Wine Glossary
Acetic Acid. A product of acetobacter bacteria, this stuff spoils wine and makes it taste like vinegar. This is a bad thing, unless you're trying to produce vinegar.
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Aroma. The smells of a wine that come from the grapes only. In my view this is somewhat of absurd notion, because we evaluate wine after it's fermented. See bouquet.
Aftertaste. The taste that lingers in your mouth after a sip of wine. The length and quality of the aftertaste is called the finish. Generally you'd like a medium to long finish, unless the wine tastes like a sweaty gym sock. Then a short finish is merciful. And there's always the spit bucket!
Astringent. The drying, sometimes bitter sensation caused by too much tannin or acid. Can make your mouth pucker. And if you pucker so much you can't pull your cheeks apart, the wine should probably age for a few...decades.
Balance. This is what you want in a wine, when all the elements - tannin, acid, sugar, alcohol, etc. - are in the right ratios to each other. What you then get is harmony and great taste!
Barrel. A container, almost exclusively made from oak, in which wines are aged before being bottled. Barrels, especially those that have been used for three or fewer vintages, impart flavors and nuances that most winemakers and wine drinkers find pleasing. Too much, though, can overpower the wine and have the opposite effect. Some winemakers, dealing with the high cost of buying barrels and then cleaning and disinfecting them annually, are using oak chips and oak staves placed in tanks, instead. Purists say this is heresy (or would it be apostasy?) but if it works and people like the result, who am I to argue? However, I'd stick with barrels if I was the winemaker. The French name for a Bordeaux barrel is a barrique.
Bottle-aged. The time wine spends in the bottle before being drunk. For most wines this doesn't mean much. For fine wines meant to age gracefully, and for some high-priced
Bottle-shock. A temporary, unpleasant condition of wine for a few weeks after it's bottled, also referred to as "bottle sickness." Winemakers and scientists can't quite say why this happens, but it may have something to do with the process of pumping and "jostling" the new wine. A lot of newly-bottled wine is not affected, and many consumers never notice this for reasons we don't understand. Still, some wineries let their newly-bottled wine sit for a couple weeks to let this pass before shipping it. Bottle shock can also refer to the sensation when your wife hits you over the head with a magnum of champagne, after you've made an inappropriate joke at her sister's wedding.
Bouquet. The smells of a wine that come from fermentation and aging. See also aroma.
Breathing. If you hear your wine breathe...run. Seriously, wine is said to breathe when it's aerated, either by decanting or just pouring into a glass. Some say this helps "open up" the wine. I do think there's something to this but I can't prove it. But neither can you. So don't try...just decant if you want, and enjoy the wine!
Brut. "Dry", for sparkling wine and Champagne. The origin seems to be that the Brits, historically big drinkers of French wine, found Champagne too dry for their tastes to the point of being "brutal."
Carbonic Maceration. This is a winemaking technique in which whole clusters of (mostly) unbroken grapes are placed in a fermentation vat and then saturated with carbon dioxide. The CO2 penetrates the skins and causes fermentation to takes place within the berries, meaning that the wine will be less tannic and, some say, "fruitier" than wine fermented the traditional way. In practice, though, some berries on the bottom will be crushed by the weight of the fruit above, release their juice and ferment in the traditional way. The point here is to have lighter wines that can be drunk right after bottling.
Cava. Spanish word for sparkling wine.
Cepage. French word for grape variety, it's "Cepa" in Spanish and Portugese.
Claret. The term that the Brits use to refer to Bordeaux wines. Some California producers, such as Francis Ford Coppola, also use it to refer to their Bordeaux-style wines. Also see Meritage.
Cremant. Generic French word for sparkling wines that aren't produced in the Champagne region. Cremant de Bordeaux, for example. These tend to be a bit less effervescent than Champagne, so think of 'em as "Champagne lite." Sort of.
Chaptalization. The process of adding sugar during fermentation to increase the eventual level of alcohol. This is permitted and practiced widely in
Chateau. The French word for castle. It's typically the mansion of the wine-producing estate. If the says "Chateau-bottled" or mis en bouteille au chateau, that means the wine comes only from that estate or property.
