Copy of `Richard Grant Wine - Wine production glossary`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

Richard Grant Wine - Wine production glossary Category: Food and Drink > Wine Date & country: 28/10/2013, USA Words: 301

V.A.
Volatile Acidity. See below.

M-L
Abbreviation for malo-lactic fermentation. Explained below.

T.A.
Abbreviation for Titratable Acidity, one of the two primary methods for determining acidity in wine. See pH also.

T.T.B.
(Tobacco and Tax Bureau)

Zinfandel
A black grape variety, well known in California but almost a total stranger elsewhere in the winegrowing world. Historically, for many decades, Zinfandel has been the most widely planted and important wine grape variety in California. It is certainly similar to the variety called Primativo in extreme southern Italy (and to no other widely planted European variety).

Yeast lees
Solid sludge-like sediment, primarily spent yeast, which settles to the bottom of a fermentation tank after the fermentation is completed. Yeast lees should not be allowed to remain in contact with the wine any longer than necessary. This is because spent and decomposing yeast is the primary source of H2S (the odor of rotten eggs) in wine. This can be confusing

Xylem
The woody, center portion of a vine trunk, arm or cane, including everything inside of the cambium layer. Xylem includes heartwood at the center of a vine trunk (composed of older, dead cells) and sapwood outside of the heartwood but inside the cambium layer (composed of living cells), which transport water and dissolved substances upwards from the roots towards the leaves.

Woody
Tasting term for a wine in which the effect of prolonged (perhaps too much) contact with wood is noticeable. In general, wood tastes exactly as it smells -- same as anything else. You can tell I'm getting near the end of this Glossary.

Wood tannin
Tannin that came originally from wood, as in a wine that was oak-aged.

Winery
A place where wine is made. A winery can be made up of one or more buildings or no building at all; it can be a cave or an open-air assortment of tanks, barrels or other containers.

Wine
A natural, alcohol-containing beverage produced by the yeast fermentation of grape juice or must. Wine has a specific legal definition in (probably) all countries of the world.

Wine Vinegar
Vinegar which was made from wine -- as opposed to standard, kitchen run vinegar which is usually made from apples, pineapples, pears or any other fruit which happened to be cheap and available.

White Riesling
True name of the so-called Johannisberg Riesling or Rhine Riesling grape and its wines. Viewed at a distance in the field, there is a distinctly whitish natural cast on the fruit as if powdered by a Japanese make-up artist. Immediately recognizable, this grape looks like no other on the vine.

White oak
The variety of American oak that is used for barrel manufacture. The wood from all other varieties of oak is more or less porous, and cannot be used for containers to hold liquids. Many more white oak barrels are used for whiskey than for wine.

Viticulture
The science, art and study of grape growing.

Weingut
(Vine-goot) Any wine producing property in Germany.

Vintage wine
Wine which was produced from grapes harvested in a single calendar year. Government records must be associated with vintage the wine to prove its identity. If records have been kept, the winemaker is allowed to state the vintage year on the label.

Vintner
Common term for anyone in the wine business.

Viognier
A grape variety used for white wine blends in the Rhone Valley of France. It has a distinctive, though difficult to describe, character. Expect to see this used more and more in California.

Vi
Spanish word for vineyard. Widely used in California as part of the name of a wine property.

Vinho verde
(pronounced veen-yo ver-dee) A specific type of Portuguese wine that is noted for its youth, freshness and newness in the taste. These wines are always best if consumed young without bottle aging.

Viniculture
Same as viticulture.

Vinifera
Scientific name of the primary species of Vitis (vines) used for winemaking. Vitis vinifera produces nearly all the world's wines (certainly all the world's best wines).

Vin
French word for wine (vino in Spanish or Italian); widely used in other languages as well.

Vigor
A measure of quality of the growth shown by a grape vine, as opposed to capacity, which measures quantity of the growth and development of a vine.

Vignoble
Common French word for winegrowing area.

Vigneron
Common French word for winegrower or winemaker.

Veraison
The first grape color change, from green to purple (black grapes), or green to yellow-green (white grapes), accompanied by a softening of the texture. This is considered to be the first step in the maturation of grapes on the vine.

Vermouth
A fortified wine, red or white, which has been flavored by addition of various herbs and barks (originally wormwood but wormwood is not used any more because of health concerns). Vermouth is used primarily as an aperitif.

Varietal
Term used to describe wines made totally or predominantly from a single variety of grape. For example, Merlot is a varietal.

Varietal wine
A wine produced primarily from a single grape variety and so labelled.

