Terminology
What is wine?
Wine is an alcoholic beverage typically made from fermented grapes.
Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol, carbon dioxide and heat. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeast produce different styles of wine. That topic will be covered by another article.
Here are some key terms
Acidity:- Acids are found in the grapes and come out during the fermentation process, that's why wine has a crisp and sharp taste. There are numerous types of acids that are found in all wines. Wine from a hot climate, and got vintages tends to be lower in acidity. Wine from cooler climates are higher in acidity
Acetic:- All wine has some traces of acetic acid, which offer a vinegar scent. Too much of acetic destroyed a wine. Acetic cause behind volatile acidity or VA.
NOTE - too much acidity makes a wine sour and feels sharp, lean or angular. Not enough acidity will make wine feel flabby.
Aeration:- when you add air in wine to enhance their perfume become more noticeable.
Aftertaste:- This is one of to most important components to great wine. The length of time a wine spends in your mouth once you've finished tasting that is what we pay for the good wine. It also depends on which part of the tongue the wine has come into the contact with.
Aroma:- The sent of wine
Age:- wines that can be aged are the high quality as they get better with cellaring. Aged wines Are bottles that have been cellared.
Note - cellaring means, the process of storing and protecting bottled or barreled wines from the environment influences such as heat, light, humidity, and movement is known as cellaring .and it also enhances the flavour, aroma, and complexity of developing maturing wine. The temperature of collaring around 50 to 58 Fahrenheit with a humidity level
Aggressive - An aggressive wine is too high in acidity. This term also describes winners with hard tannins.
Alliers:- The forest region of France where troncais grows. Wood from the troncias oak trees produces the best oak for use in wine barrels, due to its right grains.
Angular:- These wines are lean. They are opposite of round or fleshy.
Anthocyanins:- pigments that give red wine it's colour.
AOC:- Appellation d'origine Controllee it's a French government certification awarded to select regions for agriculture product that is most often for wine or cheese.
Backward: Backwards is used to define a wine that is tight, closed in or reserved. This means the aromatic and other qualities in the wine are not available to the taster. This is often a normal trait in young wines.
Balance: Balance is one of the key traits all great wines share, regardless of where they come from. The term is used to say all the elements that make up the wine, acid,.
Barrel or Barrique: A vessel to age wine which is usually made from oak.
Barrel Fermented: Wines that were vinified in barrel instead of vats or tanks. This takes place more often with white wines. However, some producers barrel ferment red wine. This is known as micro vinification
BDX: Abbreviation for Bordeaux
Blend: When one or more grape varieties is used to produce the wine.
Blind Tasting: The identity of the wine is hidden from the taster. In theory, this allows for an unbiased evaluation of the wine. Single blind means the type of wine is known to the taster, but not the specific wine. Double blind means, the taster has no prior information on the wine.
Body: Body is a term used to describe the weight and feel of wine. Full bodied wines are normally high in alcohol.
Bold: Red wine with dark color, high alcohol, with concentration and intensity, that is usually in a forward style.
Bordeaux Wine: Area of southwest France famous for producing of the worlds best wines that are a major focus on this web site.
Bottle age: All quality wines need to be aged in the bottle before being opened. For some wines, this could be a few years. Other wines (for example the First Growths from Bordeaux) in select vintages require 30 years or more to become mature.
Bouquet: Different than perfume, this denotes a mature, or maturing wine with secondary characteristics, other than primary fruit scents.
Botrytis Cinerea: This special fungus, known as noble rot is how most of the world’s sweet wines are made. See Sauternes for a more detailed explanation.
Bricking: When red wines mature or age, they lighten in color and move from purple, to dark red, to ruby and finally to the color of brick. This is the same term as browning.
Brix: The measurement of sugar content.
Cabernet Franc: Important blending grape used in Bordeaux in the Right Bank and the Medoc.
Cabernet Sauvignon: The key grape used to produce Bordeaux wine from the Medoc.
Chardonnay: The world’s most popular white wine grape.
Complex: Complex is an important quality in a great wine. Normally associated with aromatics, the term is used when a myriad of scents or fragrances are found in a wine's perfume.
