Acidity
The quality of wine that gives it its
crispiness and vitality. A proper
balance of acidity must be struck with the other elements of a wine, or else the
wine may be said to be too sharp - having disproportionately high levels of
acidity - or too flat - having disproportionately low levels of acidity.
The taste left on the palate after wine has
been swallowed.
A barrel used to age wine or distilled spirits.
Various substitutes used in the wine industry
for sealing wine bottles in place of traditional cork
closures.
A.O.C.
Abbreviation for Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée, the
government agency that controls wine production in France.
A.P. number
Abbreviation for Amtliche Prüfnummer, the official
testing number displayed on a German
wine label that shows that the wine was tasted and passed government quality
control standards.
A geographical based term to identify where
the grapes for a wine were grown.
The smell of a wine. The term is generally
applied to younger wines, while the term Bouquet
is reserved for more aged wines.
Astringency
An element found mainly in red wine,
characterized by a mouth-drying sensation attributable to tannin level.
Balance
The harmonious relationship of the components
of wine - acids, fruit, tannins, alcohol, etc. - resulting in a well
proportioned, or well balanced, wine.
A hollow cylindrical container, traditionally
made of wood staves,
used for fermenting and aging wine. Sometimes called a cask.
The French name for a 225 litre Bordeaux
style barrel.
A measure of the sugar concentration in the
juice or wine.
A light sediment, chiefly mucilage,
found in Port.
Blanc de Blancs
A white wine made from white grapes.
Blanc de Noirs
A white wine made from red grapes.
Blending
The mixing of two or more different parcels of
wine together by winemakers to produce a consistent finished wine that is ready
for bottling. Laws generally
dictate what wines can be blended together, and what is subsequently printed on
the wine
label.
Tasting
and evaluating wine without knowing what it is.
A Spanish wine
cellar. Also refers to a
seller of alcoholic beverage.
Body
The sense of weight imparted by a wine to the
mouth of a taster. A wine may be
light-bodied, medium-bodied or full-bodied.
See Noble
rot.
Also known as bottle-sickness, a temporary condition of wine characterized by
muted or disjointed fruit flavors. It often occurs immediately after bottling or
when wines (usually fragile wines) are shaken in travel.
After several days the condition usually disappears.
The degree to which bottled wine of the same
style and vintage
can vary.
A tasting
term for the complex aromas of an aged wine.
The term is generally not applied to young wines.
Wine packaged in a bag usually made of
flexible plastic and protected by a box, usually made of cardboard.
The wine is accessed by a simple plastic tap.
A wine spoilage yeast that produces taints
in wine commonly described as barnyard
or band-aids.
Bright
Describes a wine that has high clarity, very
low levels of suspended solids.
A measurement of the dissolved sucrose
level in a wine.
Brut
A French
term for a very dry
champagne or sparkling
wine. Drier than extra dry.
A stopper
used to seal a bottle or barrel. Commonly
used term for corks.
An old English unit of wine casks, equivalent
to about 477 litres
(126 US
gallons/105 imperial
gallons).
Certain California wines for which consumers
and others pay higher prices than those of Bordeaux's First Growths (Premiers
Crus).
Cabernet Sauvignon is a variety of red grape mainly used for wine production, and is,
along with Chardonnay,
one of the most widely-planted of the world's noble
grape varieties.
Capsule
The plastic or foil that covers the cork
and part of the neck of a wine bottle.
A winemaking practice of fermenting whole
grapes that have not been crushed.
A piece of stemware
having a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl on top.
A winemaking
process where sugar is added to the must
to increase the alcohol content in the fermented wine. This is often done when
grapes have not ripened adequately.
A type of wine, one of the "noble"
white varietals.
The Charmat or bulk process is a method where sparkling
wines receive their secondary fermentation in large tanks, rather
than individual bottles as seen in Méthode champenoise.
Generally a winery in Bordeaux,
although the term is sometimes used for wineries in other parts of the world,
such as the Barossa Valley.
British
name for Bordeaux wine. Also
a semi-generic
term for a red wine in similar style to that of Bordeaux.
Clarification
A winemaking
process involving the fining and
filtration
of wine to remove suspended solids and reduce turbidity.
