🍷 Body (wine)
Also known as: body (wine), wine body, full-bodied wine, light-bodied wine, mouthfeel, wine texture
Body is the sense of weight and density of a wine in the mouth, shaped by alcohol, glycerol, tannin and mannoproteins.
Body (full-bodied, light-bodied) is the sense of a wine's weight in the mouth: one feels light, another thick and dense. Tasters rate it on a scale from low to high, next to aroma and acidity. It is not a single property but a blend of sensations: density, viscosity, astringency, alcohol.
In 2007 the Australians Gawel, Van Sluyter and Waters put this to the test with three Rieslings. They varied alcohol and glycerol in three steps each. Ten trained tasters worked through 81 samples each. More alcohol made all three wines taste hotter. It added body and viscosity in only two. Glycerol was even less steady: body rose in two wines, and in one only at the top dose.
Spanish researchers (Laguna and colleagues, 2019) came at it from the other side. They added one component at a time to a de-alcoholised wine. Body seemed higher with glycerol or mannoproteins, and that matched density measured by instrument. Tannin made the wine the most viscous, but also astringent. So body is not just about strength. For half of the tasters in the first study body tracked viscosity and flavour closely, while acidity generally ran the other way.
Compare the neighbouring pages: Alcohol in wine covers the spirit, Glycerol the compound that adds softness. The wider picture is in Taste and content of wine.
Facts
| Taste | Body is a blend of density, viscosity, astringency and alcohol, rated from low to high 12 |
|---|---|
| Alcohol (% vol.) | Riesling trial used alcohol of 11.6-13.6% vol 1 |
| Bottle size | Glycerol in the trial: 5.2-10.2 g/L 1 |
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Body (wine) → then → 🍷 Alcohol in wine ← contains ← 🍷 Wine
Links
- Previous step
- 🍷 Glycerol
- Next step
- 🍷 Alcohol in wine
- Part of
- 🍷 Wine taste and composition
Frequently asked questions
What does full-bodied mean?
A wine that feels thick and heavy in the mouth. Light-bodied wines feel closer to water. Tasters score body on a low-to-high scale [1].
Does alcohol make a wine fuller?
In a Riesling trial more alcohol raised body and viscosity in two of three wines, and always made them taste hotter [1].
Does glycerol add body?
Less reliably. In the same trial it raised body in only two wines, and in one only at the highest level [1].
What gives wine its texture?
Viscosity, astringency, body, unctuosity and density all play a part, with glycerol, mannoproteins and tannins as the components tested [2].
Is it true that more tannin means more body?
Not simply. Tannin made model wines the most viscous and astringent, but body seemed higher with glycerol or mannoproteins [2].
Similar
🍷 Tears of wine · 🍷 Wine colour · 🍷 Glycerol · 🍷 Wine aroma · 🍷 Alcohol in wine · 🍷 Wine tasting
Sources
- UC Davis Viticulture and Enology. Research summary 90: The effects of ethanol and glycerol on the body and other sensory characteristics of Riesling wines (Gawel, Van Sluyter, Waters, Aust. J. Grape Wine Res. 13, 2007)
- L. Laguna et al. Oral Wine Texture Perception and Its Correlation with Instrumental Texture Features of Wine-Saliva Mixtures. Foods 8(6):190, 2019