Body in Wine

The term body is the weight, texture and richness of a wine. Weight is viscosity, or how thick and heavy it feels. Texture would be terms like silky, smooth, sharp, firm. Richness is full, round, sweet tasting, or not.

 

15.9% alcohol!
From Helen Turley, maker of full-throttle Zinfandel

That's a lot of terms. A full-bodied wine would be a creamy, rich Chardonnay like the Kendall Jackson or Rombauer ones you find in many stores. A light-bodied wine would be a lower alcohol Pinot Noir. I mention lower alcohol because many California Pinots are dark and have 14.5+% alcohol and don't fit the definition of light-bodied anymore. You'll often find that European wines are lower alcohol and lighter-bodied. Alcohol is more viscous than water and will come across as a fuller, richer wine.

Besides alcohol, grape variety, acidity and sugar along with cellar processes of oak barrel aging and malolactic fermentation all contribute to a wine's body.

Light-bodied wines might be described as delicate, thin, elegant, subtle, austere. Full-bodied as big, heavy, powerful, mouth-filling.

So how do you know if you're picking up a lighter- or heavier-bodied wine off the store shelf? The wine varietal and alcohol content are key indicators. Light-bodied white wines include Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris. Full-bodied whites would be Viognier and most American Chardonnay. In red, Pinot Noir and Grenache are light-bodied, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah full, the rest are somewhere in between.