A mixture of red and white sparkling
wine that has a high sugar content.
A winemaking
process where wine is chilled to near freezing temperatures for several weeks to
encourage the precipitation of tartrate
crystals.
Corked
A tasting
term for a wine that has cork taint.
A tool, comprising a pointed metallic helix attached to a handle,
for drawing corks from bottles.
A type of wine
fault describing undesirable aromas and flavours in wine often
attributed to mold growth on chlorine
bleached
corks.
Crackling
Semi-sparkling
wine; slightly effervescent. Also
called frizzante.
French sparkling wine not made in Champagne
region.
Crust
Sediment, generally potassium bitartrate, that adheres to the inside
of a wine bottle.
Cult wines
Wines for which committed buyers will pay
large sums of money because of their desirability and rarity.
Cuve
A large vat used for fermentation.
The pressing or a blending of several wines.
Decanting
The process of pouring wine from its bottle
into a decanter
to airate it or separate the sediment from the wine.
Dégorgement
The disgorging or removal of sediment from
bottles that results from secondary fermentation.
Demi-sec
Moderately sweet to medium sweet sparkling
wines.
Devatting
The process of separating red must from pomace,
which can happen before or after fermentation.
Very sweet, (usually) low alcohol wines.
DO
1.
The abbreviation
for Denominación de Origen, or "place
name." This is Spain's designation for
wines whose name, origin of grapes, grape varieties and other important factors
are regulated by law.
2.
2. The abbreviation for dissolved
oxygen, the degree of oxygen saturation in a wine, which
strongly affects oxidation of the wine and its ageing properties.
The abbreviation for Denominazione di Origine Controllata,
or "controlled place name." This
is Italy's designation for wine whose name, origin of grapes,
grape varieties and other important factors are regulated by law.
It is also the abbreviation for Portugal's
highest wine category, which has the same meaning in that country.
The abbreviation for Denominazione
di Origine Controllata e Garantita, or controlled and
guaranteed place name, which is the category for the highest-ranking wine in Italy.
Doux
The French
word for sweet.
Usually refers to the sweetest category of sparkling
wines.
Drawing off
see Devatting.
A wine
accessory that slips over the neck of a wine bottle and absorbs any
drips that may run down the bottle after pouring - preventing stains to table
cloths, counter tops or other surfaces.
Wines with zero or very low levels of residual
sugar. The opposite of
sweet. (Also see “Extra Dry”)
German
for ice
wine, a dessert
wine made from frozen grapes.
American
English spelling of oenology,
the study of wine.
Extra dry
A champagne or sparkling
wine with a small amount of residual sugar (slightly sweet).
Not as dry
as Brut.
A United States winery license allowing farms to produce and sell
wine on-site.
An unpleasant characateristic of wine
resulting from a flaw with the winemaking process or storage conditions.
The conversion of grape sugars to alcohol
by yeast.
A term that originated in California during
the mid 1980s to refer to any inexpensive cork-finished varietal wine in a 1.5
liter bottle.
Fining
A clarification
process where flocculants, such as bentonite
or egg white, are added to the wine to remove suspended solids.
Finish
A tasting
term for the lingering aftertaste after a wine has been swallowed.
Flabby
Tasting term used to indicate a wine lacking
in structure, often marked by low acidity.
Flagon
A glass bottle that holds two litres of
(usually inexpensive) table wine.
The yeast responsible for the
character of dry Sherries.
Wine to which alcohol has been added,
generally to increase the concentration to a high enough level to prevent
fermentation.
Foxy
A tasting
term for the musty odor and flavor of wines made from Vitis labrusca grapes native to North
America.
Free run
Juice
obtained from grapes
that have not been pressed.
See
"crackling".
Refers to the increasingly international
nature of the wine industry, including vineyard
management practices, winemaking techniques, wine styles, and wine marketing.
The free-run or pressed juice from grapes. Unfermented grape
juice is known as "must."
A red wine grape of the Rhone Valley of
France, and elsewhere (especially Spain). In
the southern Rhone Grenache replaces Syrah as the most important
grape (Syrah being more important in the north).
The harvesting of green (unripe) grapes in an
attempt to increase the yield of quality grapes.
