Lees

The remnants of yeast cells and bits of grape skin that settle to the bottom of the container after FERMENTATION is complete. Leaving the fermented wine in contact with its lees (SUR LIE), rather than removing the lees right away, often adds complexity and nuance. See AUTOLYSIS.

When critics describe a wine, they refer to all of these except for its:

A. Head

B. Legs

C. Nose

D. Body

A wine’s “nose” is its aroma. Wine pros will say, for example, that a given wine has a nose of apricots and peaches. Similarly, a wine’s “legs” are the rivulets of wine that inch up the inside surface of the glass above the wine, then run slowly back down. It’s often said (erroneously) that the thicker the legs, the better the wine. Legs are a complex phenomenon related to the amount of glycerol and alcohol in the wine, plus the rate of evaporation of the alcohol. A wine’s “body” is its weight on the palate. Light-bodied wines feel about as heavy as skim milk on the palate, while full-bodied wines feel like half-and-half or even cream. Medium-bodied wines are somewhere in the middle. Head? Um, that falls in the beer department.

“It takes me twelve minutes to eat a good plate of food and two hours to drink a good bottle of wine, so who cares about the food?”

—Peter Barry
Winemaker/Owner of the Australian estate Jim Barry

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