Wine terms, like the terms used in any industry, can be baffling to those not regularly exposed to them. ย And in an industry sometimes associated with snobbery, there’s no excuse for not explaining them,
If we use an obscure wine terms, or terms that can easily be misinterpreted, anywhere on the website we try to add them here so that those that are unsure of the meanings can look them up. ย We hope that you find it useful.
More summaries of wine terms can also be found at The Wine Cellar Insider and The Wine Anorak, just in case we missed something.
We have also written a simplified summary of the wine-making process that may help to provide context to some of this terminology.
Acidity
Definition
Aerobic
Exposed to oxygen
Alcohol by volume
(usually abbreviated to ABV)
The percentage of the liquid volume which is alcohol
The alcoholic strength of the wine. Wine is now stronger than it used to be because we’re better at ripening grapes and have acquired a taste for drier wine. Generally if you go into a wine merchant’s and look at the back of bottles of wine, you’ll find that most wines are over 13% ABV, which is very high by historical standards.
As a rule of thumb, assuming that beer is about 4% ABV, wine is about 13% ABV, fortified wine is about 20% ABV, and spirits are about 40% ABV would serve you well unless you’re in your car talking to the police about how much wine you had with dinner when you might need to be more accurate.
Also see proof.
Anaerobic
Not exposed to oxygen
The opposite of aerobic.
Antioxidant
Definition
Assemblage
Definition
Autolysis
Definition
Barrel fermented
Definition
Batonnage
Stirring the lees
The lees settles to the bottom of the vat after a while and stirring it has two potentially positive effects: firstly, it allows the wine to have more contact with the lees, which can extract a bit more flavour; and secondly, it prevents the build up hydrogen sulphide, which doesn’t smell good.
Baumรฉ
A French classification system for the level of sugar in the must
Bentonite
Definition
Biodynamic
Definition
Blanc de Blancs
White wine made from white grapes
In Champagne, this wine would be made entirely out of Chardonnay.
Blanc de Noirs
In Champagne, this wine would be made out of Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier.
White wine made from red grapes
Bottle Age
Definition
Bottle variation
The variation in taste between different bottles of the same wine
Brettanomyces
(often abbreviated to ‘brett’)
A particular variety of yeast which naturally occurs on the skins of grapes
In low concentration, it can add complexity to the taste of some wines; but in high concentration, can spoil the wine completely.
Tends to give the wine a sweaty, farmyard smell or a metallic aftertaste.
Common in Australia.
Brut
Very dry wine
The term ‘brut’ is commonly used in Champagne and refers to a wine with very little residual sugar.
You can also get ‘extra brut’ champagne.
Carbonic maceration
Definition
Casein
Definition
Cask
A barrel
Centrifugal filtration
Definition
Ceramic filtration
Definition
Chaptalization
(also known as ‘enrichment’)
Adding ingredients to the must before fermentation
Normally used to refer to the adding of sugar to the must to make up for a lack of ripeness in the original grapes. The practice was widespread, even in the most prestigious wines (even first growth clarets), but has now become heavily regulated in many wine regions.
Chaptalization can also refer to the addition of calcium carbonate to must to regulate acidity.
Charmat method
Definition
Clarification
Definition
Cold stabilization
Definition
Cork taint
Definition
Crossflow filtration
Definition
Crown-cap
Definition
Crush
Pressing the grapes to make more juice come out
As in ‘Oooh! I could crush a grape’.
Cryoextraction
Definition
Cuvรฉe
Definition
Dรฉgorgement
Definition
Depth filtration
Definition
Devatting
Definition
Diatomaceous Earth
Definition
Dosage
Definition
Dry
In terms of sweetness, somewhere between extra dry and off-dry.
Egg whiteย fining
Definition
Estufagem
The artificial heating of wine
The Madeiran method of ageing wines by artificially heating of wine in order to accelerate the ageing process. ย This is often done by alternate heating (up to around 50 degrees celsius / 120 fahrenheit)ย and cooling of the wine. ย The very best Madeira is not normally subjected to this indignity and is usually allowed to age naturally.
Extra dry
Drier than just dry
But probably not quite as dry as brut.
Fault
Definition
Fermentation
Definition
Filtration
Definition
Fining
Definition
Flash Pasteurization
Definition
Floc
(Also known as ‘ratafia’, usually in the Champagne region or ‘pineau’, in the Charentes/Cognac region)
Wine brandy mixed with grape juice.
A sweetish aperitif drink. ย Very refreshing when served very cold.
Flor
Definition
Fortification
Definition
Free run
(also known as ‘vin de goutte’)
The juice which runs off the grapes during fermentation without the need for pressing.