Concentrated: Concentrated is the opposite of light. Concentrated wines display a wealth of fruit, richness and depth of flavour, as well as raw materials.
Decadent: Decadence in a wine is a good thing. They are rich, sexy, opulent wines with mouth-coating textures.
Decanting: Decanting is the practice of pouring wine from a bottle into a larger container. While special decanters for wine can be purchased, even an everyday pitcher will work fine. Decanting is done for two reasons. Removal of sediment from older wines, or to allow air into a young wine, for the purpose of allowing them to soften in texture and display more aromatics.
Delicate: Light wines are delicate. This is not a quality to seek in Bordeaux. It is better suited for some white wines and Pinot Noir.
Dessert Wine: Created for tax purposes, dessert wines are wines high in alcohol ranging from 14% to 24% alcohol. Many riper styles of California Cabernet Sauvignon and classified as a dessert wine, due to their high alcohol levels.
Double-Blind: When wines are double tasted double-blind, no information of any type is given to the tasters.
Double Decanting: Double decanting is the act of pouring wine from the bottle into a decanter. Washing the bottle out with clean water to remove any sediment and then pouring the wine back into the original bottle. This adds twice as much into wine than ordinary decanting.
Dry Wine: Dry wines are red or white wines where all the residual sugar has been fermented.
Earthy: Earthy wines smell of mushrooms, forest floor or truffles. This is a positive attribute that is experienced in older wines, especially, Bordeaux wines.
Elegant: Wines with elegance are in balance with soft, refined characteristics and textures. They are never heavy.
Exotic: Positive term used to denote unique, opulent textures of a special nature that are only found in the best of wines, in select vintages.
Fermentation: The process of turning sugars into alcohol, also known as alcoholic fermentation.
Filtered: Filtering is the process of removing solid particles by having the wine move through a filter.
First Growths: Term for the absolute top Bordeaux wines, as defined by the French Government in the official 1855 Classification of Bordeaux wine.
Flabby: Flabby wines are low in acidity and lie there in your mouth. They are heavy and not fun to taste.
Fleshy: Fleshy wines are full-bodied concentrated and round or opulent textures.
Flight: When more than one wine is poured at the same time.
Floral: Red and white wines can be floral. For example, Bordeaux wine from Pomerol and Bordeaux wine from Margaux often displays a floral component.
Flowering: The time of year that the initial floral blossoms form on the grapevine.
Fortified Wine: Fortified wine is produced by the addition of brandy or other spirits.
Fourth Growth: Term for a chateau in the 1855 Classification of the Medoc that earned the fourth-highest level of classification.
Full-bodied: Full-bodied wines are most often high in alcohol, glycerin and concentration.
Gravity Cellars: Gentle method for moving wine without using pumps and only using the force of gravity.
Green Harvest: Green harvesting is when a grower removes unripe grapes to help lower yields and increase the concentration for the remaining grapes.
Hectare: European term of land measurement that is equal to 2.47 acres of land. All French vineyards are measured in hectares.
Honeyed: A common trait in sweet wine whites which have a honey character.
Ice Wine: Low alcohol sweet wine made from frozen grapes.
Late Harvest: Late Harvest wines are sweet wines produced from grapes that are allowed to over-ripen on the vine.
Legs: The clear, viscous tears that run down the side of your glass after swirling your wine. The tears or legs are formed from the glycerin in the wine. This along with colour are the first two things a taster notices in a wine.
Modernization: What happens to wine through oxidation. Wines that are maderized show aged colors and a lack of fruit, similar to what is found in Madeira wine.
Mature: A mature wine has aged to the point in time that all its elements come together; tannins, fruit and acid. At this time, the wine has also taken on secondary aromas and flavours.
Medium Bodied: Term for wines lacking the same level of concentration found in full-bodied wines.
Mid-Palate: The mid-palate is the middle of the wine tasting sensation that takes place after the initial taste and the finish. This is the point in time where the majority of the flavours are released and experienced.
Must: Freshly pressed juice, seeds, stems, skins and sometimes stems.
New Oak: The first time a barrel has been used to age wine. Barrels can be used numerous times.
Noble Rot: Grapes that have been attacked by Botrytis, which is needed for the production of many sweet wines, especially in Sauternes.
