When tasting wine, identifying different aromas and flavors provides valuable insight into the wine’s character. Recognizing key descriptive notes helps determine grape varieties, winemaking techniques used, and the origins of a particular wine. This guide covers the most prevalent wine notes, what causes them, which varieties they are associated with, and how to identify them.
Fruit Notes
Fruit is one of the most common flavors found in red and white wines. They originate from the grapes themselves rather than winemaking processes. Different fruits lend distinctive sweet, sour, tart, or ripe characteristics.
Citrus
Citrus flavors like grapefruit, lemon, and lime are prevailing notes in crisp, high-acid white wines like Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Albariño, and Vermentino. Citrus aromas develop from terpenes, aromatic compounds naturally existing in grapes. Higher acidity wines are reminiscent of the tangy tartness of fresh citrus fruits.
Stone Fruit
Stone fruits include apricots, peaches, and nectarines. These flavors integrate sweetness and subtle tartness. They often signify riper grapes and warmer climate wines like Viognier, Marsanne, white Rhône blends, Riesling and Gewurztraminer. During fermentation, esters form, which produce stone fruit aromas.
Berries
Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and red currants bring fresh, sweet fruit notes with varying tanginess and tartness, depending on ripeness. Pinot Noir, Beaujolais Gamay, and grenache commonly express red berry fruit. Darker fruited varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Malbec lean towards blackberry flavors. Berry fruit aromas develop during fermentation and maceration.
Tropical Fruit
Pineapples, bananas, mangos, and passionfruit provide full-bodied, ripe, sweet fruit flavors. They typically emerge in bold white wines from warm regions and late-harvest wines. Chardonnay and Viognier often show tropical fruit, which form during fermentation through ester development. High sugar ripeness levels also contribute to ripe fruit notes.
Dried/Cooked Fruit
Raisins, dried apricots, figs, and dates denote wines with developed flavors and sweetness due to aging, late harvest, or fortification due to oxidative aging; Port, Madeira, Sherry, Marsala, and Tawny Port commonly display dried and cooked fruit flavors. Time concentrates sugars and fruit flavors.
Herbaceous and Vegetal Notes
Herbaceousness describes grassy, green flavors caused by metabolites called pyrazines and methoxypyrazines. In cool climate regions, these compounds may accumulate due to less ripe grapes. Sauvignon Blanc is grassy and vegetal, with descriptions like green bell pepper, asparagus, and grass—other whites like cool climates. Cabernet Franc and Chenin Blanc sometimes show herbal greenness.
Floral Notes
Flowers contain aromatic compounds, which grapes reflect during winemaking. Common floral descriptions include honeysuckle, jasmine, orange blossom, and elderflower. Aroma development happens during fermentation via monoterpenes preserved in grapes. Highly aromatic whites like Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Torrontes, and Riesling often have distinct floralness. As they age, German Rieslings progress with petrol notes caused by sulfur compounds forming over time.
Spice and Herbal Notes
Anise, licorice, turmeric, and saffron signify lightly perfumed whites like Gewurztraminer and Alsatian Pinot Gris. Warm climate Chardonnay and Viognier also express spice. Red varieties like Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, and Shiraz sometimes show black or white peppercorn and clove flavors from rotundone and eugenol compounds. Spicy aroma precursors exist in grapes, brought out through winemaking methods involving skins and seeds, contributing to spice notes. Barrel aging adds vanilla, cedar, and dill herb influences too.
Mineral and Earthy Notes
Flint, wet stone, crushed rocks, and chalkiness describe minerality caused by nutrients, organic acids, and metal ions in grapes. Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Assyrtiko, and Albariño often taste intensely mineral. Organic earthiness like forest floor, wet leaves, tea, and tobacco arise during fermentation. Pinot Noir, Nebbiolo, and Cabernet Franc commonly display earthy characteristics. Terroir impacts soil-driven minerality and earthiness in wines. Vineyard soils provide bioavailable nutrients influencing various notes. Chalk, limestone, granite, and schist are linked with minerality.