Fully fermented
Fermented until all the sugar has turned to alcohol, meaning that the wine has practically no residual sugar.
Gelatine
Definition
Isinglass
Definition
Lees
Definition
Lieu dit
Named place
Not a premier cru or a grand cru, but a named vineyard.
The question is whether you believe the people who decide the classifications, or think that you know better (the obvious answer is that if you like it, you know better).
Maceration
(also known as ‘skin contact’)
Definition
Madeirized
Definition
Malic acid
Definition
Malolactic fermentation
Definition
Marc
(also known as ‘grappa’, ‘aguardiente’, ‘orujo’, ‘raki’, ‘arak’ and various other things)
A clear spirit obtained by distillation of theย pomaceย remaining after the wine-making process.
Membrane filtration
Definition
Mercaptans
Definition
Mรฉthode Champenoise
Definition
Must
Definition
Must Weight
The density of the must
The density of the must is usually measured relative to the density of water, using one of many scales, the best known of which are the Oechsle system (in Germany), the Baumรฉ scale (in France), and Brix (in the US). The measurement is important in that it approximates the sugar content of the must and can therefore be used to assess the potential alcohol and/or sweetness that the finished wine will have.
Mutage
Definition
Oak
A tree of the genus Quercus
Important in winemaking because many fine wines are aged in barrels made of oak for a period before bottling.
Oechsle level
A German classification system for the level of sugar in the must
You probably don’t need to know the exact measurements but having a general understanding of the classification of German wines is very useful.
Off-dry
Slightly sweeter than dry.
But drier than medium dry.
Orange wine
Definition
Organic
Definition
Oxidation
Definition
Pad filtration
Definition
Pasteurization
Definition
Perlite
Definition
Polishing
Definition
Polyvinylpolypyrrolidone
(often abbreviated toย PVPP)
Definition
Pomace
Definition
Potassium sorbate
Definition
Potential alcohol
Definition
Pre-fermentationย maceration
Definition
Pressing
Squashing grapes to make more juice come out
Contrary to popular expectation, you don’t have to press grapes to get juice out of them. If you just leave them hanging around, they’ll go squishy, split and some grape juice will run off. The grape juice that comes without pressing is called ‘free run’, and the stuff that comes from pressing is called ‘press’ (sometimes ‘first press’ and ‘second press’ and so on).
Press
The juice that comes from pressing the must.
Proof
A measure of the amount of alcohol in a liquid
OK. This is a bit complicated. We can all do ABV percentages but degrees proof can cause confusion.
Proof is measured in degrees. So you’d think that it was out of 360 or 180 as with angles, and if you were to guess at 180, you wouldn’t be far off because it’s out of 175 (or at least it is in the UK – in America it’s out of 200).
Apparently the reason for this is that 100 degrees (British) is the alcoholic strength required to get the liquid to burn when lit; and the reason that this was important was in case you spilled your rum ration into your gunpowder flask during the Napoleonic wars.
Proteinย haze
Definition
Puttonyos
A Hungarian scoring system for the sweetness of wine
This is scored out of six. Anything over three is quite sweet.
Racking
Definition
Rancio
Definition
Remontage
Definition
Remuage
(also known as riddling)
Definition
Reserve cuvee
Definition
Residual sugar
Definition
Reverse osmosis
Definition
Ripasso
Definition
Rosรฉ wines
Definition
Saignรฉe
Definition
Screwcap
Definition
Sec
Definition
Secondary fermentation
Definition
Solera system
Definition
Stabilization
Definition
Stabilizer
Definition
Still wine
Definition
Sulfites
Definition
Sulphur dioxide
Definition
Sur lie
Definition
Sรผssreserve
Definition
Tank method
Definition
Tannins
Definition
Tartrates
Definition
Tรฉte de Cuvรฉe
Definition
Total Acidity
(also known as titratable acidity, both of which can be abbreviated to TA)
The sum total acidity of the must.
This can be measured using a little handheld device or even the Litmus paper that we used to use at school to measure acidity. Just as measuring the sugar in the must in order to understand what to do next in the winemaking process, understanding the acidity also gives the winemaker invaluable information prior to fermentation.
Traditional method
Definition
Transfer method
Definition
Triage
Definition
Trichloroanisoleย (TCA)
Definition
Trie
Definition
Ullage
Definition
Varietal
Definition
Vรฉraison
Definition
Vin de liqueur
Definition
Vin de paille
Definition
Vin de presse
Definition
Vin de rebรจche
Definition
Vin doux naturel
Definition
Vin jaune
Definition
Vinification
Definition
Volatile acidity
Definition
Yeast
Definition