Oxidized: Oxidized wines have experienced too much air. They can become brown or bricky in colour and taste like Sherry.
pH: Term of measure for acidity in a wine. Wines with high pH have low acidity. Wines with low pH have high acidity.
Pop and Pour Common method of opening a wine bottle by the act of simply removing the cork and pouring the wine. Popped and poured wines are not decanted.
Press Wine: Essentially the second pressing of the pomace, which is made from the grape skins, seeds and pulp after the fermented juice is removed from the solid materials. Press wine provides more tannins, colour and potential flavours and can be blended in or not, depending on the vintage and the choice of the winemaker.
Pure: Purity is a good thing in wine, and hard to find. Wine with purity allows the true expression of the fruit to come through. Think of tasting a sweet, ripe berry off the vine.
Red Table Wine: Created for tax purposes, red table wines vary in alcohol from 11%-14%. This is the same as a Table Wine.
Ripe: A ripe wine is one that is produced wine is ripe when its grapes have reached the optimum level of maturity.
Secondary Aromas: This is what happens to the scent of wine once it matures. It develops tertiary, non-fruit aromatics like truffles, tobacco, leather, tar, cedar and spice. This is a positive term.
Smoky: Some wines offer scents of smoke, fire, char or burnt aromas. This happens either because of the char in the barrels, the soil or the grapes.
SO2: Chemical compound shorthand for sulfur dioxide, a gas which is used as a preservative agent to help avoid oxidation.
Soft: Soft wines are round, elegantly textured and can be low in acidity.
Sorting: Sorting is the last step before fermentation. During sorting, the winemaker removes all the unripe grapes and other unwanted material. Sorting can be done by hand or with new, optical sorting machines or other techniques.
Spoofilated: Ridiculous term used by detractors of Robert Parker for wines they deem were produced using some of the more modern, widely accepted wine making techniques.
Syrah: The only red grape used in the Northern Rhone and an important blending grape for Chateauneuf du Pape.
Sweet Wine: Sweet wines are red or white wines which have varying degrees of residual sugar remaining.
Table Wine: Table wines do not denote quality, or a lack thereof. It is a degree of measurement for all wines that range from 11% to 14% alcohol.
Tannin: Tannins which are extracted from the grape skins and stems, coupled with acidity and alcohol, are the backbone of a wine and one of the key components to a long life. Tannins need to be ripe for a wine to feel good in your mouth, Unripe tannins can make your mouth feel dry or make the wine seem hard.
Tartaric Acid: The small, harmless crystals found at the bottom of a wine bottle. The crystals are harmless, odorless and lack flavour. They occur naturally when some wines age.
TCA (2Trichloroanisole) TCA is the chemical compound that is the main cause of cork taint in wine.
Terroir: A sense of place created from numerous environmental factors ranging from soil types, exposure, climate, topography and various other elements specific to the unique location. Those factors have a real effect on the vine and its expression of character on the vines and in the grapes. Terroir can be affected severely by the choices the winemaker takes in the cellars and in the vineyards.
Tobacco: Tobacco is a common smell found in mature wines, especially from Bordeaux. The aromas can range from cigar tobacco to ash or even pipe aromatics. This is a positive trait.
Torrefaction: Coffee with vanilla aromatics, with scents arising from the oak barrels during the ageing process.
Ullage: Term for the air space between the wine and the cork. The level of ullage can determine the potential level of quality in an older wine.
VA: VA is short for volatile acidity.
Vieilles Vignes: French term for old vines. Grapes from old vines have a minimum of 35 years of age. Old vines can producer better, more concentrated fruit, with naturally lower yields. Vines in some areas like Chateauneuf du Pape can be more than 100 years of age.
Vin: French term for wine.
Vin de Paille: Sweet wines that are produced by allowing the extremely ripe grapes to dry out on straw mats to decrease their juice while increasing their sugar levels.
Viticulture: The study and, or act of grape growing.
Woody: Woody wines are oaky. They feature strong, often overwhelming scents of vanilla, coffee or smoke. They can also feel dry in the mouth. This is a flaw.
Yeast: Yeast helps the process of converting sugar to alcohol during the fermentation process.
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