Glossary of Terms

 

 

Acidity – This characteristic is usually the result of tartaric and malic acids, as well as citric, lactic and acetic acids to a lesser level. Acidity can be described as Soft, Mellow or Flat on one end of the spectrum, while Tart or Crisp would be on the opposite end. Wines that are unbalanced, and therefore have excessive amounts of acidity, might be described as Green or Unripe.

 

Appearance – This is usually determined by whether the wine appears clear (brilliant or sparkling like a diamond) or has sediment or observed particles (which can look quite cloudy or precipitated).

 

Appellation – This general term is the origin of where the wine comes, or more importantly where the grapes were grown. Usually it characterizes a particular area and the very unique characteristics that are found in the area, such as weather, soil, climate, etc. There are certain wine regions with extremely strict rules on labeling an appellation, while others are a bit more lax. The French A.O.C. (Appellation d’Origine Controlée) is one of the strictest, while new world wine regions are trying to quickly establish these same rules and set boundaries on unique regions. The American equivalent is the A.V.A. or American Viticultural Area.

 

Aroma – Is the term used to describe the characteristics of a wine to the nose. Aroma technically describes the fruit smells, while “bouquet” would cover scents brought out by the winemaking process and scents developed during the aging process and in the bottle. These aromas will vary by wine type (see “Common Wine Aromas” tutorial for a more detailed description):

 

White wines usually will have aromas with characteristics such as Floral, Fruity, Earthy, Woody, Vegetative, Caramelized, Nutty or Oxidized. More detailed descriptions, such as Grapefruit (for fruity) are often used for characterizing a wine.

 

Red wines usually exhibit aromas that are: Spicy, Fruity, Vegetative, Herbaceous, Earthy, and Caramelized.

 

Astringency – The sensation experienced on the palate of either rough or drying. This is usually the result of high tannin levels in red wines, and can be an unpleasant characteristic.

 

Balance – This is simply the perception of a well-achieved balance of the main characteristics of a wine, including: acidity, bitterness (tannins), body, sweetness, and flavors. A superior-balanced wine will have no dominant characteristic and will achieve enough of all these characteristics to compliment one another harmoniously.

 

Body – This refers to non-sugar characteristics of a wine that make a wine “feel” a certain weight and texture in the mouth. This is not a taste characteristic, as much as the perception one “feels” as a result of salt, alcohol and glycerol. A dry red wine maybe described as Dainty or Thin, at one end of the spectrum and Heavy, Robust or Full, at the other end.

 

Bouquet – The totality of aromas given off by a wine, including the wine-making process and any aging (barrel, tank, bottle or other).

 

Color – The color of a wine is merely an observational characteristic, and does not necessarily have any merit attached to it. Determining the color should be done against a white tablecloth in natural light, or as close as possible to a natural light source. See the “Common Wine Colors” tutorial for more detailed description for each wine type.

 

Complexity – The characteristic of a wine which gives the perception of multiple layers r complexity. Wine that lack complexity would have very distinct characteristics and be quite direct, showing all of its flavors as soon as the wine enters the mouth. Generally speaking, a more complex wine would be most desirable.

 

Decant – The slow transfer of wine from a bottle into a carafe, either to expose the wine to more oxygen or to separate it from its sediment.

 

Finish – Was it immediate, quick and punchy or did the flavors and aroma tend to linger for a long while? Neither end of the spectrum is generally considered a flaw, but certain grape varietals will tend to have more character with a longer finish.

 

Flaws – A flaw is not necessarily whether you liked a particular wine or not, but character flaws that are created through the wine making process or lack of controls from vineyard to bottle. These flaws could be the result of over-exposure to sulfur or oxygen, or as the result of an undesired bacterial reaction in the wine. Other flaws might be: Over-aged, Moldy, Over-oaked (or Woody), Stagnant, Raisiny, Burnt or Cooked, Lees Odor, Heat Fermentation, Ullaged, Corked, Charcoaled, or Alcoholic.

 

Hectare – The metric unit of an area or vineyard. 1 hectare is the equivalent of approximately 2.47 acres.

 

Intensity – This characteristic could be confused or influenced by the tannins, body, acidity or the length of finish. Yet, it is a better descriptor for the overall punch that the wine gives your mouth. This is a personal perception, based upon your tolerance for the whole of these characteristics.

 

Lees – Dead yeast cells or sediment remaining in a tank after fermentation.

 

Must – The unfermented grape juice produced by de-stemming, crushing and pressing. This is the raw materials left-over after the first stage of processing.

 

Oak – This wine characteristic can be a little tricky, as it can be both a positive and negative one for tasting analysis. One reason is that each of us has a different level of preference and tolerance for oak. A well-oaked Chardonnay from California may have one person fighting the sensation of having just sucked on a stick of butter, while someone else might find the heavy oak very warm and inviting. However, too much oak can be a serious character flaw, and too little oak may not bring out the best character in a particular grape varietal.

 

pH Value – The unit of measurement to express acidity. 7 is the neutral acidity value of water and any number lower than this would be described as more acidic. Therefore, the lower a pH value, the more acidic a wine will taste.

 

Racking – The wine-making process to separate clear wine from its sediment by pumping the clear wine into an empty container.

 

Residual Sugar – The sugar not converted to alcohol during fermentation. This is what produces the perceived sweetness or dryness (lack of residual sugar) in a wine.

 

Sediment – Deposits of tannins and pigments present in the bottle. This usually occurs after many years of aging, but may be also present in young wines if there were flaws in the wine-making process.

 

Sweetness – Perceived sweetness (or on the opposite end of the scale, dryness) is usually the result of the presence or lack of the sugars glucose and fructose. Sweet is usually on one end of the spectrum, while Bone Dry would be on the other. Acidity and Astringency tend to counteract the impression of sweetness. Technically, a wine is considered “dry” if it has less than 1% of residual sugar.

 

Tannins – Most are derived from grape skins, seeds and stems. Another source of tannins may be from aging in oak barrels. A wine with heavy tannins will usually age longer because the tannins will tend to soften over time, due to a slow oxidation process in the bottle. Tannins usually evoke characteristics of astringency or bitterness, depending on the perception of tannins present.

 

Terroir – Ah!…ask the French and this is pretty much all you need to know about wine, but the reality is that terroir simply means the characteristics of the particular land on which the grapes were grown. The most important of these include, but are not limited to: region, soil composition, drainage, slope or steepness, elevation, micro-climate, and so on. As one might assume, the extreme demand for the great wines of Napa Valley, Burgundy and Bordeaux have everything to do with this simple word. One must keep in mind that terroir is only one component of a wine’s characteristics, even though it may be one of the most important as well.

 

Varietal Composition – The varietal composition of a wine is simply the percentages of each grape used to produce the whole of the wine. While a wine can be 100% Chardonnay or 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, many times a winemaker blends in other varietals to achieve (or mask) certain characteristics. Limitations on these blends are strictly enforced in certain regions (such as Bordeaux, France) and are less strict in others. This composition is sometimes listed on the bottle and sometimes requires a bit more digging through Winemaker’s Journals and such.

 

Vineyard – A particular vineyard may or may not be used for a certain wine, as the tendency has been to blend grapes from multiple vineyards to achieve a desired wine. These days, there is a strong campaign towards limited production, single-vineyard wines to showcase a particular terroir.

 

Vintage – The word refers simply to the year in which the grapes were harvested. In the world of Champagne and some exclusive dessert wines like port, it is legal and sometimes desirable to blend multiple vintages together. However, those labeled ‘Vintage’ are comprised exclusively of one year’s harvest.