Commune. Relax...there's no relationship to
Corked. An unpleasant smell in wine, attributed to a chemical called Trichloranisole. About 3-5% of all wines sealed with natural cork will be corked and are usually undrinkable. Not the same as "bottle stink" which can smell just as nasty but which usually dissipates in a few minutes.
Cru. Literally, "growth." Applies to the grapes from a particular vineyard.
Cuvee. The wine from a particular vat or cuve. Can also be a special blend of a number of wines. Tete de cuvee translates as the top (best) of the barrel or vat.
Dolce. Sweet wine (Italy). In Spain it's also Dolce, in Portugal, Doce, and in France it's Doux. In Germany, well, it's just about all the wine!
Dry. Refers to wine in which most or all of the sugars have been converted to alcohol. But the term is relative, and many wines taste dry only because the residual sugar is balanced by acid and other elements. Dry is also a relative term, and in French it can be downright misleading - sec literally means dry, but when referring to Champagne, Brut is much "dryer" with less than 15 grams of sugar per liter, while sec can have 17 to 35 grams.
Fine. "Fine Wine" is defined by people like you and me...people who buy it and drink it. I probably wouldn't say that a $4 Charles Shaw Cab is "fine," but you might. "To fine" means to clarify new wine just before bottling, by adding one of several fining agents such as egg whites or bentonite (yes, it's dirt) or something called isinglass (a kind of collagen, made from sturgeon bladders). But don't worry, you won't taste any of these and they can't hurt you. Making wine can be like sausage, you know.
Frizzante. Italian word for sparkling wine that is not as, well, sparkling as Champagne or Spumante. Most Proseccos, which are lovely Italian wines made from the grape of the same name, are frizzante.
Full-bodied. The wine version of Rubenesque - has a weighty mouth feel, on account of high levels of extract (particulate matter, tannins, phenols, all those other things that remind you of the high school chemistry class that you barely passed) and alcohol.
Fume. French word for smoky. Pouilly Fume is a French wine made from Sauvignon Blanc that exhibits this character. Robert Mondavi, the marketing genius, called his American Sauvignon Blanc Fume Blanc and the association with
Generic. In the
Grand Cru. Literally "Great Growth." In
Kabinett. The first category of German wine, lighter and often cheaper than the other categories, which are in order, Spatlase, Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, and finally Eiswein. Generally, the higher you go, the riper the grapes were when picked, and the sweeter the wine.
Legs. The little droplets or "rivulets" that run down the inside of the glass after you swirl or taste. They don't indicate quality in any way, but they do show higher alcohol content. There's a much more detailed, technical explanation - surface tension, gravity, capillary action, and vapor pressure - but trust me, it won't help you enjoy the wine any more.
Light, or Light-bodied. Wines that are thinner or have less body. Usually they also have less alcohol and fewer extracts - those goodies from the grape solids that make wine a health beverage (in moderation), help keep your arteries clear and give fine wines their character and longevity in the bottle.
Maceration. A process in which the juice from crushed (and usually, de-stemmed) grapes sits in the fermentation vat along with the skins and seeds. During this time the juice that will become wine gets important things like color, flavor elements and tannin during this process. Different from "Carbonic Maceration."
Maderized. A term that refers to wine, usually white, that has acquired a flat, stale or burned taste and often has turned a brownish color, reminiscent of Madeira wine made on a Portugese Island of the same name.
Malolactic Fermentation (MLF). A process that takes place after the grape sugars have been converted to alcohol. Turns sharp, crisp malic acid to much softer lactic acid. Generally I don't care so much for this, as I like bright acids especially in whites, but this is a very individual choice. A lot of
Meritage. An invented word that combines "merit" and "heritage" and refers to certain California wines composed of at least two of the following grapes: For reds, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Carmenere, St. Macaire, and Gros Verdot. For whites, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, and Sauvignon Vert. Meritage is actually a registered trademark of the Meritage Associationn, and wineries who put this name on their label must be members of the group. Pronounced like "heritage."