Hard
A tasting
term for a wine that containins too much tannin and is
therefore unpleasant. Hard wines
often take a long time to mature.
A metric
measure that equals 10,000 m² (2.471 acres).
Term for Rhine wines, usually used
in England.
A wine barrel that holds approximately 239 litres (63 gallons).
Wine made from frozen grapes.
Called eiswein in German.
Abbreviation for "Indicazione
Geografica Tipica", the lowest-ranking of the three categories of Italian
wine regulated by Italian
law.
Jeroboam
A large bottle holding three litres, the equivalent of
four regular wine bottles.
Jug wine
American
term for inexpensive table wine.
Wine that is produced under the supervision of
a rabbi
so as to be ritually pure or clean. Although
commonly sweet, it need not be so.
Also known as late picked, wine made from grapes that have been left on the vine
longer than usual. Usually an
indicator for a very sweet or dessert wine.
Wine sediment that occurs during and after
fermentation, and consists of dead yeast, grape seeds, and other solids.
Legs
The tracks of liquid that cling to the sides
of a glass after the contents have been swirled. Often said to be related to the
alcohol or glycerol
content of a wine. Also called tears.
Lightstruck
A tasting
term for a wine that has had long exposure to Ultraviolet
light causing "wet cardboard"
type aroma and flavour.
A metric
measure of volume equal to 33.8 ounces.
M
The contact of grape skins with the must during fermentation,
extracting phenolic
compounds including tannins,
anthocyanins,
and aroma.
Madeirized
A wine showing Madeira-like
flavour, generally evidence of oxidation.
Sometimes used to describe white wine that has been kept long past its
prime.
A bottle holding 1.5 litres, the equivalent of
two regular wine bottles.
Also known as malo or MLF, a
secondary fermentation in wines by lactic acid bacteria during which tart tasting malic
acid is converted to softer tasting lactic
acid. Usually results in
softer red wines and more complex white wines.
Marc
French
for "fruit skins". See
"pomace".
A qualification (not an academic degree)
conferred by The Institute of Masters of Wine, which is located in the United
Kingdom.
A light German wine flavored with sweet woodruff
in addition to strawberries or other fruit.
Merlot
is a variety of wine
grape used to create a
popular red wine.
Mis en boutielle au
château
French
for "bottled at the winery,"
usually in Bordeaux.
Process whereby sparkling wines receive a
second fermentation in the same bottle that will be sold to a retail buyer.
Compare with Charmat
or bulk fermented.
Methuselah
A large bottle holding six litres, the equivalent of
eight regular wine bottles.
The controlled exposure of wine to small
amounts of oxygen in the attempt to reduce the length of time required for
maturation.
A tasting
term for the feel and taste of a wine when held in the mouth.
Mud
See
"Lees".
Wine that is spiced, heated, and served as a punch.
Unfermented grape juice, including pips, skins
and stalks.
The level of fermentable sugars in the must
and the resultant alcohol content if all the sugar was converted to ethanol.
A large bottle holding 15 litres, the equivalent of
20 regular wine bottles.
French
for "trader".
A wine merchant who assembles the produce of smaller growers and
winemakers and sells the result under its own name.
Wines produced outside of the traditional wine
growing areas of Europe and North Africa.
Another name for the Botrytis cinerea mould that can pierce
grape skins causing dehydration. The
resulting grapes produce a highly prized sweet wine, generally dessert
wine.
Non-Vintage
Refers to a wine made by blending the juice
of grapes from multiple vintages.
Nose
A tasting
term for the aroma
or bouquet of a wine.
Small pieces of oak wood used in place of oak
barrels in fermenting and/or ageing wine.
The science of wine and winemaking.
A wine aficionado
or connoisseur.
Wine produced from vines that are notably old.
Old World wine
Wines produced inside of the traditional wine
growing areas of Europe and North Africa.
A tasting
term for the feel
and taste
of a wine in the mouth.
An acronym
for "potential hydrogen"
a measure of acidity. The lower the
pH, the higher the acidity.
A microscopic underground insect that kills
grape vines by attacking their roots.
Pipe
A cask holding two hogsheads
or 120 gallons of wine.
