English Glossary of Viticulture PDF

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GLOSSARY

Acid
Acid -- think of lemon juice or orange juice is one of a few elemental components in grapes and
ultimately in wine. Generally speaking, growers and winemakers are looking for balance in what
they taste: enough acid to make flavors vivid, but not so much puckering is the only recourse.
Like tannins, acids help give wines structure.
The level of acid is also an indication of ripeness. As grapes approach ripeness, the amount of
acid in them drops as the sugar in them rises: winemakers want to pick when the two are in
balance, and while lab work will usually tell them when they're close, it's ultimately a matter of
experience and preference.

Acidity
The quality of wine that gives it its crispiness and vitality. A proper balance of acidity must be
struck with the other elements of a wine, or else the wine may be said to be too sharp - having
disproportionately high levels of acidity - or too flat - having disproportionately low levels of
acidity.

Acre
A unit of land area. It was originally thought to be that area that a yoke of oxen could plow in
one day. It is roughly equal to 43,560 square feet (208.7 feet square) or 4,096 square meters
(64 meters square).

Acrid
A tasting term for a wine with overly pronounced acidity, this is often apparent in cheap red
wines.

Aftertaste
A tasting term for the taste left on the palate after wine has been swallowed. Finish" is a
synonym.

Aging barrel
A barrel, often made of oak, used to age wine or distilled spirits.

Alcohol
Generally refers to ethanol, a chemical compound found in alcoholic beverages. It is also
commonly used to refer to alcoholic beverages in general.

Altar wine
The wine used by the Catholic Church in celebrations of the Eucharist. Alternative wine closures.
Various substitutes used in the wine industry for sealing wine bottles in place of traditional cork
closures.

American Hybrid
A hybrid cultivar (either intra or interspecific) which was created, in America, in a direct effort to
improve wine quality by minimizing the tendency of the American cultivars to produce grapes
which yielded a distinctive "foxiness" to the resulting wine. These cultivars are the result of the
intentional genetic combination of two or more other cultivars (initially, at least one of which was
a native American cultivar), in an effort to squelch the foxiness of any American parentage.
Later American hybrids (many of which were attempts to hybridize existing hybrids [both
American & French/American]) were to focus on cultivar viability in extreme conditions (such as
very short growing seasons & very cold climates) and at the same time maximize wine quality.
An example of an early "first generation" American hybrid is T.V. Munson's Champanel (v.

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champinni X concord), while an example of a later American hybrid (which utilized other hybrids
in parentage) is Cayuga White (release by Univ Cornell [Geneva] in 1947 as a cross of Schuyler X
Seyval Blanc).

Ampelography
The Science of identifying grape varieties by detailed description of the appearance of the vine,
especially its leaves(shape & texture) , clusters (size & configuration) & berries (color & size).

Amphora
A type of ceramic vase, used for transporting and storing wine in ancient times.

Angel's share
The portion of a wine in an aging barrel that is lost to evaporation.

Anthocyanin
Phenolic pigments that give red wine its colour.
The natural phenolic (q.v.) glycoside compounds found in the skins of red wine grapes which
most strongly influence a red wine's color. These are the compounds which produce "reds" &
"blues" of fruits and flowers.

A.O.C.
Abbreviation for Appellation d'Origine Contrle, (English: Appellation of controlled origin), as
specified under French law. The AOC laws specify and delimit the geography from which a
particular wine (or other food product) may originate and methods by which it may be made. The
regulations are administered by the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO).

A.P. number
Abbreviation for Amtliche Prfnummer, the official testing number displayed on a German wine
label that shows that the wine was tasted and passed government quality control standards.

Appellation
A geographical based term to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown.

Aroma
The smell of a wine. The term is generally applied to younger wines, while the term Bouquet is
reserved for more aged wines.

ATF
Abbreviation for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a United States government
agency which is primarily responsible for the regulation of wines sold and produced in the United
States.

Ausbruch
German term originally referring to the asz production method of mixing grapes affected by
noble rot with a fermenting base wine. Today a Prdikat in Austria, intermediate between
Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese.

Auslese
German for "select harvest", a Prdikat in Germany and Austria.

Balanced Pruning
Pruning a vine based on its growth in terms of the amount of one year old wood it produced the
previous growing season. A method of determining the fruiting capacity of a vine this season by
weighing the wood removed at pruning time after the past season. Common balanced pruning

formulas include: Vitis Vinifera - 20 buds for the first lb.. of prunings + another 20 buds/for each
additional Lbs. of prunings, up to a max of 60 buds. French/American hybrids - 20 buds (for the
first pound) + another 10 buds/ additional lbs. of prunings, up to a max of 50 buds.
Native American varieties -30 buds (for the first pound) + another 10 buds/ additional lbs. of
prunings, up to a max of 60 buds.

