Wine Vocabulary

The following is a glossary of wine related terms, which you may find useful in your quest for that perfect vintage…By no means is this list exhaustive, it’s simply intended as a starting point for further research.

·        Aging… All wines age to some extent, first in the cellar (in a barrel, cask, tank or vat) and then in the bottle. Many times, if properly stored, wine will improve somewhat with aging. It’s good to keep in mind though that 90% of the wine produced in the world is as good when six months old as it is ever likely going to be, and many wines will actually deteriorate with age rather than improve. As a rule of thumb, white wines are better consumed young, and fine red wines, such as red Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignons, Barolo, vintage port and others can need upwards of five years in order to achieve the qualities for which they are best known.

·        Aperitif… A French word now used in a very general way to describe almost any alcoholic beverage consumed before a meal to whet the appetite.

·        Barolo… One of the finest red wines of Italy, full bodied, richly textured, complex and long lived, with a distinctive bouquet and taste often described as reminiscent of truffles and faded roses.

·        Beaujolais… One of the most popular and best loved wines of France, nearly always red and produced in the Beaujolais district in southern Burgundy.

·        Blending… The practice of mixing wines from different grape varieties, geographical origins or vintages, or similar wines with somewhat different characteristics.

·        Blush Wine… A term used informally to describe a category of wines whose color varies from pale salmon to pink, and which are usually simple, light-bodied and slightly sweet.

·        Bordeaux… A town of 225,000 on the Garonne River in southwestern France. This is the home of one of the most prolific wine growing areas in the world.

·        Bouquet… This can be defined, quite simply, as the way a wine smells.

·        Breathing… The practice of aerating a bottle of wine (particularly red wine) before consuming it. Although the neck of a bottle of wine is so small that it really allows little air to mix with the content of the bottle. The proper way to aerate wine (when possible) would be to pour the contents into a decanter or other clean container. Uncorking and leaving a bottle of wine to “breathe” is largely ineffective.

·        Burgundy… An extensive region in France that includes Chablis, the Cote d’Or, the Cote Chalonnaise, and Beaujolais.

·        Cru… A French word meaning “growth”, when applied to wine, it refers to a specific vineyard and, by implication, one of superior quality as in the grand crus and premiere crus of Burgundy,

·        Domaine… French for “Estate”, most often used in Burgundy where it refers to all the vineyards making up a single property.

·        Enology… The entire science of wine production, from the harvest and vinification to bolling, the name is derived from Oeneus, the Greek god of Calydon and originally the god of wine.

·        Hybrid… In Viticulture, the result of a cross between two different grape varieties.

·        Late Harvest… A term used in California and elsewhere to denote wines made from especially ripe grapes, or, in many instances, from grapes infected with Botrytis Cinerea or noble rot (see below).

·        Loire… The longest and most scenically beautiful river in France, which traverses 600 miles through some of the best wine country. Wines that grow in its vicinity are sometimes collectively referred to as Vins de la Loire.

·        Micro Climate… A term that refers to the combination of soil-gravel, chalk and clay-and such factors as altitude, angle of slope, drainage, and orientation toward the sun, their influences on quality have been recognized for nearly 2,000 years.

·        Napa… The most celebrated wine country in California.

·        Noble Rot… Also known as Botrytis Cinerea, this is a beneficial mold responsible for the special taste of such wines as Sauternes, form the Bordeaux district of France and others, The mold forms on the skins of ripe grapes under specific conditions – humidity alternating the dry heat – and sends filaments into the grapes, perforating the skin.

·        Oak… The one wood in which wine can almost always be counted on to improve, oak is used for such small and medium sized containers as barrels, casks, pipes and the like. All the fine red wines of the world owe at least a little of their taste to the oak in which they’ve been aged.

·        Phylloxera… Whereas Noble Rot can help grapes develop wonderful and distinctive flavors, phylloxera is a devastating insect, which destroys grape crops.

·        Sediment… The deposit that most red wines tend to throw as they age in bottle, it is a natural part of an old wine as the shell is part of an egg. It should not be confused with cloudiness, haziness or lack of clarity, any of which potentially indicate that a wine is not fit to drink.

·        Supple… A term that describes an attribute of quality wines – smooth and drinkable, yet with character and backbone.

·        Tannin… Technically a group of non-organic compounds, known as phenolic compounds, that exist in bark, wood, roots, seeds, and stems of many plants. The tannins present in many red wines are extracted from the grape skins and seeds – and, if not previously removed, the stems during fermentation. Tannin imparts structure, flavor, texture, and complexity to a wine, and since it is an antioxidant also enables a wine to age.

·        Vinifera… By all odds the most important of the 40 odd species that make up the genus vitis. Appropriately named “wine bearer”, vitis vinifera is responsible for virtually all of the world’s wines.