From Light to Heavy

[Innkeeper]

Hi Slogans, and welcome to the Wine Board. The subject is body. The body of a wine is measured as light, medium, or full. Think of skim milk, whole milk, and heavy cream.

It is really quite simple to estimate the body of a wine; look at the label. There is a direct correlation between body and alcohol level. If there is less that 10.5% alcohol it is light bodied. From 10.5% to 12.5% is medium body, and above 12.5% is full body. Other factors can affect body such as the mouthfeel of a specific wine. However, since alcohol content must be printed on the bottle (sometimes in very small letters), it gives you a good rule of thumb.

One caution. Some countries apparantly don't know how to measure or won't measure the alcohol content. I have rarely seen a Portugese wine that wasn't 12.5%; and their wines are not all of the same body.