Acidity
Acidity is the level of acid in a wine. Depending on its acidity wine can appear from vinegary to very sweet.
Appellation controlee
This French term also written A.C., designates wines of good quality often produced since generations in specific regions with particular rules f. e. for taste quality, ageing potential, methods of winemaking, permitted grape varieties. Wines designed with A.C. are usually of higher quality than those without but do not actually guarantee high quality.
Barrique:
A Barrel Type of special size made from oak, originally used at Bordeaux. Wine can be matured in old or new casks. Nowadays 'barrique' is also used for different sorts of wooden barrels.
Blanc des Blancs
This expression designates white wines made from white grapes. This term is mainly used for sparkling wines and champagne as the majority of them are made from red grapes.
Blanc de Noirs
This term is the name for white wines made from red grapes. The grapes are gently pressed and the pale juice is taken off as early as possible. In the Champagne region Blanc de Noir designates Champagne wines exclusively made from grapes of the species Meunier and Pinot Noir.
Bodega
Spanish word for wine cellar, also tavern, winery or wine shop.
Chateau
French for 'castle', but means also wine growing, wine making, wine cellars and wine itself. Mainly used in the Bordeaux region. According to the current French law the word Chateau is common for any plot of land so that co-operatives often label their wines with "Chateau" for people to consider those wines to be of high quality.
Claret
English term (French: Clairet) generally used to describe light red (dark pink) wines from the Bordeaux region. They should be drunk immediately. "Claret" is also a term for drier red generic wines.
Crackling
A crackling wine is mildly sparkling.
Cru
This French word for growth is used for a vineyard officially recognized for superior quality. A Cru classified as "Cru Classe" or "Premier Cru" means first growth in Bordeaux. Superior wines are classified by several names including Grand Cru and Premier Cru.
Crust
Crust is the Port's sediment at the bottom of old bottles consisting of molecules that have become too heavy to stay in solution.
Cuvee
French word for container-full or lot of wine. "Tete de cuvee" means the top bottling of a French producer, often in Sauternes. The blend of basis wines assembled for a second fermentation in bottle is also known as 'Cuvee'.
Demi-sec
French expression for medium dry, usually used for Chenin Blanc in the region of Anjou, Saumur, Touraine as well as for some sparkling wines like the Champagne.
Dessert Wines
Sweet wines as 'Sauternes' and fortified wines such as 'Port', generally served after meals or with desserts.
DOC
Spanish:
"Denominazion de Origen Calificada". Legal category for the highest award of Spanish wine regions.
DOCG:
Italian: "Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita. "Legal category for the best Italian Wines.
Eiswein
German term for Ice Wine, a wine of superior quality ("QMP", German category of superior wines) with very high sugar and acidity levels. The grapes, after freezing in the beginning winter, were picked early in the morning.
Elevage
French term used by winemakers describing a lot of operations between fermentation and bottling of the wine to make the best of it.
Fermentation:
Fermentation is the wine making process of converting sugar to ethanol and carbon dioxide caused by yeast.
Fortified:
Fortified wines are made stronger by adding spirit, usually grape spirits. Most of them are made in the style of Port, Sherry and Vermouth. Their final alcoholic strength is usually 18 degrees.
Frizzante:
The Italian term for semi-sparkling wine. (See "spumante")
Generic Wines:
This term, particularly used in Australia and United States has to be opposed to wines designated "Varietal" (See"Varietal Wines"). Generic wines are made from a variety of grapes and can be red, white or pink wines, also called "jug" wines.
Governo:
"governo alla toscana", juice from dried grapes given to a young wine to encourage a kind of fermentation, which otherwise is difficult to achieve in cold cellars.
Grand Cru:
French word for superior growth.
Halbtrocken:
German expression for a medium dry wine.
House:
A term used for producers of Champagne.
Jug wines:
Current expression in California for everyday wine similar to 'table wine'. In America this cheap jug wines come in larger sized bottles.
Kabinett:
Kabinett wines are usually the lightest German wines and for example excellent as aperitif. Made without additional sugar they are relatively low in alcohol content.
Maceration:
An important process in making red wines by separating some harder materials from the grape juice.
Maderization or madeirization:
Describes a special process to make a wine tasting like Madeira. 'Maderized' wines often have a flavour of caramel and a quite brown colour.
Marrying:
The blending of two or more wines in a cask in order to gain a wine with more desirable characteristics.
Methode Champenoise:
Means "fermented in the bottle" and will be used in the Champagne.
Mis en bouteille dans nos caves:
Means: bottled in our cellars.
Moelleux:
Wines with this declaration are medium sweet.
