal with wine.

"Days of wine and roses".

Doesn't that sound blissful?

So, days of wine and roses are carefree, happy days, yeah?

A really kind of, a golden time.

"Put a cork in it."

Put a cork in it, will you?

So, when you've had enough of the bottle of wine, you put the cork back in so that the

wine stays good for a couple of more days.

But, if you say, "Put a cork in it" to someone, you're saying yeah, enough.

Pipe down, quiet now.

Put a cork in it.

Shh!

Okay?

So, I hope you might have learned something.

I hope you might have kind of thought about this topic a little bit more.

It is now time to do the quiz.

Those of you who have been listening for the listening comprehension skills, but thank

you for watching my video today.

Thank you to my loyal subscribers, yep.

Really grateful for you guys watching video after video, and I hope you're getting what

you need from this channel.

If there is any kind of content that you want me to make for you guys, then, you know, ask

for it.

It may take me a while to make because I live in England and the channel is in Canada, but

you know, we will make it at some point.

See you guys, thanks for watching.