Glossery and Winemaking Flashcards
What is Cluster Primordia?
Next year’s crop
Define AOC:
- AOC/AOP
Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée / Appellation d’Origine Protégée
- clearly defined area of orgin from which a specifically names (appellation) product can be created and labelled under strictly regulated (controllee) production methods
- Highest and most prestigious of the 3 categories
- most restrictive
- must come from delimited area of origin
- must be made from a list of authorised G vars
- must adhere to strict regulations w/ regard to pruning, harvesting, winemaking and ageing1979:
- In reality, designation on label does not necessarily mean that the wine is better in quality, but that it gurantees origin, thus certain attributes with regard to style and quality.
Define INAO
- Institut National des Appellations d’Origine
Polices and protects wine and spriti AOCs from wrongful marketing or misleading labeling, both internally and externally.
Also polices and protecs dozens of French cheeses and other French foodstuffs.
Define IGP:
IGP / Vins de Pays
Indication Géographique Protégée
Country wines
Protected Geographic Indication
- in 1979: allowed more flexibilty with grape growing and winemaking regulations than AOC
- in 2009: EU mandated changed, renamed IGP; production specifications tighted, more rigorous control and certification = complete traceability from vineyard to bottle
- IGP now represents the middle tier in FR quality pyramid and regulated by the INAO together with AOC/P
- must originate within specified zone of production
- must be from a list of authorised grape vars
- must achieve minimal alcohol levels
- must obtain tasting panel approval
- stricter cahier des charges or technical specifiations for all IGP wines
What is are the French quality pyramid levels?
- AOC/AOP (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée / Appellation d’Origine Protégée)
- IGP (was Vins de Pays)
- Vins sans IG (wines without Geographic Indication)
Old:
- AOC
- VDQS (eliminated)
- Vin de Pays
- Vin de table
Define Vins sans IG
Vins sans IG / Vins de Table
Table wines / Wines without Geographic Indication
- no links with orgin
- allows the mention of grape vars and vintage on label (was outlawed under the old Vin de Table)
- can come from anywehre in Fr,
- no mx permitted yields
- labeled ‘Vin de France’ not Vins Sans IG
- destined mainly for export
What latitudes does the grapevine thrive?
Between 30 - 50 degrees north and south
Champagne is the furthest northern limite in Fr at 49-49.5
What is the Vineyards Year like?
Dec-Mar:
pruned grapevine brances removed from vy rows and mechanically ground or burned; chips and ash are returned to the vy anddeposited between the rows
March:
Bud break, shoot growth, removal of the hilled-up earth around the base of the vines
May:
flowering and berry set (berry set marks the transition of fertillized flower to grape)
July:
leaf pulling, green harvest
August:
vveraison, grapevine stos growing and starts focusing on the fruit; grape berries change colour and soften, increase sugars and acids decrease
Sept-Oct:
Clusters ripen and mature
Oct:
Harvest; fertilise the vy; hill up the vines (partially cover the lower trunch with earth to protect them from winter freeze) (some AOCs can be harvesting as late as Dec)
Nov:
leave fall, prepare for winter pruning by removing fasteners and lowering catch wires.
When do grapes reach maturity?
110-140 days after flowering in warm areas
190-220 days after flowering in cool areas
What is a good marker to guage harvest?
Veraison:
most Gs are picked 45 days after the grapes begin to change colour and soften
- Gs described as early to late ripeners relative to the harvest date of Chasselas
What is the river effect?
Water can have a moderating effect on temperature by equalising diurnal and seasonal temperature swings.
This helps to prevent spring frosts which compromise bud break and fall frosts which would start an early leaf fall
What is transpiration?
the amount of water vapour lost;
greatest during hot, dry, sunny and windy conditions;
lowest when thee weather is still, cool, moist and cloudy
Key points of photosynthesis:
- complex series of chemical reactions in which a plant’s chloroplasts use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen
- process is temperature dependant; vines most productive between 68-86F/20-30C
- photosyn will not happes under 50F/10C or over 95F/35C - even if sun is shining
- heat reflected from stones under the vine is significant only when ambient temp is around 50F/10C; then will help keep phtotsyn going IF sun keeps shining
- CO2 and O2 exchange occurs through small pores on leave called stomata; Gvine transpires or releases water vapour through stomata; like sweating
- will lose water through transpiration
- if loses more water through leaves than getting up through roots, will close stomata to preserve moisters; so no more co2 uptake = photosyn stops
To summarise:
- sunshinethat ripens a grape not heat
- vine will shot down above 95F/35C
- high winds with low soil moisture can shut down too
Translate en foule
In a crowd
Phylloxera:
- insect; bites inject saliva creating galls or knots of unontrolled cel growth. Euro vines can’t heal over wounds.
- Grafting to American rootstock remedy
- impact by changeing how vys planted - replanted in rows
- change in multiple varieties planted and harvested together; re-planted in single grape variety parcels
- change in what was planted, many opted for better vars, or forced to change varieties planted
Powdery mildew:
- fungal disease, also in North America
- blankets vine with thick white filaments
- if oubreak occurs before flowering, yields are reduced
- if grape cluster become infected they will not achieve full pigment ddevelopment or grow to maximum size
- fruit will be marked by off-flavours
Downy mildew:
- North American fungus
- germinates in warm, humid weather
- attacks the leaves and stems; looks like oil spots
- then with white cotton filaments
- an oubreak causes the vins to lose their leaves, which can delay ripening or prevent ripening
What is the Bordeux Mixture?
- Jura-born French botanist
- also known as copper-sulphite application
- combats fungus attacks
- worked with Jules Emile Planchon to pioneer the grafting technique to protect the vines from phylloxera
Botrytis Cinerea
- fungus
- dependant on conditions of which the mould grows
- Noble or Pourriture: attachs tight-clustered varieties that are high in sugar content; mould penetrates skin, desiccates the berry; concentrates sugars and other flavour compounds = unctuous, honeyed dessert
- cool, moist mornings followed by warm, dry afternoons
- if weather stays cool too long noble turns to gray rot = off flavours (if wine is salvaged) or partial to total crop loss
Coulure
- poor fruit set caused by cloudy, cold and/or wet weather at flowering
- lack of carbs in the vine causes the stems to shrivel and shed the nascent berries decreasing crop loads
- Merlot and Malbec most vunerable
- usually climate related
- but can also be from over-vigorous vines - site too fertile - experience rapid shoot growth and there is a carb deficit onn the whole as sugars are shunted from cluster to vegetation
- over dense canopy can also experience crab shorfall - plant will pull food from the few leaves that are producing the carbs
Palissage
Trellis
Tailler
to prune
Débourrement
bud break
Floraison
flowering
ébourgeonnage
bud trimming
épamprage
desuckering
Déchausser
removal of hilled up earth at base of grape vine