Base (Basal) Shoot
A shoot arising from a bud located at the base of a cane.

Black Rot
A fungal disease of the vine, usually found only in the eastern US.

Barrels Balance
The harmonious relationship of the components of wine - acids, fruit, tannins, alcohol, etc. -
resulting in a well proportioned, or well balanced, wine.

Barrel
A hollow cylindrical container, traditionally made of wood staves, used for
fermenting and aging wine. Sometimes called a cask.

Barrique
The French name for a 225 litre Bordeaux style barrel (Bordeaux hogshead).
Will yield 24 cases of 12 bottles each.[1]

Baum
A measure of the sugar concentration in the juice or wine.

Beer
A fermented malt beverage critical to the winemaking process, especially after a late night crush.

Beerenauslese
A German term meaning approximately "harvest of selected berries". A Prdikat
in Germany and Austria.

Beeswing
A light sediment, chiefly mucilage, found in Port.

Behind
How can a crop be "behind" schedule, and who cares if it is? The issue is at the heart of why '99
was such a cliffhanger of a year in Northern Oregon's Willamette Valley, and it boils down to this:
- every region has a certain window of time during the year when it's warm enough for seasonal
crops to grow. In the Willamette Valley, where Life in Vine takes place, it's about 7.5 months, and
it doesn't change much from year to year- unless some stage in its development is delayed,
every grape variety requires a certain amount of time to grow and produce ripe fruit, and this is
also fairly constant. For Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley, it's about 7.5 months from budbreak
to harvest.
So, crunching the numbers with Einstein-like speed, we see that 7.5 months of growing season
minus the 7.5 months it takes to ripen Pinot Noir doesn't leave a lot to work with. So, if some
milestone in the vines' year is delayed -- budbreak is late because it's too cold; it takes the vines
longer to flower because it's raining, and so on -- then the time it takes for a vine to go from
budbreak to ripeness takes more time than will fit in the growing season. In that case, growers
can watch, powerless, as winter storms bear down on their not-quite-ripe fruit, knowing that
there might not be enough warmth left in the year to get them the ripeness they need.

This misalignment of growing season and grape ripening -- where the grapes are behind -- is
essentially what drives the story of Life in Vine.

Bentonite
A type of clay used in wine clarification.

Berthomeau Report
Commissioned by French Ministry of Agriculture to better position the wine
industry for the future.

Biodynamic wine
Wines produced by the principles of biodynamic agriculture.

Blanc de Blancs
A white wine, usually sparkling, made exclusively from white grapes, often
Chardonnay.

Blanc de Noirs
A white wine, usually sparkling, made from red grapes.

Blatina
A red wine grape of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Blending
The mixing of two or more different parcels of wine together by winemakers to produce a
consistent finished wine that is ready for bottling. Laws generally dictate what wines can be
blended together, and what is subsequently printed on the wine label.

Blind tasting
Tasting and evaluating wine without knowing what it is.

Bloom
Sometime in the late spring, the vines will offer up spindly little pod clusters. Ultimately, these
will bloom into flowers, each of which, in turn, will turn into a grape if growers are lucky. Growers
refer to the whole process as bloom. In Life in Vine, Westrey's David Autrey says that despite
how late the flowering occurred in 1999, Abbey Ridge Vineyard "bloomed very quickly and very
evenly."

Bodega
A Spanish wine cellar. Also refers to a seller of alcoholic beverage.

Body
A tasting term describing the weight and fullness of a wine that can be sensed. A wine may be
light-, medium-, or full-bodied. A less specific term than texture, wines rich in concentration,
extract, alcohol, tannin and glycerol may be described as full-bodied.

Botrytis (Bunch Rot)
A fungus which can either affect grapes benevolently (as in the 'Noble Rot' [q.v.] responsible for
great sweet wines) or, more commonly, simply spoiling them with mould, depending on
conditions.

Botrytis cinerea
See Noble rot.

Bottle
A bottle is a small container with a neck that is narrower than the body and a "mouth." Modern
wine bottles are nearly always made of glass because it is nonporous, strong, and aesthetically
pleasing.

Bottle shock
Also known as bottle-sickness, a temporary condition of wine characterized by muted or
disjointed fruit flavors. It often occurs immediately after bottling or when wines (usually fragile
wines) are shaken in travel. After several days the condition usually disappears.