Vacuum in Wine Barrels
A vacuum develops inside wooden wine barrels if the wine is not disturbed for several weeks after filling the barrels and sealing the bung. It is caused by small amounts of alcohol and water evaporating out of the barrels but not being replaced by air from the outside. Sound barrel staves do not allow air to enter the barrel through pores in the wood! To me, this means that winemakers, especially in cool climate vineyards which can produce long-lived wines, should not continue the common practice of regular topping of barrels. This is because topping barrels tends to oxidize their wine and lessen the wines' bottle aging potential.

Trunk
The main, vertical body of a grapevine that supports all the top growth.

Tuns
The name given to gigantic German wooden wine casks, dating at least from as far back as the 15th century, many as large as 30 to 50,000 gallons and more. The largest known was probably that of the town of K

Ullage
The empty space above the liquid in a wine bottle (or wine barrel or tank) usually after long storage. Ullage comes from the French word ouillage. Older wine bottles typically have a little more space, or ullage, than younger wines because more of the wine has seeped out and evaporated away with time. Ullage is used as an indicator of how well a cork seals its bottle (in a very old wine, little or no ullage usually indicates that the wine will be sound and unspoiled when opened). Large amounts of ullage in an old bottle of table wine is a sure sign that the wine is dead, since some of the wine has leaked (or evaporated) out past the cork. When liquid has leaked out, you can bet that air has leaked in.

Troncais
Name of a forest in central France and the French oak wood (for barrels) shipped from the Troncais region. Troncais oak is tight-grained compared to Limousin. See Alliers, Limoges.

Transpiration
Loss of moisture from a vine by evaporation through tiny pores in the leaves.

Thief
A type of pipette, used for sampling wine from the top of a tank.

Thin
Term used in sensory evaluation referring to a wine that lacks body, viscosity, alcohol or sugar. Often this term refers to wine from a poor vintage in which the grapes failed to ripen fully.

Tirage
(Tier-

Translocation
Movement of water and nutrients from one part of a grapevine to another.

Tendrils
String like, coiling growth from nodes of grape shoots that support vines by curling around objects and hanging on for dear life. Tendrils are thought of as sterile or undeveloped grape clusters, since the two have a common origin.

Tart
Acidic (used as a pleasant descriptor in wine tasting).

Tastevin
A shallow silver (sometimes gold) wine tasting cup originally used in the Burgundy region of France. Now widely used also by sommeliers in select restaurants, where it might make them look more threatening.

Tanks
The largest wine containers in a winery. Over the centuries, as technology improved, it became possible to build larger and larger wooden tanks for efficient storage of wine. Winemakers knew from early experience that larger tanks protect wine from oxidation much better than smaller tanks. The ratio of air leakage to wine volume gets less and less as tank size gets bigger, giving large tanks a natural advantage over small ones for safe wine storage. The Germans took this to the ultimate in building some truly gigantic

Sweet pomace
Solid grape residue that is left over after the juice is drained off, but prior to fermentation. Primarily composed of skins, stems and seeds.

Sulfite
The dissolved form of sulfur dioxide. Plural

Stuck fermentation
A yeast fermentation that stops prematurely and refuses to start up again even though live yeast and fermentable sugar still remain in the liquid. Stuck fermentations are bad news, because, when the yeast stops, bacteria usually take over, using up the rest of the sugar and turning your precious wine into vinegar.

Stomata
Tiny openings on the undersides of grape leaves through which pass gases (sorry) and water. The important gas that passes through stomata is carbon dioxide, which is on its way in -- to get captured by the chlorophyll and be turned into sugar.

Stabilization
Any treatment or process that makes a wine stable, i.e., unlikely to suffer physical, chemical or microbial change during later storage.

Still wine
Wine that is not sparkling, i.e., does not contain significant carbon dioxide in solution.

Spur
A shortened stub of cane, usually formed by pruning the cane to a length of only two to four nodes (buds). Spurs are obvious in the spring, after pruning but before new growth obscures the pruners' handiwork.

Spumante
The Italian word for sparkling wine. Equivalent to Sekt in German.

Sour
The taste sensation of acid. Not to be confused with bitter or astringent, which are taste sensations of tannins.

Spicy (or Spicey)
Tasting term to describe a wine that tastes as if it had spices added during production (it didn't, of course). Gewurztraminer is the wine variety that is most often referred to as spicy. Also, the smell or taste sensation reminiscent of spices. The Gewurztraminer varietal flavor is naturally spicy, especially when grown in cool climates.

Solera
Spanish system for aging and slow blending of Sherries in barrels. It is also the preferred method of blending used to make Tawny Ports and many dessert wines.

Sonoma
A coastal county north of San Francisco and one of the top wine producing areas of California. Many Sonoma wines are fully as acceptable, qualitywise, as the finest of Napa Valley. Sonoma and Napa Counties have a common border from San Francisco Bay northward along the ridge of the Mayacamas Mountains.