The skins, stalks, and seeds that remain after
making wine. Also called marc.
Refers to the alcohol content of a beverage.
In the United States, proof represents twice the alcohol content as a
percentage of volume. Thus, a 100
proof beverage is 50% alcohol by volume and a 150 proof beverage is 75% alcohol. In the Imperial system, proof, (or 100% proof), equals 57.06%
ethanol by volume, or 48.24% by weight. Absolute
or pure ethanol is 75.25 over proof, or 175.25 proof.
A wine barrel that holds approximately 318 litres (160 U.S. gallons).
Punt
The indentation found in the base of a wine
bottle. Punt depth is often thought
to be related to wine quality, with better quality wines having a deeper punt.
Qualitätswein
A designation of better quality German
wines.
Qualitätswein
Bestimmter Anbaugebeite
A designation of better quality German
wines from recognized viticultural areas.
Qualitätswein mit
Pradikat
A designation of best quality German
wines that must conform to specific requirements of origin and
composition.
Racking
The process of drawing wine off the sediment,
such as lees, after fermentation and moving it into another vessel.
A large bottle holding 4.5 litres, the equivalent of
six regular wine bottles.
Rémuage
See
"riddling".
Spanish and Portuguese term for a reserve
wine.
A term given to wine to indicate that it is of
higher quality than usual.
Also known as RS, the level of sugar that remains unfermented in a wine.
See also sweetness of wine.
A process used to remove excess alcohol from
wine made from intentionally overripe grapes.
Also known as "Rémuage" in French,
part of the Méthode Champenoise process whereby bottles of
sparkling wine are successively turned and gradually tilted upside down so that
sediment settles into the necks of the bottles in preparation for degorgement. Part of the Méthode Champenoise process.
Also known as White Riesling in countries
outside of Germany. Riesling is a variety of grape used to make white wine.
It is grown mainly in Germany, where the relatively cold climate enables
it to produce grapes for some of the best white wines in the world. Riesling,
however, is used for high quality wines also in Austria and can be found in
countries like Australia, South Africa and Canada as well.
Riesling is famous for its vivid acidity and fruitiness both in the nose
and on the palate.
Riserva
Italian term for a higher quality – reserve
– wine.
Pink wines that are produced from the
shortened contact of red wine juice with its skins, reducing the red colour of
the wine. These wines can also be
made by blending a small amount of red wine with white wine.
Ruby
A style of Port
wine that is generally sweet.
Sack
An early English term for what is now called Sherry.
A large bottle holding nine litres, the equivalent of
12 regular wine bottles.
A tart punch
made from red wine along with orange, lemon and apricot juice with added sugar.
An alternative to cork for sealing wine
bottles, comprising a metal cap that screws onto threads on the neck of a
bottle. Also called a "Stelvin".
French
for dry,
except in the case of Champagne, where it means sweet.
German sparkling
wine.
Wines made in the United
States but named after places that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade
Bureau requires be modified by a US name of geographic origin.
Examples would be New York Chablis, Napa Valley Burgundy or California
Champagne.
A fortified
wine that has been subjected to controlled oxidation to produce a
distinctive flavor.
Shiraz
or Syrah
is a variety of grape
used to make red wine.
A process used to systematically blend various
vintages of Sherry.
A trained wine expert that often works in fine
restaurants.
Effervescent
wine containing significant levels of carbon
dioxide.
German
for "select".
Generally applied to German late
harvest wines.
Split
A wine bottle that holds 375 mL, half the
equivalent of a typical 750 mL bottle.
Italian
for "sparkling".
Generally any sparkling
wine from Italy,
although producers of Franciacorta (wine) have recently started
stating that Franciacorta is not a "spumante".
Stelvin
A brand of screwcap.
Still wine
Wine that is not sparkling
wine.
Stoving wine
A production method of artifically mellowing
wine by exposing it to heat.
Compounds added to wine to prevent oxidation
and microbial spoilage.
A substance used in winemaking as a preservative.
Syndicat
des Vins de Bordeaux et Bordeaux Superieur
An organisation representing the economic
interests of wine producers in Bordeaux.
Defined by the level of residual
sugar in the final liquid after the fermentation has ceased.