Bottle variation
The degree to which bottled wine of the same style and vintage can vary.

Bouquet
A tasting term for the complex aromas of an aged wine. The term is generally
not applied to young wines.

Box wine
Wine packaged in a bag usually made of flexible plastic and protected by a box, usually made of
cardboard. The bag is sealed by a simple plastic tap.

Brandy
See "Burnt wine".

Brettanomyces
A wine spoilage yeast that produces taints in wine commonly described as
barnyard or band-aids.

Bright
Describes a wine that has high clarity, very low levels of suspended solids.

Brix
A measurement of the dissolved sucrose level in a wine.
A scale used to indicate soluble solids content. It is basically the percentage of sugar in a
solution. Brix = grams of sugar per 100 grams of liquid at 68F.

Brix, Degrees
If you only hear it and don't read it, brix is one of the oddest terms winemakers use. Bricks of
what? But "brix" is really a measure of the amount of sugar in juice. Since the process of
fermentation takes the sugar in juice and turns it into alcohol, brix also tells winemakers how
alcoholic a wine will be.

Brut
A French term for a very dry champagne or sparkling wine. Drier than extra dry.

Bud
This little fellow is the smallest unit of currency on a vine, and the beginning of a year's worth of
growth. See budbreak, and in another sense, see beer.
The compound eye in the axil of a leaf, located at a node.

Bud position
It's done a little differently everywhere, but in general, when growers prune their vines, they cut
away everything but a few good-looking canes and lay them down on a trellis wire. These select
canes are often very long, so they need to be trimmed, and one way growers determine where to

cut is to count the number of nodes or bud positions on a cane. These are like knuckles on a
hand, and it's from these periodic lumps along a cane that shoots will grow. If you leave too few,
you get less fruit; if you leave too many, you get a sun-blocking forest of leaves, and the vine
has to divide its energy between more clusters, producing poorer fruit.

Budbreak
Sometime in the early spring after the sap begins to flow through the trunk and canes of a vine
(usually when the average ground temperature hits 50 degrees or so), nondescript bumps on the
canes will begin to swell and buds will emerge. Soon, they'll break open and shoots will begin to,
well, shoot upward. From a bunch of spindly sticks to shoots, it all happens pretty fast, so Eyrie's
David Lett is right when he says in Life in Vine, "there's a lot of magic in there."

Bung
A stopper used to seal a bottle or barrel. Commonly used term for corks.

Burnt wine
Another name for Brandy, a liquor made from distilled wine. It is often the source of additional
alcohol in fortified wines.

Butt
An old English unit of wine casks, equivalent to about 477 litres (126 US gallons/105 imperial
gallons).

Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is a variety of red grape mainly used for wine production, and is, along with
Chardonnay, one of the most widely-planted of the world's noble grape varieties.

California cult wines
Certain California wines for which consumers and others pay higher prices than those of
Bordeaux's First Growths (Premiers Crus).

Callus
Parenchyma tissue that grows over a wound or graft and protects it from drying or injury. This
material also forms at the base & nodes of cuttings being prepared for planting. In this case, the
callus represents the primordial roots of the cutting.

Calyptra
The petals of a grape flower.

Cane
A cane is like the limb of a vine. Pruners take a cane sprouting from the trunk of a vine and lay it
down on a trellis wire. They count the number of bud positions, and trim the cane accordingly,
and from these bud positions, shoots will emerge and thicken to canes themselves, reaching for
the sky and ultimately setting 1-3 clusters of grapes. After harvest, growers will choose one of
these canes (now called a fruiting cane), cut away the rest, and lay it down on the wire to begin
the process again.

Cane Training
A form of training the vine whereby the fruiting wood (q.v.) is pruned to long (4 nodes or longer)
canes.

Cannon (Propane)
As harvest approaches, visitors to vineyards may think they're entering a war zone, but it's really
just propane cannons going off. The idea is to scare the bejeesus out of birds who might

otherwise be tempted to stop in vineyards for a snack as they migrate north. Unfortunately, this
trick doesn't always work: I've seen birds become so acclimatized to the cannon that they'll perch
on the weapon itself, hopping a few inches in the air as it goes off before settling down again.

Canopy
The parts of the grape vine above ground, in particular the shoots and leaves.

