Wine Terms Flashcards
German. A labeling term that indicates a wine produced at a commercial winery that buys grapes from other sources.
Abfüller
The most common aldehyde in wine, formed by the oxidation of ethanol.
Acetaldehyde
An acid that may be created in wine by a specific bacteria when the wine is oxidized or exposed to air, generally considered a fault when above the recognition threshold.
Acetic Acid
The type of bacteria that may cause wine spoilage in the presence of oxygen by producing acetic acid.
Acetobacter
The class of chemical compounds that produce a tart, sharp, or biting character in wine (lactic, malic, tartaric, citric, total).
Acid
Adding acid to grape must or wine for the purpose of creating a balanced wine.
Acidification
The by-product of yeast and sugar; the intoxicating element of wine.
Alcohol
Any of several chemical compounds caused by the oxidation of alcohol.
Aldehyde
An officially recognized wine region (appellation) in the United States.
American Viticultural Area
German. AP number; a certificate number on the label that is unique to that bottling, issued after government approval.
Amtliche Prüfungsnummer
German. A specified wine growing region.
Anbaugebiet(e)
A traditional method of making sparkling wine that calls for bottling an incompletely fermented wine and allowing fermentation to continue in the bottle.
Ancestral Method
A type of pigment found in plants that gives grapes and wine a blue, purple, or red coloration.
Anthocyanin
A specific name, based on geography, under which a wine grower is authorized to identify and market wine; the area designated by such a name.
Appellation
French. The highest category of quality wine or wine region in France; a protected designation of origin (PDO)
Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC)
French. Term used to designate the highest category of quality wine or wine region in France within the EU’s overarching labeling protocol (equal to AOC, a PDO).
Appellation d’origine protégée (AOP)
A sensory characteristic of a wine detectable by the olfactory senses of the nose; the scent of a wine deriving from a specific grape variety.
Aroma
The resulting state of a wine when acetic acid and ethyl acetate combine; generally considered a wine fault.
Ascensence
The relationship of the slop of a vineyard to the sun or compass; e.g. a vineyard with a southern _____ slopes downward to the south.
Aspect
French. The process or stage of blending wines.
Assemblage
German. A term used to describe a high-quality, botrytis-affected sweet wine produced in the area surrounding the Austrian town of Rust.
Ausbruch
German. A category of the Prädikat that represents wine made from selected fully ripe bunches of grapes.
Auslese
Native or indigenous, specifically referring to grapes that are the result of crossbreeding to natural mutation in a specific area
Autochthonous
The disintegration of dead yeast cells in wine due to the action of their own enzymes.
Autolysis
12L / 6 Bottles
Balthazar
French. A standard wine barrel of approx. 225L (60gal) capacity.
Barrique
Wine after the initial fermentation, prior to further handling such as blending, fortification, or addition or liqueur de tirage.
Base Wine
French. Stirring, especially the winemaking practice of stirring up the lees from the bottom of the barrel or tank during aging.
Bâtonnage
French. A measure of the sugar level in grapes or juice used in France; represents the potential level of alcohol in the finished wine.
Baumé
German. A category of the Prädikat that represents sweet dessert wines made from individually harvested overripe berries possibly also affected by botrytis.
Beerenauslese (BA)
Portuguese. The volume of Port a vineyard is allowed to produce in a given year, based on the vineyard ranking and harvest conditions.
Beneficio
German. A regional or district appellation.
Bereich(e)
German. A term used in Austria to denote a wine produced using grapes that are grown on extraordinarily steep mountain slopes with at least 26% gradient.
Bergwein
The transition of fertilized grapevine flowers into grapes (berries)
Berry Set / Fruit Set
Italian. White.
Bianco
A system of grape growing based on metaphysical principals.
Biodynamic
French. White.
Blanc
French. 1. Literally, white from whites; 2. A white wine made entirely from white grapes, usually used to describe sparkling wines.
Blanc de Blancs
French. 1. Literally, white from blacks; 2. A white wine made entirely from red (black) grapes, usually used to describe sparkling wines.
Blanc de Noirs
Spanish. White.
Blanco
Pink, typically referring to a rosé wine that is off-dry to sweet.
Blush
Spanish. 1. Winery. 2. Wine Cellar. 3. Wine shop or market
Bodega
Noble rot; a fungus that, under appropriate conditions, draws water out of grapes and thereby concentrates the sugar content (while simultaneously adding distinctive flavor elements).
Botrytis
The complex range of aromas that evolve in a wine following fermentation and aging, particularly bottle aging
Bouquet
Several members of a yeast family that can infect a winery and some or all of the wines; often associated with various scents including a “sweaty” or “horsy” odor.
