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what makes a fine wine. Ubiquitous the term may be, the legal definition is down to us, the wine lover, to determine what “fineness” in a wine looks (or rather tastes) like. 

That isn’t to say that we’ll struggle to find common ground when it comes to pinpointing the characteristics of fine wines. Regardless of whether aged Rioja or funky natural wine is your go-to tipple, our first inclination is generally to analyse the depth, intensity, and complexity of flavours on offer. After all, a wine with dilute or undistinctive aromas and flavours clearly won’t be cause for much excitement! It does take a little bit of effort to recognise these qualities as they can be nuanced – but more often than not high-quality wines with intense and complex characteristics will deliver an instinctive, “wow!” moment when we first smell or taste them. 

If a myriad of punchy flavours was the sole defining characteristic of a fine wine, there would be tens of thousands of “fine wines” out there (a bottle of any of the big-brand Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs springs to mind). Therefore, we should be slightly more rigorous in our analysis, as a fine wine should distinguish itself from the best of the rest . Here are some examples of what we might consider “fine” wines, but for different reasons…