Prelude & Wine Basics Flashcards
What are Three Flavors in Wine?
Sweet, Sour, and Bitter
What are three sources that can affect a wine taste?
Grapes, fermentation, and maturation and aging
What species of grape makes the most wine?
VITIS VINIFERA
Name Three grapes that have high tannin.
Nebbiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah
What is Terroir?
The typicity of wine, a particular region’s taste including: soil, geography, sunlight, weather, climate, surrounding plant life, and other elements including the winemakers influence.
What is Brix?
The measure of sugar in grapes
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 + _________ = _________ + Carbon Dioxide
Sugar + YEAST = ALCOHOL + Carbon Dioxide
What are the percentage ranges of alcohol in sparkling wine?
8% - 12%
What are the percentage ranges of alcohol in table wine?
8% - 15%
What are the percentage ranges of alcohol in fortified wine?
17% - 22%
What is must?
The 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?
Tannin comes from the skins, pits, and stems
What does a vintage on a bottle indicate?
The year the growers harvested the grapes
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?
Tri-chloro-anisole (TCA) from the cork has spoiled the 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 they age?
White wines gain color (Golden)
What happens to the color of red wine as they age?
Red wines lose color (Tawny, Brickish, Brown)
What is the difference between aroma and bouquet?
Aroma represents the smell of grapes in the wine, bouquet describes the total smell of the wine
Why should you swirl 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 and bouquet.
