Examples

• A taster notes that a red wine is complex because it shows black cherry, plum, dried herbs, cedar, and earthy notes that change and reveal new nuances as the wine sits in the glass.
• A sommelier describes a Chardonnay as complex when it combines citrus and stone fruit with hazelnut, brioche, subtle oak spice, and a creamy texture that unfolds from the first sip through the long finish.
• In a competition, judges say a wine is "pleasant but lacking complexity" when it offers clean, bright fruit but very few additional layers of aroma or flavor and does not evolve with air.

Etymology

English "complexity" comes from the Latin "complexus," past participle of "complecti," meaning "to entwine, embrace, or braid together" (from "com-" = together and "plectere" = to braid or twist). The word developed in English to describe something made of many interconnected parts, and in wine writing—especially from the 19th and 20th centuries onward—it was adopted to describe wines whose aromas, flavors, and textures are intricately interwoven, like many strands braided together, rather than simple and one-dimensional.