Soft
Legal term for a wine that is low in alcohol. Also a term to describe the taste of a wine that is low in acidity, flavor, body and which often tastes somewhat sweet.

SO2
The chemical shorthand symbol for sulfur dioxide, the primary antioxidant/preservative in table wines.

Shot berries
Small, BB size, grape berries on a cluster that are not fully developed and contain no seeds. These are often caused by adverse weather at bloom time but may be caused by some aberration in the clone of grapes you are using. Since shot berries make lousy wine or champagne, clones found to produce excessive shot berries are weeded out in favor of better clones.

Shoot
The elongating, green, growing vine stem that holds leaves, tendrils, flower or fruit clusters and developing buds. It might also be what the grower first says out loud when he realizes his crop has suffered shatter in a given June or July.

Shatter
The drying up of a large percentage of unsuccessfully pollinated pistils leaving a nearly bare stem skeleton (with few berries attached) where a fully populated grape cluster should be. If you were expecting a crop of, say, 5 tons per acre but suffer considerable shatter in June, you might eventually get only 2 tons per acre, even with good weather for the rest of the season.

Seyval Blanc
French Hybrid grape variety grown mostly in France and the eastern U.S. The wines can be quite good -- or mediocre. The best dry table wine I've tasted that was grown in England was a Seyval Blanc!

Semillon
One of the primary white wine grapes of the Bordeaux area (Graves and Sauternes). It doesn't have a large following in the U.S., but it should. Some of my favorite dry, white table wines are not the Chardonnay currently in vogue, but Semillon!

Set
The fixing of tiny, newly pollinated grape berries to the cluster stems. Without set, the pistil (containing an ovary) would simply dry up and fall off. But after set, it becomes more firmly attached to its stem and develops into a grape berry.

Sauvignon (Sauvignon blanc)
White grape, second only to Chardonnay for table wines in many quarters. Used around the world for its ability to produce fine wines in regions a little too warm for the best Chardonnays. Often blended with its sister variety, Semillon.

Secondary fermentation
Any fermentation that happens after the primary (yeast) fermentation has been completed. Malo-lactic is a secondary fermentation that occurs in most red, and some white, still wines. Another secondary is the yeast fermentation that is used to change still wine into sparkling wine.

Ros
French word for pink wine, the word is in common use all over the world.

Sapwood
The outer portion of woody (xylem) tissue, located just inside the cambium and just outside the heartwood. Sapwood forms the primary highway for transmission of water and minerals from the roots up through all parts of the vine towards the leaves.

Sauternes
Singular, like all those other malicious French words that end in an unspoken s. Sauternes is a region in southwestern France which produces fine dessert wines of the same name from the Semillon and Sauvignon varieties. Chateau Y'Quem is the most famous and usually one of the yummiest.

Rhine
Famous wine river in Germany. The common name given to all German wines produced from vineyards near the Rhine River.

Rhone
A major river in southeastern France, flowing from Switzerland to the Mediterranean. The name is commonly given to all the wines produced from vineyards along the river.

Rioja
(re-

Respiration
The clever biochemical process whereby plants use oxygen to burn fuel (usually sugar) to create energy for their own growth, development and fruit production. Animals use these same reactions except that animals take in oxygen through lungs, whereas plants absorb it through leaf pores and by diffusion of dissolved oxygen across membranes in leaves, roots, etc.

Rachis
The skeleton of branched stems that gives a grape bunch or cluster its shape. The rachis isn't obvious when covered with grapes, but very obvious after the individual grapes have been removed by shaking or picking.

Quinta
Farm in Portuguese. The name on a Portuguese wine label identifies the source of grapes used for the wine.

Punt
The concave indentation in the bottom of certain wine bottles, especially those containing sparkling wine. Several reasons for it may be found in literature

Proof
Scale for measuring and expressing the alcohol content of high alcohol liquids. Proof is never used for wine. The proof of a liquor is twice its alcohol content, i.e., 80 proof = 40% alcohol. Since wine is always much lower in alcohol than the range commonly used for proof, the term has no use in wine production and is not used on wine labels.

Pruning
The act of cutting off various parts of grape vines, usually in winter when the vines are dormant. Pruning develops the shapes of vines when they are young and controls the growth, fruit quantity (and therefore, quality) of producing vines.

Primativo
An Italian grape variety originally thought to be identical to, or at least the closest European relative of, Zinfandel for many years. Now, Primativo is known (through DNA detective work) to be a natural daughter vine of Zinfandel. Zinfandel has been traced to the Zrljenac Kastelanski variety from an island off the Croatian coast of Yugoslavia. The DNA shows Primativo to be a natural offspring of Zrljenac Kastelanski, but Zinfandel is identical to Zrljenac.

