Whenever we hold a tasting or send out wine club, the wines are accompanied by tasting notes: descriptions of what to look for in the aromatics and palate flavors of the wine. Keeping those notes fresh, though, often leads to getting a bit flowery in our language, which seems to create more questions than we tried to answer by writing the notes. So here are some of the more common ones and how to interpret them.

The most commonly misunderstood descriptor is sweet. In order for a wine to be described as sweet, fermentation of the wine must be stopped before the yeast consumes all of the sugar in the grapes, transforming it to alcohol. Additionally, this fermentation must be stopped while the residual sugar in the wine is above the threshold where the human palate can detect it, around 1 percent. If the amount of sugar remaining in the wine is below threshold, it is described as dry.

The confusion for most folks comes from more fruit-forward varietals. These fruitier varietals, like Viognier, Pinot Gris or Grigio, Grenache and Pinot Noir, are still fermented to completely dry; however, sometimes folks describe them as sweet. They are not. They contain no sugar; they simply exhibit stronger fruit flavors.

Extracted is an adverb that has recently gained popularity. It refers to how much flavor and color is extracted from the grapes into the wine. By leaving the fermenting grape juice in contact with the solids of the grape like the skins, pulp, and seeds, more flavor and color is extracted - thus the description.

Layered flavors frequently are present in highly extracted wines. As the wine travels over the different sections of your palate, you will detect changing flavors, which is one of the most desirable characters we find in well-made wine. That combination of flavors produces a taste experience that is more complex and rewarding.

Mouth feel deals with the weight of the wine on your tongue and palate. When a wine is described as weighty, it feels heavier and richer in your mouth. Describing the finish of a wine is quite similar, where words like silky, elegant and lengthy are used. A lengthy finish is one that continues to evolve in your mouth; you will continue to taste the wine long after you have swallowed. Silky and elegant are mostly the same and refer to a wine that is smooth over the palate.

Earthiness, or the more vernacular "barnyard" aromatic, is just that - the smell of earth or mushrooms. However, when it gets too strong moving to the barnyard character, it can be off-putting. It is also possible that it is showing a flaw in the wine.

Another, still, is when we describe a wine as "jammy," primarily an aromatic descriptor I equate to the smell of a freshly opened jar of jam. Rather than a simple fruit smell, it is more like the richer version you get from preserved fruits in the jar.

Tannins are present to some degree in all wines, and not everyone is fond of highly tannic wines. Tannins come from the skins of the grapes as well as the oak barrels that wines are sometimes aged in. Tannins are important to give the wine structure and ageablity. A tannic wine is most easily detected in the aromatics, when you smell green bell peppers and in the back palate, when you feel a constriction in your throat on the finish of the wine.

A term that is frequently used in conjunction with tannins is integrated. Wine is an organic product, as it changes throughout its life in the bottle and is exposed to oxygen in your glass. As a wine ages, flavors and the tannic structure change and become more unified in what you taste and detect. A well-integrated tannin will show as wine that is smoother and for many of us, more drinkable.

Juiciness in wine is usually a result of the higher acid content of the wine, but when we describe a wine as juicy, it resembles the feeling in your mouth from drinking unfermented fruit juices. The feeling is in the sides of your mouth as your taste buds respond to the acid, and resembles a squirting feeling.

There are over 150 different aromatic and flavor profiles that are detectable in fermented wine. Most of them, like vanilla, chocolate, flowers, smoke, meat, oakiness and the like, are quite simply what they say. The aromatics in wine come from two places, with the spice flavors typically coming from the oak barrels the wine is aged in and the fruit notes deriving from the grapes. Tasting notes can be helpful; as you read them and taste the wine, you will have the "light bulb" moment as the author describes the smell or flavor you were picking up but could not quite identify. The more subjective terms like some of those I described above add fun to the tasting process. Still, the most important descriptor for any wine is "like" or the alternative, "don't like." Once you nail down those, the remaining ones are less meaningful - but certainly more entertaining.

If there is a topic you would like to read about, or if you have questions on wine, you can email George@thedinnerpartyshop.com, or make suggestions by contacting the Healthy Community section at the Coeur d'Alene Press.

George Balling is co-owner with his wife Mary Lancaster of the dinner party, a wine and table top decor shop in Coeur d'Alene by Costco. George has also worked as a judge in many wine competitions; his articles are published around the country and is the wine editor for Coeur d'Alene Magazine (www.cdamagazine.com). You can learn more about the dinner party at www.thedinnerpartyshop.com. You can get all of these articles, as well as other great wine tips, by friending us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/dinnerpartyshop.