Some friends and I were trying to come up with wine slangs recently. We were only able to come up with a few, so I decided to devote this article to wine slangs. A big thank you to the New York Times, firstwefeast.com and foodandwine.com for their help with this article. I now have a much bigger list of cool wine words to use. But I’m always looking for more. If you have any, please share them.
My Two Wine Slangs
My go-to terms, especially for this time of year, are summer sippers and porch pounders. The terms are quite similar in their meaning – easy drinking, effortless, refreshing, delicious wines.
Wine Slangs Describing Wines
- Chunky Monkey: A wine with a lot of sediment that would benefit from decanting.
- Fruit bomb: A wine with super ripe fruit on the nose and palate.
- Flabby: A wine that has no acidity or structure.
- Hot: A wine with high alcohol that, in some cases, burns your throat.
- Oak monster: A wine that is far too oaky.
- Quaffable: A wine that is very drinkable. It is often implied that a quaffable wine is one that is inexpensive, simple, tasty and goes down easily. Wine snobs often put down quaffable wines.
- Cougar Juice: California Chardonnay or Malbec.
- Grandma Wines: Wines that are widely accepted, if not especially interesting.
- A.B.C. = Anything But Chardonnay
- Spoofulated: A wine manipulated for a bigger flavor.
Wine Slangs Describing People
- Corkage cowboy: A person that brings his or her own wine to a restaurant to avoid paying the markup.
- Cork Dork: Wine geek/wine enthusiast.
- Point Grabber: Somebody who chooses wine based on scores from wine magazines or experts.
Wine Slangs from Other Countries
In England, there are a bunch of words that mean getting drunk: getting pissed, trollied, or rat-arsed.
Likewise in Scotland, you can choose from these words for getting drunk. You might be a little gubbed. If you drink more, you could get guttered, steamin’, or maroc (short for miraculous). If you drink a lot, you could end up blootered, mad wi’t, or stocious.
In Australia, if it’s your shout at the bar, it means this round is on you. Also, in Australia, if you drink a beer in one gulp, you’ve skulled it.
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Once again, if you have any cool terms to share, please do so here. Thanks. Cheers!
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