Complete
A tasting term that almost speaks for itself. The wine is mature and satisfying on many levels: aroma, mouth-feel, and a wonderful taste that lingers firmly on the palate.

Complex
Great wines are wines that can be appreciated on many levels - taste, aroma texture, and even visually. They are complex and the experience of drinking them complete.

Corked, corky
A tasting term that describes a wine contaminated by mold or trichloroanisole (TCA), which emanates from the cork, causing a wine to smell like old cardboard or worse, mildew.

Côte (France)
Meaning "slope" or "hillside" in French, the term is widely used to describe wine producing regions of France including: Côte d'Or (Burgundy), Côte Rôtie (Rhône Valley), and Côte de Brouilly (Beaujolais).

Crémant (France)
A French bubbly or sparkling wine made outside of the Champagne region, and therefore not entitled under French law to be called Champagne. It is, however, produced the same way as Champagne, via the Méthode Champenoise, but unable to be labeled as such. Alsace, Burgundy, and the Loire produce especially fine Crémant wines. Unofficially, Crémant can also refer to a Champagne or sparkling wine that is only lightly effervescent.

Crisp
A tasting term usually used to describe white wines that are fresh, brisk, and pleasantly tart - normally with high acidity.

Crushing
After the grapes have been harvested, the first step of the vinification process is typically the crushing of the grape bunches to extract the juice. Traditionally, this is the point at which people would trample the grapes underfoot to break the skins; however, modern vineyards now rely on machines to crush the grapes, which is both more efficient and more sanitary. The juice that flows from the grapes at this point is known as "free-run" juice, and is considered to be of higher quality than the juice that is extracted later via pressing.

Cuvaison
This is a French word for the process of transferring color, aroma and tannin to wine via leaving grape skins in contact with the juice during the fermentation of red wine. In English, this is known as "maceration".

Deep
A descriptive word tasters use to describe a high quality wine with layers of flavors that gradually emerge and fill the mouth.

Delicate
A tasting term for wine that is light in fragrance, body and flavor. The wine is attractive, if mild, and is more apt to describe a decent white wine than a red one.

Demi-Sec (France)
In French it means "half-dry" and denotes the sweetest of Champagnes that a winery typically produces.

Distinctive
A tasting term describing a wine with a character that is elegant, sophisticated, and refined.

Dolce (Italy)
Meaning "sweet," the term refers to wines with a lot of residual sugar.

Domaine (France)
Refers to an estate where wines are grown and produced.

Doux (France)
Means "sweet" in French when referring to wines with residual sugar.

Dry
A tasting term describing a wine without residual sugar - the opposite of a sweet wine. The majority of wines are dry and those that are sweeter are typically white wines.

Dulce (Spain)
Sweet.

Dull
Another descriptive term. Dull implies an uninteresting wine, lacking in character and liveliness.

Dumb
Wine that has nothing to say. Instead of flavor or aroma worthy of comment, the wine leaves a blank in the mind of the taster. Dumb has a similar meaning to "closed", and corresponds to a period that some wines go through in which the fruitiness of youth begins to decline before the complexity of age asserts itself. The result is a wine that has gone dumb and is not satisfying. Age-worthy wines may become dumb in their early years but may open up again and realize their full potential after further aging. Winemakers cannot easily explain why this occurs and have a hard time forecasting the duration of this phase in the life of some wines.

Earthy
A wine with a smell and/or flavor reminiscent of dirt. Just a whiff of earthiness is desirable in a good wine but too much designates a wine as flawed.

Elegant
A wine tasting term describing a wine that's well-balanced and subtly complex. The wine is stylish and distinguished with a refined character.

Entry
Tasters use the phrase to describe the immediate impression made by a wine as it hits the mouth. They then speak of "midpalate" and "finish" (later impressions) as well as "length" - terms described later in the glossary.

Extra Dry
A term describing Champagne indicating it's less dry (e.g. slightly sweeter) than Brut.

Extract
A wine tasting term referring to solids in a wine. Extract is increased via leaving the wine in contact with the grape skins longer during processing, resulting in more body and color. Wines described as "big" or "heavy" or "intense" have more extract than lighter wines. See Maceration.

Fat
A tasting term referring to a well-balanced wine that is full of flavor and body. Sweet wines, in particular, are praised for being fat, especially the finest Sauternes. "Fat" may also connote a wine with low acid levels, though not to the degree of being a flaw, as with wines that are considered "flabby" (see Flabby).

Finesse
A tasting term lauding balance in a fine wine - the amount of tannins, acidity and fruit are in such harmony that no single component of the wine dominates.

Finish
A term describing the taste left in the mouth after swallowing. The term reflects both the character and length of a wine's aftertaste. The finish may be short, soft, smooth, hot, harsh, tannic, lingering or even nonexistent.

Firm
A positive tasting comment meaning a wine greets the palate with a freshness and tannic astringency, which suggests a young wine that should age well. The implication is the wine has a distinct flavor profile and tightly knit structure.

Flabby
This is a wine tasting term applied to wines that are flawed due to a lack of acidity, and therefore have a rather poor structure. It's more common to see this term used to describe a white wine, but it can be used for reds as well. On the other end of the acid spectrum are wines that are considered "sharp" due to an overabundance of acidity. In both cases, the wine's structure is out of balance, making the wine less satisfying.