Style Guide
Wine Body: Light, Medium, Full
Body is what your mouth feels when you drink wine. It's the weight and fullness on your palate, created by alcohol, tannin, sugar, and extract working together. A light-bodied wine feels delicate and thin. A full-bodied wine coats your mouth and feels substantial.
Body matters because it's the most reliable rule for pairing wine with food. Match the weight of the wine to the weight of the dish. Get this right and almost any pairing works. Get it wrong and the wine disappears or overwhelms the food, no matter what else you do.
How to Identify It
Check the alcohol level on the label: wines over 14% are usually full-bodied. Oaked wines feel heavier than unoaked ones. Tannic reds feel heavier than soft ones.
Best Examples
Light-bodied wines taste bright and refreshing. They're meant to be uncomplicated. Medium-bodied wines are the workhorse category, good with almost everything. Full-bodied wines demand attention and pair with rich food.
- •Pinot Grigio (Italy), Alsace Riesling, Beaujolais (France)
- •Sancerre (Loire), unoaked Chardonnay (Chablis), Côtes du Rhône (Rhône)
- •Oaked Chardonnay (California), Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa), Châteauneuf-du-Pape (Rhône)
Food Pairings
Light wines need light food: raw fish, delicate white fish, salads. Medium wines work with chicken, pasta, softer cheeses. Full wines need fat and richness: red meat, game, hard cheeses, dark chocolate. The wine's weight must match the food's weight or one will bully the other.
- •Light-bodied with sashimi, oysters, goat cheese salad
- •Medium-bodied with roasted chicken, risotto, grilled vegetables
- •Full-bodied with steak, duck confit, mushroom ragù, aged cheddar
Sommelier's Take
Body is the first question you should ask before any pairing. It solves more problems than flavor ever will.