How to talk about wine like a normal person

The lingua franca of wine is no joke. Spend enough time in bars and bottle shops, and your casual conversations may include geological terminology, a soupçon of French vocabulary, and evolving colloquialisms whose usage depends on your ability to say “quaffable” with a straight face.

However, it’s also entirely possible to talk about wine in straightforward, everyday language that’s easy to follow. In other words, technical fluency isn’t a prerequisite for appreciating what’s in your glass. By focusing on concepts such as weight, budget, broad flavor categories and even vibe, everyone can find wines they’ll love.

“Any time we have an opportunity to broaden the discussion and descriptors of wine, it just makes wine more inclusive,” says Larissa C. Dubose, senior director at Vino Volo, a Paradies Lagardère Company.

Inclusivity is always valuable, but it also strikes me as crucial, now that wine sales are declining worldwide. Besides, part of what makes wine so special is how it builds connections to familiar and far-flung people and places — no road map or translation app needed. Here are a few ways to dejargon your wine experience.

Start with wine weight, not variety

One way to make sense of the wide world of wine is to approach it in terms of weight, or what beverage professionals refer to as light- versus full-bodied wines.

“Think about skim milk versus whole-fat milk. You can just feel the weight and the heaviness on your tongue,” says Ren Peir, sommelier and co-owner of New York City’s BABE Wine Bar.

Unlike defaulting to naming a variety, talking about weight creates a reliably direct correlation to the type of experience you’ll have drinking. After all, depending on where it’s from and how it’s made, a chardonnay could be lean and crisp, or opulently creamy.

Weight also affects how wines pair with foods. Want something easygoing to drink with light snacks or on its own? Ask a sommelier or salesperson for a light-bodied wine. On the flip side, if you’re in the mood for something heavier to accompany lamb chops or a hearty roast, look for full-bodied options.

Describe the texture of the wine

Another sensory experience that can help make heads and tails of your wine preferences is texture. Maybe you typically opt for something silky, unobtrusive, and — yeah, I’ll say it — quaffable. Or, you gravitate toward high-acid or tannic pours whose grip you feel in your mouth long after taking a sip. Wines in the latter category are often called textured.

To figure out where your tastes fall on the textural spectrum, apply a tactile lens to your go-to glass. “Let’s say you like red wine,” says Dubose. “Great! Are you thinking about a cashmere sweater and how that feels? Or do you tend to like a heavy wool sweater? How you imagine that feeling on your skin can translate to how the wine feels on your palate.”

While texture and weight aren’t synonymous, textured wines are more likely to be medium- or full-bodied. That’s useful when you’re considering if you want something to pair with a big meal or to drink unaccompanied.

Share your wine budget

When you’re browsing retail aisles or scanning a wine list, tell a wine professional what you want to spend so they can tailor their recommendations accordingly. It can be as straightforward as, “I’d like to spend less than $20,” or, “I’m looking in the $60 to $75 range.”

If you don’t want to say the dollar amount aloud for social reasons, there are other ways to communicate your financial parameters.

“You could be looking at a wine list, and you know you don’t want to spend more than $20 on a glass, but maybe you don’t want to tell your date that information,” says Peir. When a sommelier comes to your table, “point at two or three wines that are in your price range and ask, ‘Of these three, which do you suggest?’ As a somm, I would pick up on the fact that you just chose all $15 glasses. I’m not going to try to sell you something more expensive than that.”

Group wine into broad flavor categories

Detailed winemaking and tasting notes — like whether that chenin blanc was aged in stainless steel or French oak barrels, or if it’s reminiscent of fresh or stewed pears — aren’t the only ways to determine which bottle you’ll want to open on a Tuesday night.

Instead, try grouping wines into broad flavor categories: fruit-forward versus savory. Within the latter camp, you could drill down into whether it tastes primarily earthy, or if it feels as if there are lots of herbs in the mix.

Consider pinot noir. “Let’s say somebody says, ‘Oh, I don’t know a lot about wine, I just want a pinot noir,’” and there are multiple pinot noirs on the menu, Peir says. “I’ll ask them, ‘Do you want something that’s more savory and unctuous and earthy? Or do you want something that’s super bright and fruity?’ Those are things that I think everyone can assess for themselves.”

If you’re not sure whether the pinot you like best would be considered primarily fruity, earthy or herbaceous, ask the sommelier how they would describe it. Or take a photo of your go-to bottle to share as a reference point, so they can suggest similar options.

“The way our phones are set up now, you can literally put in ‘wine’ in your search bar, and every bottle that you’ve ever taken a picture of will pop up,” says Dubose. “You can easily create your own archive with minimal effort.”

Pair the wine to the vibe

Maybe you’re craving a juicy, uncomplicated wine to sip on the couch while you catch up with a friend. Or you’re hosting a holiday dinner and want something that holds its own at the table. This is all useful context for a sommelier or salesperson to make recommendations that suit your vibe, especially if you also provide the budget and let them know — see the above points — which weight and flavor profiles you tend to prefer.

“When you’re able to incorporate wine into a mood or a feeling, it’s more than what’s happening on your palate,” says Dubose. “It’s also who you’re with, what you’re doing and what you’re eating. That helps create space for thinking about wine as a lifestyle, as opposed to just this drink.”

Dubose likens wine to a passport, noting that it can link you to different geographies, memories and moods. Everyone’s experiences might be slightly different, but, after a great glass, isn’t it always easier trying to speak another language?