On The Body of White Wine & The Grapes Used to Make It

Light-bodied, Medium-bodied, or Full-bodied?

To understand the concept of weight with regard to wine, let’s use the analogy of milk.

Milk comes in different cream contents: skimmed milk, the lightest, has little or no cream; semi-skimmed milk has a little more cream than skimmed milk, and is therefore heavier; while full cream milk is the thickest milk available.

Similarly, wines have varying body.

READ ALSO: On Choosing White Wine

In “wine-speak”, wines are said to be light-bodied, medium-bodied, or full-bodied.

To guess what body an unfamiliar white wine will have, take a look at its alcohol content.

Full-bodied wines generally have a higher alcohol content than medium-bodied wines, which in turn have a higher alcohol content than light-bodied wines. Numerically, see the list below.

  • 7.5% – 10.5% Light Body
  • 10.5% – 12.5% Medium Body
  • 12.5%+ Full Body

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Grapes

Chardonnay Grapes

Other than its alcohol content, the type of grapes used to make a wine can also point to the body you can expect it to have. Chardonnays are generally the fullest-bodied white wines while Bruts are generally the lightest-bodied.

Below is a list of common types of white wines  in order of increasing body.

With this information, hopefully you can take some of the guesswork out of selecting a white wine. The key is, first and foremost, knowing what kind of wine you want and then looking for clues that will give you just that.

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I hope you find this information useful the next time you are choosing white wine. Personally, I look forward to having fewer unpleasant surprises.

Until the next time,
Biche

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