Types of Wine

Wines by Style

If you are not an avid wine drinker, you should be aware of all the available style of wine and sizes of wine bottles when shopping for wines by styles. When we speak about wine styles, we are referring to the process and ingredients used to create them that set them apart from each other. Each style of wine will have different flavours, colours and other aspects that make it a different tasting experience from the next wine type. Each wine style will also have some great food or event pairings that tell you where and what to drink it with and we also stock a range of half bottles of champagne if you prefer this style of wine.

Red Wine

• Red wine is produced using darker-coloured grapes and includes the grape’s skin. This wine can vary depending on age, from an intense violet at its earlier stages to an almost-brown shade for the older range of red wines. Red wine is also said to have positive benefits for your hearts’ health when drunk in moderation, containing antioxidants and other healthy nutrients. Red wine can be paired with many cheese options, roast beef, or dark chocolate and our selection of half bottles of red wine provide you with many different options to pair with these. Typically, you want to pair red wine with stronger flavours.

White Wine

• White wine is created from the colourless pulp of grapes, meaning that any grapes can be used in the production. The main colours you will see are yellow, yellow-green or yellow-gold. White wine is one of the styles of wine that has been around for a long time, existing for over 4,000 years. Our variety of half bottles of white wine provide good pairing with plenty of foods, but most brands of white wine pair nicely with fish-based meals like Lobster, Caviar and Oysters.

Rosé Wine

• Rosé wine is possibly the oldest style of wine and is essentially a red wine with less skin contact time from the grape during creation. As mentioned, red wine is produced by keeping the skin in the juice as the wine is processed, but Rosé wine is made when the skins are in contact with the juice for some time, but less time than for a red. Rose wine come in much lighter pink colours because of this process. Rosé is a style of wine that pairs with everything and with our huge range of half bottles of rosé you have plenty to choose from, but in particular, we would pair it with soft cheeses, pesto sauces, hummus, or seafood like Salmon.

Sweet Wine

• Sweet wine, also known as dessert wine, can be red or white. Dry wines contain little to no sugar from the wine-making process, whereas sweet wines retain a decent amount of residual sweetness from the grape's original sugar content. Wines will become sweeter as more sugar is left during the process. Sweet wines, particularly red ones, pair well with sweeter treats like cinnamon sugar cookies, spiced pecans, sweet and sour pork and many more. The sweeter, sugary tones pair nicely with foods of the same tonality. We have a wide range of half bottle sweet wines for all occasions.

Sparkling Wine

• Sparkling wines, such as Champagne, are a wine with significant carbon dioxide pumped into them. Making a drink fizzy is done by adding carbon dioxide to it, so adding this to wine creates this ‘sparkling’ effect. Champagne is just one style of sparkling wine from the French region known as Champagne and is mainly made using Chardonnay grapes

Styles of Wine

Styles of wine available at The Little Fine Wine Company:

• Sparkling Wine: First originated in France and is the most intensive wine made worldwide.
• Light-Bodied White Wine: Easy to drink and compared to wine’s version of Beer. These are perfect for any food.
• Full-Bodied White Wine: These are ideal for red wine drinkers who want a short break from red. They are creamy and typically use oak ageing as part of the creation process.
• Sweet White Wine: This is one of the oldest styles of wine, thanks to the age of the grapes. These wines can be sweet or dry but have a slight perfume aroma. Rose Wine: Rose has been popular since the 1700s when England imported French wine known as Claret due to its colour.
• Light-Bodied Red Wine: These are the most popular red wines because they have low tannins (the stuff that makes your tongue dry when you drink darker reds).
• Medium-bodied Red Wine: These are predominantly known as ‘food wines’ as they match various flavours and taste sensations.
• Full-Bodied Red Wine: These bold wines go nicely with plenty of foods like cheese and red meat. Tannins in full-bodied red wine are high, but this works as a good palette cleanser and means your food tastes even better.
• Dessert Wine: These have been around for a long time and were more popular than dry wines in the 1800s.

How do you Identify Wine Styles?

The colour, taste, bitterness and creation process differ with each wine style. They will have different flavours, known as ‘notes’, which will come under groups like Earthy, Woody, Citrus and many more. Different styles of wine have different underlying tones that set them apart.

How do you Categorise Wine?

All wines are easily classified into three main groups means you can find which ones you would like to try. These groups are origin, grape type, and wine style. If you like more woody wines, you can look at oak-aged wines. If you want something sweeter, go for a dessert wine. If you want to experience the tastes of a different country, look at the ones imported from these countries. You can shop all our half bottles of wine and see the huge selection we have from all over the world.