HOW TO TALK ABOUT WINE WITHOUT SOUNDING LIKE A TWAT
You do not need a wine vocabulary to have wine opinions. Five real situations, five usable scripts, and the confidence to say what you actually think.
THE SHORT ANSWER
You only need three questions: do I like it, what does it remind me of, and would I order it again. That is a more honest framework than most professionals use. The wine world has spent decades making this harder than it needs to be. The vocabulary is a barrier dressed up as expertise. You do not need to clear that barrier. You need to walk around it.
What follows is a set of real scripts for five real situations where wine makes people feel stupid. Memorise even one and you will never be caught out again.
Three questions. That is the whole trick: do I like it, what does it remind me of, would I order it again.
THE DINNER TABLE MOMENT
Someone pours you a glass. Everyone is watching. You take a sip and your brain offers you one word: nice.
You know that is not enough. You also know that saying "I'm getting notes of crushed blackberry with a hint of wet slate and graphite" would make you sound like a parody of a person. So you say nothing, or you say "yeah, it's really nice," and the moment passes.
That gap between wanting to say something and not knowing what to say is not ignorance. It is the most normal response in the world to an industry that has made its own language deliberately inaccessible.
This article closes that gap.
THE ONLY THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO SAY
Forget the WSET tasting grid. Forget aroma wheels. Forget anyone who has ever used the word "tertiary" at a dinner table.
You need three questions.
Do I like it? Yes or no. That is already an opinion. Most people never get past this because they think opinions need to be complicated.
What does it remind me of? Not wine things. Actual things. "It tastes like summer." "It reminds me of the smell after rain." "This is what I wanted last Tuesday and could not find." That is tasting. You are already doing it.
Would I order it again? This is the only review that matters. If yes, remember the name. If no, you have just learned something about what you do not like, which is equally useful.
Three questions. No jargon. You can use them tonight.
WORDS THAT HELP (AND WORDS THAT DO NOT)
You do not need many words. You need the right ones.
Words that work at dinner: dry, sweet, sharp, smooth, bitter, light, heavy, fruity, earthy, crisp.
How to use them in a sentence: "This is drier than I expected." "It is quite light. I thought reds were all heavy." "There is something bitter at the end. I like it." "This is smooth. Almost too smooth. I want a bit more bite."
Those are real opinions. They are specific enough to be useful and normal enough to say out loud without feeling ridiculous.
Words to avoid unless wielded deliberately: oaky, full-bodied, tannins, legs, bouquet, nose. They are not wrong. They are just the words people reach for when they are performing knowledge rather than sharing an opinion. If you know what tannins are, say tannins. If you do not, say "it dries my mouth out." Same thing. Better sentence.
For a full breakdown of wine terminology in normal English, our glossary translates the jargon without the condescension.
THE CONFIDENCE TRICK
Here is something the wine industry does not advertise: professionals disagree with each other constantly.
In any serious tasting panel, experienced judges regularly disagree on the same bottle. Same wine, different opinions, often in the same room. These are people who taste wine for a living. They cannot agree.
Rory Sutherland, the behavioural scientist and Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, put it well in his conversation with us: taste is not knowledge. It is identity. What you like says something about you, and no one else gets to overrule that.
Professor Charles Spence at Oxford has spent decades proving that context changes flavour. The same wine tastes different in a restaurant and in your kitchen. It tastes different with music on. It tastes different when someone tells you it costs £50 versus £12. The wine has not changed. You have.
The point is not that there are no right answers. It is that the experts argue about them constantly. Your opinion is more legitimate than you think. You just need the confidence to say it out loud. That gap between knowing what you like and being able to articulate it is what we call taste confidence. It is not expertise. It is the willingness to say what you think.
For more on why confidence matters more than knowledge, our guide on how to develop your palate covers the practical side.
FIVE SITUATIONS AND WHAT TO SAY
This is the part that matters. Five real moments where wine makes people freeze up, and the exact words to use in each one.
1. A SOMMELIER APPROACHES YOUR TABLE
The panic: they know everything, you know nothing, the list is forty pages long and entirely in French.
What to say:
"We are eating fish and steak. Something white that is not too sweet, and a red that is not too heavy. Under forty each."
Or even simpler:
"Something fresh for me. What would you go for?"
That is it. You have given them a brief. Sommeliers are not examiners. They are translators. Give them a direction and a budget and they will do the rest. If they make you feel stupid, that is their failure, not yours.
For more on navigating wine lists without breaking a sweat, see our guide on how to choose from a restaurant wine list.
2. SOMEONE ASKS YOU TO CHOOSE THE WINE AT A DINNER PARTY
The panic: you will choose wrong and everyone will silently judge you.
What to do: pick two bottles, one safe and one interesting. Safe means something most people like. A Côtes du Rhône. A Malbec. A Pinot Grigio. Interesting means something you are curious about. A Mencía. A Grüner Veltliner. A wine from somewhere no one at the table has tried.