Brettanomyces
A measure of the sugar level in grapes or juice.
Brix
A sweetness category of sparkling wine with little or no perceptible sugar.
Brut
The initial appearance of green shoots growing out of dormant buds each spring.
Bud Break
Spanish. A type of oak barrel used in the production of Sherry.
Butt
Portuguese. A vineyard ranking system used in the Douro that assesses 12 factors (including altitude, yield, and locality), awarding or subtracting points to arrive at a total score and classification (from A to F)
Cadastro
A one-year-old grapevine branch that will support new growth in the current year.
Cane
The upper part of a grapevine during the growing season, comprising most of the leaves, shoots, and fruit.
Canopy
A variety of techniques used to alter the position or number of shoots, leaves, and grape clusters in a vine’s canopy.
Canopy Management
The environment within and directly surrounding a single vine’s canopy (or, at most, a small section of a single row).
Canopy Microclimate
Portuguese. Rafters in the warehouses where Madeira is stored and aged.
Canteiros
The floating mass of grape skins and other solids formed during fermentation, typically seen in red wine production.
Cap
The wrapping that covers the neck and cork of a wine bottle.
Capsule
An intracellular fermentation process that may occur in whole, unbroken grapes in the absence of oxygen without the use of yeast.
Carbonic Maceration
Adding sugar to grape juice before fermentation to increase the alcohol content of the finished wine.
Chaptalization
A method used in the making of sparkling wines that involves the use of large pressurized tanks at all stages of production
Charmat
French. A wine estate; particularly in Bordeaux.
Château(x)
A chemically-based sensory reaction distinct from taste or smell - such as “heat” from chili peppers or the “coolness” derived from peppermint - that may contribute to the overall perception of a specific flavor.
Chemesthesis
A minor acid found in grapes in very small amounts and sometimes used for acidification (but not considered appropriate for use in most quality wines).
Citric Acid
A light red style of wine; a specialty of the Bordeaux region of France.
Clairet
- An English term that was historically used to refer to the red wines of Bordeaux; 2. A generic term for dry red wine, most often used to describe a Bordeaux-style red wine.
Claret
The process of removing haze and particulate matter from wine.
Clarification
Italian. From the historic, central, or traditional part of a wine region.
Classico
French. In Burgundy, a single vineyard site.
Climat
- A grapevine grown by rooting or grafting a cutting from another vine, which is therefore genetically identical to the original plant; 2. A grape variety that has mutated to be slightly different from its parent.
Clone
The process of producing vines from a single parent by cultivating cuttings from the original.
Cloning
French. 1. “walled” or “enclosed”. 2. A walled or enclosed vineyard; may be used to describe a vineyard that was historically enclosed even if the walls no longer exist.
Clos
A period of aqueous (as opposed to alcoholic) extraction prior to fermentation that is accomplished by maintaining a temperature low enough to prevent the start of fermentation.
Cold Soak
The process of removing excess tartaric acid from a wine by chilling the wine to a very low temperature (25-30* F).
Cold Stabilization
A climate typical of the interior sections of large landmasses, characterized by hot summers, cold winters, and precipitation throughout the year.
Continental Climate
A US state in which the state government performs the role of wine (or liquor) distributor and/or retailer.
Control State
- An arm or branch of a grapevine, from which fruit-producing shoots grow; 2. The wire of a trellis on which a vine cordon is trained.
Cordon
A characteristic undesirable aroma sometimes found in wine contaminated by TCA.
Cork Taint
- Affected by cork taint; 2. Sealed with a cork.
Corked
Spanish. 1. Harvest; 2. Vintage.
Consecha
French. 1. Slope; 2. Coast.
Côte
French. A vine malady where many flowers fail to become fully developed berries, also known as shatter.
Coulure
French. Literally “creaming”; a term used specifically for French sparkling wines made by the Classic Method outside of the Champagne region.
Crémant
Spanish. Literally “nursery”; a row or set of barrels in a solar system that contain Sherry.
Criadera
Spanish. A term used for Spanish DO and DOCa wines that have gone through minimum periods of barrel and/or bottle aging as defined by an area’s regulating council.
Crianza
The offspring produced via the sexual reproduction of different subspecies within the same species, e.g. a variety produced by the cross-fertilization of one vinifera grape variety with another.
Cross
French. 1. A vineyard or vineyard site, also translated as “growth”; 2. a wine-producing village.
Cru
French. A consortium of top châteaux in the Médoc from among those that were not included in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855.
Cru Bourgeois
French. “Classified Growth”; a château or wine estate listed on one of the official classifications.
Cru Classé
A machine that breaks open harvested grapes to begin the extraction of juice for fermentation and removes the stems from grape bunches.
