These wines often pair well with sugary desserts or salty cheeses. Sweet wines, often referred to as ‘dessert wines’, are wines where sweetness is the dominant taste. Some wines have a little sweetness when tasted – these are often referred to as medium. Most wines are dry, meaning that they don’t taste sweet at all. Sweetness refers to the amount of sugar in the wine. You can learn more about ‘body’ with our busting wine industry jargon post. Red wines made using the grape variety Cabernet Sauvignon.Oaked Chardonnay from warm, sunny climates like California.They tend to coat your mouth and feel viscous when tasted and can usually pair well rich and flavourful dishes. Wines from the Beaujolais region of Franceįull-bodied wines typically have intense flavours and higher than average levels of alcohol.They make great aperitifs but can sometimes be overpowered by powerfully-flavoured dishes. Light-bodied wines usually feel delicate and refreshing when tasted. ‘Body’ refers to the overall feel of the wine – how mouth-filling it is. Still wines come in a wide range of hues and styles. Rosé wines are usually best served like white wines – chilled, in smaller glasses. Most rosé wines also gain their colour from ‘skin contact’ with black grapes, but typically for a much shorter time than for red wines, hence their paler pink colour. They gain their deeper red colour and mouth-drying ‘tannins’ from the grape skins, which are kept in contact with the juice during fermentation.

Red wines must be made from black grapes. Most have a pale lemon colour, but some look deeper in colour and more golden. White wines are typically made from white grapes. This is the largest category of wine by far – most wines you can think of are still wines, so we need to further categorise them into styles in order to understand them better. Simply put, a still wine is any wine that is not sparkling. Looking to kickstart your wine education journey? Our Level 1 Award in Wine provides a hands-on introduction to the world of wine, for those starting a wine career or pursuing an interest in wine. To start off, almost all wines can be grouped into one of three ‘types’ – still, fortified or sparkling. It helps to start with the basics – here’s our simple guide to the types and styles of wine that you’re likely to come across in any given wine shop or restaurant. When faced with a large wine list, or a shelf stacked high with bottles, the world of wine can seem overwhelmingly complex.

Types of wine red