However, how sweet the wine will actually taste is also controlled by
factors such as the acidity and alcohol levels, the amount of tannin present,
and whether the wine is sparkling.
T budding
A technique that permits grafting of different
grape varieties onto existing rootstocks in a vineyard.
T.B.A.
An abbreviation for the German wine Trockenbeerenauslese.
Generally any wine that is not sparkling
or fortified.
In the US these wines must also be between 7% and 14% alcohol by volume.
Polyphenolic
compounds that give wine a bitter, dry, or puckery feeling in the mouth. Iimparted
into red wine from grape skins, seeds and stems, as well as through wood
contact. Tannins create a drying or
textural sensation in the mouth, and can add structure to wine.
Also a key factor in enabling a wine to sustain prolonged aging in
bottle.
Tart
A tasting
term describing a wine high in acidity. Often
displayed by young, unripe wines.
The most important acid found in grapes.
Refers to a selection of wines, usually
between three and eight glasses, but sometimes as many as fifty, presented for
the purpose of sampling and comparison.
See
"legs".
French
for "soil", the
physical and geographical characteristics of a particular vineyard
site that give the resultant wine its unique properties.
Texture
A tasting
term for the mouthfeel
of wine on the palate.
Toast
The charcoal that is burned into the inside of
wine casks. To toast refers to that
process. It also refers to the
practice of drinking an alcohol beverage along with wishing good health or other
good fortune.
Trocken
German for "dry".
Trockenbeerenauslese
German for "dry berry selected". A
type of German wine made from vine-dried grapes.
Such grapes can be so rare that it can take a skilled picker a day to
gather enough for just one bottle.
A wine cask that holds approximately, two butts,
or 252 U.S. gallons.
Also known as headspace, the unfilled space in a wine bottle, barrel, or tank.
Unoaked
Also known as unwooded, refers to wines that have been matured without contact
with wood/oak such as in aging barrels.
Wines made from a single grape variety.
A fortified wine that has been flavoured with
as many as 40 herbs and spices.
Vertical
and horizontal wine tasting
In a vertical tasting, different vintages of
the same wine type from the same winery are tasted. This emphasizes differences between various vintages.
In a horizontal tasting, the wines are all from the same vintage but are
from different wineries. Keeping
wine variety or type and wine region the same helps emphasize differences in
winery styles.
Vigneron
French
for vine grower.
French
for wine.
Viña
A plant on which grapes grow.
A sour-tasting, highly acidic, liquid made
from the oxidation of ethanol in wine, cider, beer, fermented fruit juice, or
nearly any other liquid containing alcohol.
A place where grape vines are grown for wine
making purposes.
Vinho
Portuguese for wine.
An effervescent
white wine produced in Portugal.
Viniculture
The art and science of making wine.
Also called enology (or oenology). Not
to be confused with viticulture.
The process of making grape juice into wine.
Vino
The year in which a particular wine's grapes
were harvested. When a vintage year
is indicated on a label, it signifies that all the grapes used to make the wine
in the bottle were harvested in that year.
The cultivation of grapes.
Not to be confused with viniculture.
A breed of grapes native to North America.
See also “Foxy”.
A breed of grapes native to Europe.
The level of acetic
acid present within a wine.
Waiter's friend
A popular type of corkscrew
used commonly in the hospitality industry.
A person engaged in the occupation of making
wine.
A device, comprising two vats or receptacles,
one for trodding and bruising grapes, and the other for collecting the juice.
A large cave that is excavated to
provide a cool location for storing and aging wine. Similar to wine cellar.
A cool, dark location in which wine is stored,
often for the purpose of ageing.
Undesirable characteristics in wine caused by
poor winemaking techniques or storage conditions.
Any form of dishonesty in the production or
distribution of wine.
The descriptive sticker or signage adhered to
the side of a wine bottle.
The sensory evaluation of wine, encompassing
more than taste, but also mouthfeel, aroma, and colour.
A microscopic unicellular
fungi
responsible for the conversion of sugars in must to alcohol.
This process is known as alcoholic fermentation.
Young
Wine that is not matured and usually bottled
and sold within a year of its vintage.
Zymology
The science of fermentation.