Negociant. Interesting word that refers to a dealer, generally French, who buys wine in bulk from one or more estates and then resells it, typically under his own label. A lot of very fine wine estates do this with wine that is quality but not good enough to go in their prestige labels.
Nose. The overall smell of wine. It includes both the bouquet, which is the smell of the grape variety(ies) in the wine, and the aroma which is supposed to represent the other smells that come from fermentation and barrel aging.
Premier Cru. First class, baby!...in
Recolte (France). Harvest or vintage, expressed as a year - for example, 2001.
Reserve. In the USA, this means nothing in particular although it can be an effective marketing gimmick. In fact, I've tasted bottled turpentine labled "Reserve"...meaning, I guess, reserved for people who can't tell paint thinner from Pinot. In Italy, though, Riserva means that the wine must spend some minimum amount of time in barrel or other wooden container before it can be bottled and released. In Spain, red Reserva wines must spend at least a year in cask and can't be released until at least 4 years after harvest, while white Reserva wines must have six months minimum in cask and can't be released until at least 3 years after harvest.
Residual Sugar. The sugar that's left in the wine after fermentation is complete. Ironically, the rising level of alcohol created by the action of the yeast cells (usually along with higher temperatures also generated) eventually kills the yeast: yeast-i-cide, sorta. Wines that are higher in alcohol, and often correspondingly lower in sugar, are fermented with alcohol-tolerant yeast. Of course, some wines have high alcohol and high residual sugar, but if they're balanced by higher acid then you may not notice.
Rose. No, this doesn't mean White Zin, at least not exclusively. Roses are wonderful wines that are often overlooked by snobs, roses can be bone dry and every bit as fragrant and fruity as whites or reds. Most quality roses are made by crushing red grapes, then leaving the juice in contact with the skin for only a short time, say, several hours or a day. You can also make rose by adding some red wine to a white, but this isn't common. Because they straddle the fence, rose wines go great with just about any food, and they are ideal for summer - barbeques, parties on the deck, boat rides and even, yes, ballgames.
Sommelier. French word meaning wine waiter, these folks are typically found in fine restaurants. Their job is not to rip you off, but rather help guide you in selecting a wine to complement your meal, and that you can afford. This is a real profession; the good ones have a lot of study and experience under their belts. And a good sommelier can be a Godsend at a fine restaurant with a big and daunting wine list.
Sparkling Wine. Wines, such as
Spumante. Generic Italian word for sparkling wine. Not necessarily sweet like Asti Spumante. Which you know you drank in high school and thought you were cool. Maybe you were.
Sur Lie. No, not "surly". This refers to wines that have been aged, usually in a barrel, on top of the mostly dead yeast cells. May sound yucky but this can give the wine a more complex, sometimes more toasty flavor. As Martha Stewart would say, it's a good thing. Hopefully the winemaker racks the clear wine off the lees and you don't have to chew on 'em.
Tannin. A substance in wine that comes from grape skins, stems and seeds, and to a lesser extent from oak barrels. It helps preserve reds and gives them a lot of their structure, and some can be harsh, rough and even chewy - but some people like that. Tannins don't really have a taste, they are really a tactile sensation. If you really want to "feel" tannin, get a young bottle of Montus wine from
Conventional wisdom until recently was that tannins changed a lot over time, and went from "hard" to "soft" by attaching to each other and becoming rounder. But a study at UC Davis, the famous wine school, now challenges that. In fact, that study seems to show that wines called harsh simply have a lot more tannin - three to five times as much - as those described as soft. And the study also shows that some, but not all, tannins do attach to each other to form long strands, and that the long ones are more astringent, not less.
Terroir. A poorly understood term that tries to capture all the unique aspects of a wine based on where the grapes are grown and all the things that determine their quality - soil, rainfall, elevation, sun exposure, geology, and some other stuff you don't want to hear about. Originally it was a phrase, gout de terroir which means "taste of the earth" and at the time - the 17th century - it probably wasn't a compliment when associated with a wine.
Hundreds of years later, there's a lot of mostly harmless controversy about the extent to which this is real or imagined. The French swear by this, especially in
