Body Balance Weight and Length of Wine

When you hear wine experts talking about balance, weight, body and length, they’re not exchanging the finer points of their exercise routines. Instead, these are terms used to describe the character of the wine in their glasses.

Balance

When a wine is balanced, it means that there is a good relationship between all of its qualities. Balance indicates harmony between a wine’s concentration of acidity, tannin content, alcohol level, sweetness and dryness. All the elements are properly proportioned and no one taste or flavour overpowers another. Even the softest and most robust wines must be carefully tended to get the balance just right. An unbalanced wine will be sharp in the mouth and unpleasant to drink.

Weight

A wine’s weight is measured according to how light or heavy it feels in the mouth. This is known as its “mouthfeel”. If a wine is described as “weighty”, it means that it feels heavy in the mouth. A “light” wine feels wispy and feathery in the mouth. A “medium-bodied” wine would be somewhere in between.

Body

Like its weight, a wine’s body is also determined by how it feels in the mouth. Is it dense? Is it quite alcoholic? Does it feel thick and rich, or watery and flat? The term “body” is most often used to describe a wine’s alcohol content: a full-bodied wine is one high in alcohol with rich, fruity flavours.

Length

No, this has nothing to do with how tall the bottle is! Rather, it refers to the lingering aftertaste once the wine is swallowed. The length includes the aromas of the wine as well as the individual flavours that stay on the tongue. When a wine has good length, or the aftertaste lingers for a long time after swallowing, then this indicates a quality wine. If not, it’s usually because the wine is cheap or badly made.

The best way to learn about balance, weight, body and length is to practice drinking good wine! The more you develop your tasting skills, the better you’ll be able to tell the good wines from the bad ones.