Mousseux:
French word for sparkling in general.
Must:
A very thick liquid containing skins and stems: the unpurified juice of pressed grapes.
Mustweight:
The must's weight depends on the ripeness of grapes; the measurement is very important to find out the level of alcohol in a wine.
Negociant:
Is a merchant, who buys grapes or wines. He blends and bottles them and delivers the so produced wine under his own label.
Noble rot:
Known as "Pourriture Noble" in France it is a mould attacking the skin of some grapes thereby withering them and removing some of the juice. The result is a higher concentration of sugar for producing extremely sweet wines. The grapes may look disgusting but are capable of producing sometimes the world's finest sweet wines.
Non vintage Champagne:
This term concerns sparkling wines and champagne containing the juice from grapes of more than only one vintage.
Oechsle:
Scale of measuring sugar levels in ripe grapes, founded in Germany by the physicist F. Oechsle.
Oenology or Enology:
Means the Science of wine, especially of winemaking.
Organic wine:
Wine processed from grapes grown without any addition of chemical pesticides or fertilizers.
Oxidation:
A flaw that occurs in young and fruity white wine turning them flat and brownish in colour. Sometimes referred to Maderization.
ph:
A scale for measuring the active acidity. Low numbers show high acidity. Number 7 on this scale means nearly neutral.
Petillant:
French term for a very lightly sparkling wine.
QmP:
German's category of superior wines, named "Qualitaetswein mit Praedikat".
Racking:
Racking is the process of drawing off the clear wine from the sediment by transferring it from one barrel or vat to another. Better wines are racked two, three and more times before bottling.
Rose:
Rose is a pink wine produced from grape juice or must from which the grape skins have been removed before the fermentation is complete.
Secco:
Italian for "dry".
Sediment:
Sediment is the fine deposit that may develop in some aged wines and is settled on the bottom. These wines require to be decanted before drinking.
Sekt:
German word for sparkling wine.
Sparkling wines:
Sparkling wines contain bubbles of Carbon Dioxide gas (a product of fermentation).
Spaetlese:
German for late grape picking and moreover, the name of an excellent sort of sweet wine, made from those grapes, especially in Germany and Austria.
Spumante:
Italian term for fully sparkling wines.
Sweet:
Wines with a high level in sugar and tannins.
Tafelwein:
German: table wine.
Tannins:
A group of chemicals giving astringency to the taste of wine found in stems, seeds and skins of grapes. The level of tannin in a wine depends on the process of winemaking: When parts of the whole grapes are involved, the level of Tannins increase. For that reason the highest level of tannins are in red wine.
Tartaric Acid:
This most important acid in grapes has a big influence for the taste of a wine.
Tinto:
Spanish: "Red Wine".
Trocken:
German for "dry".
Trockenbeerenauslese:
Rarest and most expensive wine of high quality from Austria with a deep golden colour, made with noble rot. The grapes have to be riper and the must-weight higher than for "Beerenauslese".
Varietal Wines:
Expression used in California and USA to design wines named after the grape from which they are made. 75% of the wine has to be from the Varietal grape.
VDQS:
This French term "Vin Delimite de Qualite Superieure" means Wines from unlimited areas with superior quality. Wines of this quality are defined between the category Appellation Controlee and Vin de pays.
Vin de Pays:
Wine of the country, a higher qualification than table wine.
Vin de Table:
Table wine, a simple wine to drink everyday.
Vinification:
General: for winemaking, but in fact beginning with the process in the winery.
Vin Gris:
A dry, light pink wine, paler than a Rose, produced from red grapes. In the New World it tastes much sweeter than original Vin Gris, also named "blush wine".
Vinho verde:
"Green wine" is a light, acidic white wine from Portugal's Costa Verde, the green coast.
Vino da Tavola:
Italian term for table wine.
Vino de mesa:
Spanish term for table wine.
Vin ordinaire:
French term for common and everyday wine.
Vin Santo:
Italian: "holy wine", a dessert wine with a deep golden colour from Tuscany. White grapes, dried on straw mats, crushed between November and March, will then be aged in small barrels. The residual sugar levels vary and produce dry to very sweet Vin Santo.
Vintage:
The annual harvest and the wine produced of it.
Vintage Champagne:
Champagne made from grapes only from one vintage (See also 'Cuvee'). The year of the vintage will be found on the label.
Weingut:
German word for vineyard or estate.
Yeast
A single-celled micro- organism, that causes fermentation. Yeast can be found also on the skin of grapes. Some wine makers prefer to add yeast to evoke this fermentation.
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Wine Making
