WINE GLOSSARY
Aging: Letting a wine sit for months to
years, to allow its flavour to properly develop. Aging is often done in oak
barrels or in glass bottles.
Blending: Mixing together two different
wines to create a blended wine, which has flavours of both of the original
wines. Classic Bordeaux, for example, is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet
Franc and Merlot.
Brix: Usually thought of as a 'sweetness
scale', Brix measures the amount of sugar in the original grape juice.
Cap: The leftover grape skins and stems
and such that float on top of the liquid during primary fermentation.
These need to be plunged three times per day.
Capsule: The capsule was a foil or lead
covering for the cork, often used to keep rats or mice from chewing their way
into the cork. These days they are
a heat shrink material and is for decoration.
Carboy: Glass or plastic bottles used for
home winemaking. These come in a large range of sizes, from 1 litre up through
20 litre and larger. Also called a
demijohn.
Chaptalize: To add sugar into a grape
juice that does not naturally have enough sugar to make a decent wine.
Cold Stabilization: In essence it is
chilling a wine solely to precipitate out the natural potassium bitartrate
crystals, to ease wine buyers' fears that it is unnatural.
Enology: The Science of Winemaking.
Extended Maceration: Letting the red
grapes sit for a while before being pressed, so that they flavour and richness
develops.
Filtering: Sending a wine through a
filter cloth or paper, to remove any remaining sediment or impurities.
Fining: Adding a substance to a wine -
often clay, isinglass or egg whites - to collect together impurities and
sediments in the wine. The wine is then racked, leaving behind the 'sludge'.
Hydrometer: A measuring device that tells
you the specific gravity of a wine. This helps you determine the amount of
alcohol in the wine.
Malolactic Fermentation: This is a
secondary fermentation done to convert the malic acid in a wine to lactic acid,
giving it a smoother flavour.
Must: The original grapes, stems, skins,
and liquid that is used to create a wine.
Oxidation: Oxidation occurs when air
comes into contact with a developing wine. Usually a fault in a wine, it causes
the wine's flavour to change and the liquid to brown.
Pigeage: When you make a red-grape wine,
the skins of the red grapes form a 'cap' on top of the wine while it ferments.
This cap must be broken up and stirred back into the wine to give it a lot of
contact. This breaking up is called pigeage.
Pomace: What is left behind when the must
is pressed, and the juice is all removed. Pomace is often used for a traditional
Italian drink, Grappa.
Primary Fermentation: The main
fermentation that turns a vat of grape juice into a wine. This is where the
yeast works on the sugars in the raw juice, converting those sugars to alcohol
and carbon dioxide.
Racking: When you move a wine or
developing wine from one container to another, leaving behind whatever sediment
has collected at the bottom of the first container.
Stuck Fermentation: This is the term for
a fermentation which simply won't begin, or which begins but then loses its wind
partway through the process.
Sulfite: Sulfite is normally added to a
wine to kill off the wild yeasts, so that a certain yeast can be added to the
wine. Also, sulfites help a wine age
Tannins: Tannins are natural substances
found in grapes, and also in tea, chocolate, and other items. They help a wine
age properly, but can also give some people headaches.
Yeast: Yeast is a one-celled organism
that is found naturally on grapes, that turns the sugar in grape juice into
alcohol and carbon dioxide. Some winemaking regions use solely the natural
yeasts that come with the grapes. Others kill those off with sulfites, and then
add in special yeast that is known to work well with their grapes.