Press wine
Wine obtained by pressing newly fermented red wine from spent pomace. It is invariably more tannic than free run wine.

Pressed pomace
The spent pomace after pressing has removed all the usable juice or wine. Pressed pomace can be sweet or dry, depending upon whether the pressing took place before or after fermentation. The pomace, after pressing, is discarded -- usually by spreading it back onto the vineyard between rows of vines. In this way, minerals in the pomace are recycled into the soil from which they came originally.

Press
The act of squeezing the last remaining drops of juice or wine from pomace. Also, the machinery used to do such a thing.

Press juice
The juice obtained not by draining but by pressing fresh pomace. It is usually far more tannic (often bitter) than drained or lightly pressed (free run) juice.

Powdery mildew
A devastating fungal disease of grape vines that, unlike most fungal diseases, thrives in dry climates. Also called oidium, it occurs in most of the wine regions of the world. This is the most troublesome fungus disease of grapes in California by far. It can be controlled by timely application of sulfur dust directly onto the vine leaves and immature fruit. New fungicides have been introduced in recent years that greatly improve a vine's recovery from severe attacks. See Downey mildew.

Precipitation
The sudden formation of solids within a solution, as happens in the fining of wines. The solids normally settle to the bottom as sludge within a few hours or days and can be easily removed by filtration, centrifuging or, many times, by simple racking.

Port
Any of the rich, sweet, alcoholic and full-bodied wines from the Oporto region of Portugal. Other countries also use the term for wines of similar type, but the original name is Portuguese.

Pomace
The solid residue (primarily skins, seeds and stems) left over from draining juice from white must, or draining new wine from a red fermentation tank.

Polyphenols
Chemical class of compounds which occur naturally in wine, giving it an astringent, bitter or mouth-drying taste sensation. Tannins and grape skin pigments are two prominent classes of polyphenols.

Political Area
A viticultural area defined by political borders as opposed to geographic or geological divisions. As an example, Napa County is a political area. Napa Valley, on the other hand, is supposed to be a geographical/geologic area by definition (although it is delineated by political boundaries on many borders, contrary to the rule).

Pipe
A large barrel or cask used for storing, transporting or aging wine, especially dessert wine. Pipes vary in size between about 110 and 140 U.S. gallons.

Pitch
Black, tar-like and Gawd-awful to smell and taste, pine-cone pitch was used to seal amphora and other wine containers for shipping in early Greek and, especially, Egyptian times. The amphorae were made of clay and some were liable to show cracks that had to be filled with pitch to avoid loss of the contents. Also, the mouths of the amphora were not perfectly round and no stopper could make a perfect seal unless gasketed with something soft and pliable. Unfortunately the easiest material available for many centuries was pitch and it

Phylloxera
A microscopic aphid that lives on vine roots by sucking their juice. Unfortunately this is never good for roots. The aphid kills European wine varieties but native American vine roots are resistant. This is the reason that Thomas Jefferson wasn't able to farm European vines in America even though his American vines thrived. See Thomas Jefferson.

Photosynthesis
The biochemistry that manufactures carbohydrates (sugars) in green tissue of living plants from CO2 and water. The CO2 enters leaves directly from air and the water comes up from the roots. The reaction uses sunlight as its energy source and it is catalyzed by chlorophyll.

Phloem
Living plant tissue located just beneath the bark and outside of the cambium layer. Phloem cells conduct sugars and other organic materials downward from the leaves towards the trunk and roots. The xylem tissue, by contrast, is just inside the cambium layer and it conducts water and minerals from the roots upwards towards the leaves.

pH
A mathematical term for describing and identifying the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution (such as wine). Since hydrogen ions are the most accurate definition of acidity, pH is an accurate measure of acidity in juice and wine. Winemakers who understand the relationship between pH and taste would rather know the pH of a wine than its titratable acidity (T.A.). Titratable acidity is another measure of acidity but T.A. is less apparent to the taste than is pH.

Phenolics
A term to include all of the various types of compounds having the general chemistry of phenols. Grape and wine pigments are phenolics, as is tannin. See polyphenols.

Pedro Ximenes
Grape variety used in Spanish sherries, where it often adds sweetness.

Petillant
Term describing a wine which is noticeably sparkling or bubbly with CO2 -- but which is less carbonated than Champagne/Sparkling Wine.

Petiole
The stem that attaches a leaf to its main branch or shoot. Petioles are well designed for conducting water, sugars and mineral ions between the leaf and the rest of the vine.