How Winemaking Methods Influence Flavor
Winemaking techniques reveal innate aromas and flavors in grapes, synthesizing taste precursors and lending additional complexities through aging. These contribute enormously to a wine’s aromas, flavors, and texture.
Maceration, Fermentation, and Aging in Oak Barrels
Phenolic compounds causing color, bitterness, and astringency are extracted from grape skins and seeds and put into wine during fermentation and extended skin maceration. This heightens flavor intensity. Punch downs mix skins with fermenting juice, magnifying extraction. Longer macerations result in bigger, bolder wines. Fermentation creates new flavor compounds like esters conveying fruitiness. Oak contact through barrel aging interacts with wine components, generating aromas like vanilla, clove, coconut, and cedar. Tannins and texture also develop, perceived as grip, structure, and roundness. Toasty and caramel hints come from charred oak. New oak provides more pronounced wood effects, while older barrels give delicate seasoning. French oak generally contributes refined wood tannins and spiciness compared to more aggressive American oak.
Stainless Steel Fermentation and Aging
In contrast to oak aging, stainless steel tanks don’t impart additional flavors, although they strongly preserve varietal fruit notes—temperature-controlled, reductive steel environments limit oxidation, maintaining vibrancy. Whites like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Albariño, and Riesling often ferment or rest in stainless steel (and neutral vessels), preventing oak influences so fresh fruit stands out. Early drinkability results given less structural development from steel compared to barrel aging.
Lees Aging and Bâttonage
Sur lie aging and lees stirring techniques build creamy mouthfeel and complexity. The wine remains in contact with dead yeast cells following fermentation. Autolysis happens when enzymes decompose yeast, gradually releasing amino acids, proteins, and polysaccharides. This enriches wine over time, witnessed through enhanced palate weight and integration. Pastries, bread dough, and brioche notes emerge, more evolved than fruity flavors. Bâttonage, stirring lees, furthers richness. Chardonnay, white Bordeaux blends, and Champagne effectively apply lees aging, observable through rounded textural impressions.
Late Harvest and Botrytis (Noble Rot)
Late harvest describes wines from grapes left longer on vines, allowing for sugar accumulation and concentrated flavors. These impart honeyed sweetness and baked fruit impressions. Botrytis cinerea, or “noble rot,” is a fungus perforating grape skins, permitting water loss and flavor/sugar intensity. Affected grapes become partially raisined. The fungus contributes distinctive aromas like candied fruit, ginger, marmalade, and honey. Late-harvest German Rieslings and Sauternes showcase these unique botrytis and late-harvest traits.
Putting it All Together – Recognizing Varietal Typacity.
Considering typical winemaking methods and fingerprint aromas/flavors for key grape varieties helps confidently determine what one is tasting. This shorthand illustrates classic styles of popular varieties:
Sauvignon Blanc: herbaceous, gooseberry, grapefruit, grassy, vegetal
Chardonnay: lemon, apple, melon, butter, oak, tropical fruit
Riesling: lime, peach, petrol, slate, honey
Pinot Grigio/Gris: lemon-lime, green apple, white flowers
Viognier: stone fruit, ginger, orange blossom
Gewurztraminer: lychee, rose, spice, ginger
Cabernet Sauvignon: blackberry, cassis, cedar, tobacco
Merlot: black cherry, mocha, parsley
Pinot Noir: cherry, strawberry, mushroom, earth
Syrah: blackberry, smoked meat, black olive, pepper
Grenache: strawberry, dried herbs
Sangiovese: cherry, leather, herb
Conclusion
Developing a working vocabulary of prominent wine notes aids in identifying key characteristics signaling possible grape varieties, origins, and winemaking techniques. This allows for determining if a wine aligns with certain expectations or diverges based on combined sensory observations. Recognizing standard aroma and flavor profiles provides helpful cues when tasting wines blind without additional background. An associative understanding links typical descriptive elements with central varieties and wine styles.
Article by Morrice S. Baker
