How to Tell if Your Wine Is Medium or Heavy Body

I hope you love experiments as much as I do. The video below is a fun way to get your wine palette into shape. Think of it as calisthenics for your mouth… or Wine-O-Stenics!

To do the milk test in the video, you’ll need:

• 3 types of milk–skim, whole and cream
• Two types of wine–1) Merlot or Cabernet sauvignon, and 2) Syrah or Malbec.
• If you want to try a third wine, add Pinot Noir.

Try the wines in this order:

1. Pinot Noir (If you are trying this one)
2. Merlot or Cabernet
3. Syrah or Malbec

Think about these things as you hold each wine in your mouth:

• How heavy does the wine feel in my mouth?
• How much does the wine weigh?

​Melissa Darnay: Welcome to Melissa Darnay Uncorked. In the tasting room today we’re doing an experiment to figure out if a wine is medium or heavy body.

Joining me today is my long-time friend from Texas, Sharon Jack.

In order to find out whether a wine is medium or heavy body, what we’re really talking about is how much that wine weighs in your mouth. In order to really do this experiment, we’re going to show you with milk. In front of you there are three glasses of milk. Can you see the difference?

Sharon Jack: There’s a little different shade of color.”

Melissa Darnay: Yes. The cream gives it away because there is that butter color on top. But if you were to try to pick the skim milk between the skim and the whole, it would be hard for you to pick out, wouldn’t it?

Sharon Jack: Yes

Melissa Darnay: So the experiment we’re going to do today is Sharon is going to taste each of these types of milk. She is going to hold it in her mouth and focus just on the weight. Here is the whole milk. Just take a mental snapshot of what that feels like in your mouth. And now the cream. I know some of you are really jealous that she gets to drink a cup of cream. Explain to us if you would the difference between the skim milk, the whole milk and the cream.

Sharon Jack: When I first tasted the skim milk, it tasted creamy. It was light but I didn’t notice how light until I tasted the whole milk. The whole milk was even thicker and heavier in my mouth. But then the cream of course was just robust and fat and big.

Melissa Darnay: So the skim milk felt heavy until you had the comparison, correct?

Sharon Jack: Yes

Melissa Darnay: Is that fair to say?

Sharon Jack: Yes

Melissa Darnay: Okay, now we’re going to move from milk to wine. Obviously, milk is a lot easier to judge because we all know the difference between skim, whole and cream but the experiment with wine may take you a little bit of practice, but let’s face it the practicing is fun. So Sharon in front of you we have 2 glasses of wine. We have a medium body wine and a heavy body wine. If we were to put a light body in here as well it would be pinot noir. If you would would you take glass #1—I’m not going to tell you what it is—and put it in your mouth. Hold it there and just feel what that weight feels like in your mouth. And now the second one.

Sharon Jack: Wow

Melissa Darnay: Can you tell the difference?

Sharon Jack: The second one felt rich.

Melissa Darnay: Here is something interesting. If we were to say what is a light bodied wine, of course it would be pinot noir. The medium body wine is one that gets many people confused because both merlot and cabernet sauvignon are both medium body wines. The full body wines are Syrah, what we’re tasting today, as well as Malbec. So when you drink a Merlot or a Cabernet, it’s actually a medium body wine. If you don’t believe me, try it at home for yourself.

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