Why does wine taste the way it does? There is no simple answer; rather there is a combination of factors, and depending on the style of wine, different components have more or less importance. Broadly however there are three different constituents contributing to the character of a wine: the grape variety used, the impact of what happens in the vineyard, and manipulation of the wine by the winemaker. To answer the question of what makes wine taste as it does, each of these needs to be examined.

Wines can be classified in three ways -as table wine, fortified wine or sparkling wine. Table wines can be either dry or sweet, and there are a number of methods of making sweet wines. Fortified wines have spirit added to them, producing a high alcohol level. Sparkling wines are table wines which are worked on by the winemaker to induce the fizz that makes them so popular.

Wines can also be classified according to the colour of the grape variety that was used to make them -red grapes or white grapes. However this can be misleading. The nut-brown colour of some older fortified wines often makes it hard to tell which colour grape was used in their production. Additionally, white wine can be made from red grapes -and in the case of the best sparkling wine this is often the case.