Crusher-Destemmer
Freezing grapes post-harvest in a commercial freezer; a method of producing very sweet juice for the production of dessert wines.
Cryoextraction
A grape variety produced through selective breeding.
Cultivar
French. 1. “closed vessel”; a pressurized tank; 2. The tank method of sparkling wine production.
Cuve Close
French. 1. A blend of many different wines; 2. The first juice to emerge from the press in the production of Traditional Method sparkling wine.
Cuvée
French. Juice settling.
Débourage
Moving wine from a bottle into another container for the purposes of aeration and/or separating the wine from sediment.
Decanting
French. Disgorging.
Dégorgement
French. A type of pumping over in which the fermenting juice is drained into a separate holding tank before it is returned to the original tank by spraying it over the now sunken cap.
Délestage
Portuguese. The highest category of wine or wine region in Portugal; a protected designation of origin (PDO).
Denominação de origem controlada (DOC)
Spanish. The second highest category of wine or wine region in Spain; a protected designation of origin (PDO).
Denominación de origen (DO)
Spanish. The highest category of wine or wine region in Spain; a protected designation of origin (PDO)
Denominación de origen calificada (DOCa)
- The name of an officially recognized quality wine region; 2. The region itself.
Denomination of Origin
Italian. The second highest category of wine or wine region in Italy; a protected designation of origin (PDO).
Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC)
Italian. The highest category of wine or wine region in Italy; a protected designation of origin (PDO).
Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG)
- A wine intended for consumption after a meal; 2. Any sweet wine; 3. A legal classification used in the US for any wine with more than 14% alcohol.
Dessert Wine
The smallest amount of a stimulus 9e.g. sugar on the tongue) necessary to be noticed but not identified.
Detection Threshold
German. Literally “German”.
Deutscher
German. Basic table wine made from 100% German grapes.
Deutscher Wein
The process of removing dead yeast cells from bottle-fermented sparkling wine after the second fermentation.
Disgorging
The separation and concentration of the alcohol from a fermented liquid by a series of evaporation and condensation processes.
Distillation
The highest category of quality wine in Austria.
Districtus Austriae Controllatus (DAC)
Daily, e.g. the ______ temperature range is the difference between the high and low temperatures in a single day.
Diurnal
Italian. Sweet.
Dolce
The addition of sugar, juice, and/or wine to sparkling wine after disgorging in order to top the bottle off and achieve the desired sweetness level.
Dosage
French. Sweet.
Doux
A serious fungal disease of grapevines; also known as peronospora
Downy Mildew
Not sweet; lacking perceptible sugar
Dry
Spanish. Sweet.
Dulce
German. Botrytis.
Edelfäule
German. A single, officially designated vineyard.
Einzellage(n)
German. A dessert wine produced by crushing frozen grapes and discarding the ice prior to fermentation.
Eiswein
French. The system of selling wine as futures.
En Primeur
The science of wine and winemaking.
Enology
German. “First Site”, often compared to the use of premier cru in Burgundy; a VDP term
Erste Lage
German. “Producer-bottled”; the labeling term for wines bottled by cooperatives of growers.
Erzeugerabfüllung
Typically, a winery that owns and makes wine from the vineyards that surround it.
Estate
Any of various chemical compounds that result from the joining of an acid and an alcohol
Ester
Portuguese. 1. “Oven”; a hot warehouse for storing and aging Madeira; 2. A method of producing Madeira.
Estufa
The principal alcohol found in wine.
Ethanol
A common ester formed through a reaction of ethanol and acetic acid; associated with the odor of fingernail polish remover.
Ethyl Acetate
A winemaking technique that keeps a newly fermented batch of red wine in contact with the skins and seeds after fermentation is complete; prolonged skin contact.
Extended Maceration
A sweetness category of sparkling wine that is off-dry.
Extra Dry
German. Off-dry.
Feinherb
A complex biochemical process by which yeast cells convert sugar to alcohol and other chemical compounds with carbon dioxide and heat as by-products.
Fermentation
More than one different grape variety grown together in the same vineyard.
Field Blend
A clarification procedure in which a nonreactive material such as gelatin or bentonite clay is added to wine to attract suspended and electrically charged particles in order to draw them out of the liquid.
Fining
A phenolic compound found in plants that gives grapes a yellow coloration.
Flavone (Flavonol)
A sensory characteristic of a wine detectable as a combination of taste, aroma, and tactile sensations.
Flavor
A selection of wines presented together for purposes such as sensory evaluation and comparison.
Flight
A film-forming, floating yeast most commonly associated with southwestern Spain; responsible for the character of fino Sherry.
Flor
