Elements of Flavor in Wines

"There's something that I like to use to talk about wine and wine tasting, and that is the elements of wine flavor. Flavor is something very easy to talk about. It can be fruity, or spicy, or floral, or meaty, or tomatoey, or garlicky. However, when we think of what makes up those different flavors, there's a few things that I call the elements. In a wine's flavor we're going to have aroma, and the aromas can be fruity, or spicy, or floral, or who knows. We're also going to have the wine's weight or the wine's body. We're also going to have a sweetness or dryness, we're going to have acidity; we're going to have tannin; alcohol is there, we're going to have balance, and hopefully that will all be together in harmony. When we talk about a wine's flavor, or a foods flavor for that matter; we can describe it in hundreds of different ways, but that's what makes up the flavor of a wine. It starts with aroma, then goes to taste; which includes sweetness, and acidity, and tannin, and bitterness, alcohol, and body; and hopefully it's all very well balanced. If it is, then we can start talking about flavor."