Prelude to Wine Flashcards
What are the 3 tastes in wine?
Sweet, sour, and bitter
What are the 3 sources that can affect a wine’s flavor?
Grapes, fermentation, and maturation and aging
What species of grape makes the most wine?
Vitis vinifera
Name 3 grapes that have high tannins
Nebbiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah/Shiraz
What is a terroir?
is how the “somewhereness” of a particular region or vineyard tastes, including soil, geography, sunlight, weather, climate, surrounding plant life, and other elements.
What is Brix?
The winemakers measure of sugar in grape s
What is phylloxera?
a grape louse that can kill the entire plant
What is Noble Rot?
Botrytis cinera, a mold that slowly pierces grape skins, allowing their water content to evaporate and giving the wine a more intense flavor
Sugar + ____ = _____ + CO2
yeast; alcohol
What are the percentage ranges of alcohol in sparkling wine, table wine, and fortified wine?
sparkling= 8-12 Table= 8-15 fortified= 17-22
What is must?
mixture of grape juice and skins
How do red grapes make white wine?
winemakers remove the skins of red grapes to make white wine from the pulp
What is maceration?
soaking the skins to extract aromas, tannins, and color
What is chaptalization?
the process of adding sugar to the must so the yeast generates more alcohol in the final wine
What is residual sugar?
when some of the natural sugars in the must remain unfermented by yeast
Where does tannin come from?
skin, pits, and stems of the grapes
What does a vintage on a bottle indicate?
year of harvest
What are two factors that affect whether a wine will last more than five years?
The grape, the vintage, where the wine comes from, how the wine was made, and storage conditions
What is a “corked” wine?
corked wine is when trichloranisole (TCA) from the cork has spoiled a wine
Why do vintners use sulfur dioxide in the winemaking process?
As an antioxidant, preservative, and disinfectant to prevent unwanted oxidation and to inhibit the action of bacteria or wild yeast
What is vertical tasting?
Comparing wines from different vintages
What happens to the color of white wines as the age?
White wines gain color with age
What happens to the color of red wines as they age?
Red wines lose color as they age
What is the difference between aroma and bouquet?
Aroma represents the smell of the grapes in the wine; bouquet describes the total smell of the wine (usually found in older wines)
Why should you swirl a wine before smelling it?
To allow oxygen to aerate the wine, releasing the esters and aldehydes that combine with oxygen to yield the wine’s aroma or bouquet
