Wine Peeps is an independent wine blog dedicated to helping you get the most bang for your buck in wine. We do this through blind tastings of wine from around the world and calculations of 
Wine Word of the Week: Finish
By Kori ~ July 24th, 2008.
This week’s Wine Word of the Week is finish.
Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine:
Since this is an oft used wine tasting term, I was surprised to find that there was no entry for “finish†in The Oxford Companion to Wine. However, I did locate entries for “long†and “short†that seem the closest to explaining this term. Long is a much-derided tasting term for wines whose impact on the palate is particularly persistent. A wine that is long is usually of high quality. Short is a tasting term for a wine whose impact on the palate is not persistent; the opposite of long.
Layman’s terms from Kori:
The finish is how long a wine’s flavor lingers in your mouth. A well made wine has a lingering finish (sometimes as much as 30 seconds or more.)
Filed under: Wine Word of the Week
Also, remember, there is a difference between finish and length. Length is how far the wine travels on your palate. The wine is said to be short if it stops after the attack.