What to say when you pour the interesting one:
"I have never tried this before either. Apparently it is meant to be good."
That is honest, low-pressure, and invites everyone to have an opinion rather than deferring to yours. If it is brilliant, you look adventurous. If it is not, you tried something new together. Nobody loses. For ideas on what to bring, our grape varieties guide covers everything from the obvious to the obscure.
3. YOU ARE STANDING IN A WINE SHOP WITH NO IDEA WHAT TO BUY
The panic: everything looks the same. The person behind the counter is watching. You are going to pick the one with the nice label and spend too much for what it is.
What to say to the person behind the counter:
"I like [thing]. What have you got that is similar but a bit different?"
Fill in the blank. "I like Malbec." "I like dry whites." "I like that one with the orange label I had last month and cannot remember the name of." Any starting point is a good starting point.
Or:
"I am cooking lamb tonight. What would you drink with it? Under fifteen."
You have just given them a job. They want to help. That is why they work in a wine shop and not in accounting.
4. YOU ARE DRINKING AN EXPENSIVE WINE AND YOU DO NOT LIKE IT
The panic: it cost a lot. Everyone else seems to like it. Maybe your palate is wrong.
Your palate is not wrong.
What to say:
"It is not for me. I think I prefer something with more fruit."
Or:
"I can tell it is well made. It is just not my thing."
Both are honest, both are polite, and both signal that you have an opinion without performing expertise. The worst thing you can do is pretend to like it. People can tell.
Expensive wine is not automatically good wine. It is wine that someone decided to charge a lot for. Sometimes they are right. Sometimes you would rather have the £9 bottle. That is a valid position and anyone who tells you otherwise is protecting their receipt, not their palate.
5. SOMEONE ASKS WHAT YOU THINK AND YOU WANT TO SAY SOMETHING USEFUL
The panic: "it's nice" is not enough, but you do not want to sound like you are auditioning for a column in the FT.
Use this formula: [feeling] + [comparison] + [verdict].
"This is really smooth. Reminds me of that Rioja we had at your place. I would drink this again."
"Sharp. More like a green apple than a peach. Not sure it is my thing but I can see why people like it."
"Honestly, this is delicious. No idea what it is but I want another glass."
All of those are specific, honest, and normal. Nobody will think you are showing off. Nobody will think you are clueless. You are just saying what you think, which is all anyone is really asking for.
For a more structured approach to tasting, our guide on how to taste wine breaks down the process without the performance.
THE REAL SECRET
You already have opinions about wine. You have them every time you drink a glass. The gap is not knowledge. It is vocabulary and confidence. Those are both solvable.
The vocabulary builds faster than you think. A few months of paying attention, and "it's nice" becomes "it's dry, quite sharp, and I like the bitter finish." You did not study for that. You just drank with a bit more intent.
That is the principle behind Ourglass: wines chosen to develop your taste through experience, not textbook.
GO DEEPER
How to Develop Your Wine Palate
How to Choose Wine from a Restaurant Wine List
Wine Grape Varieties: The Definitive Guide
The Wine Sweet Spot (Rory Sutherland)
FAQ
What if I genuinely cannot taste the flavours people describe? Most people cannot, most of the time. When someone says "I'm getting blackcurrant and cedar," they are pattern-matching from experience, not performing a chemical analysis. You build the same associations by drinking more attentively. Start with the three questions: like it, reminds me of, order again. The rest follows. Our guide on how to taste wine covers the basics without the pretension.
Is swirling the glass pretentious? No. It releases aroma compounds and genuinely makes the wine easier to smell. The pretentious version is swirling for thirty seconds while staring into the middle distance and saying nothing. A quick swirl before you sniff is just practical. Do not overthink it.
What does dry actually mean? It means the wine has little or no residual sugar. A dry wine is not sweet. Most red wines are dry. Most white wines are dry. When people say "I like dry wine," they usually mean they do not like sweetness. When people say "I do not like dry wine," they sometimes mean they do not like high acidity or tannin, which is a different thing entirely. Our glossary covers the distinction.
Is it acceptable to add ice to white wine? Yes. It is your wine. The French do it constantly, especially in the south. It dilutes the wine slightly and drops the temperature, which is sometimes exactly what you want. Anyone who judges you for it has confused etiquette with snobbery.
What if someone asks what I think and I do not like it? Say so, gently. "It is not really my thing" is enough. You do not owe anyone enthusiasm for a wine you did not enjoy. If you want to be constructive, add what you would prefer: "I think I like something with more fruit" or "I usually go for lighter reds." That turns a negative into a preference, which is more useful for everyone.
How do I describe wine I like so I get better recommendations? Use the [feeling] + [comparison] + [verdict] formula from this article. "I liked that smooth red we had at Christmas. It reminded me of cherries. I want something like that but a bit bolder." That gives a sommelier or shop assistant enough to work with. For a deeper framework, our grape varieties guide maps styles to grapes so you can start asking by name.