Canopy management
A range of viticultural techniques applied in vineyards to manipulate the vine canopy. This is
performed for vine shape, limiting direct sunlight and disease control, in order to create an
optimal growing environment.
Viticultural techniques designed to manipulate the canopy to achieve a specific end, usually
optimizing the quantity of grapes and quality of wine.

Cap
Once fermentation begins in red wines, yeasts produce heat and CO2 as they convert sugar to
alcohol. This gas rises to the top, pushing grape skins to the top of the fermenter, and this thick
layer is called a cap. To keep the ferment from getting too hot, and to extract the right amount of
color and tannin from the grape skins, this cap must be broken (punched down) at least twice a
day. In Life in Vine, Westrey's David Autrey does this with a large metal plunger, but as you see
from his efforts, it's pretty hard work. Wines made in larger fermenters can produce caps so thick
and hard that they need hydraulic plungers to break the cap -- some can get so thick you can
almost walk on them.
Incidentally, not everyone punches down: some winemaker simply pump wine from the bottom
of the fermenter and pour it over the cap. That's pretty tricky, but it's nothing compared to the
traditional method of breaking the cap, practiced in some wineries around the world to this day:
use your body as a human swizzle stick. If you like wine, it doesn't get any better than
immersing yourself in what is essentially a hot tub of it.

Capsule
The plastic or foil that covers the cork and part of the neck of a wine bottle.

Carbon dioxide
A clear gas which is the byproduct of fermentation. As yeasts work their way through the must
gobbling up sugar, they produce both alcohol and carbon dioxide. Since CO2 is heavier then air, it
tends to well up in the top of an actively fermenting fermenter, so winemakers must be careful
their wineries are well aerated.

Carbonic maceration
A winemaking practice of fermenting whole grapes that have not been crushed.

Cellaring
To age wine for the purpose of improvement or storage. Cellaring may occur in any area which is
cool (12-15C), dark, free from drastic temperature change, and free from vibrations. Bottled
wines are typically cellared on their sides.

Chai
A wine shed, or other storage place above ground, used for storing casks, common in Bordeaux.
Usually different types of wine are kept in separate sheds. The person in charge of vinification
and ageing of all wine made at an estate, or the chais of a ngociant, is titled a Matre de Chai.
The New World counterpart to the chai may be called the barrel hall.

Champagne flute
A piece of stemware having a long stem with a tall, narrow bowl on top.


Chaptalization
A winemaking process where sugar is added to the must to increase the alcohol content in the
fermented wine. This is often done when grapes have not ripened adequately.

Chardonnay
A type of wine, one of the "noble" white varietals.

Charmat process
The Charmat or bulk process is a method where sparkling wines receive their secondary
fermentation in large tanks, rather than individual bottles as seen in Mthode champenoise.

Chteau
Generally a winery in Bordeaux, although the term is sometimes used for wineries in other parts
of the world, such as the Barossa Valley.

Chianti
Italy's most famous wine; derived from the sangiovese grape.
Claret

British name for Bordeaux wine. Is also a semi-generic term for a red wine in similar style to that
of Bordeaux.

Clarification
A winemaking process involving the fining and filtration of wine to remove suspended solids and
reduce turbidity.

Cleanskin
In Australia, wine bottled without a commercial label, usually sold cheaply in bulk quantities.

Clone
An example of a variety replicated using a cutting from a specific mother vine which is selected
as a result of some particular attribute(s). Hence, the new vine will be genetic identical to the
parent. Due to the targeted nature of the clonal reproduction, the offspring vines will carry a
specific designation identifying them as clones. Within certain cultivars (such as Pinot Noir) clonal
variation tends to be very important.

Cold Duck
A mixture of red and white sparkling wine that has a high sugar content.

Cold stabilization
A winemaking process where wine is chilled to near freezing temperatures for several weeks to
encourage the precipitation of tartrate crystals.

Cordon
An extension of the grapevine trunk, usually horizontally oriented and trained along the trellis
wires. Cordons are considered permanent (or perennial) wood.
Cork
A wine bottle stopper made from the thick outer bark of the cork oak tree.

Corked
A tasting term for a wine that has cork taint.

Corkscrew

A tool, comprising a pointed metallic helix attached to a handle, for drawing
Corks from bottles.

Cork taint
A type of wine fault describing undesirable aromas and flavours in wine often
attributed to mould growth on chlorine bleached corks.

Coulure
Deficient fruit set which may substantially reduce the size of the current year's crop. Just after
flowering, an excessive proportion of the nascent berries fall off, often because of unsettled cold,
wet weather or inadequate thinning of unfertilized berry clusters. Cross
A cultivar which is the result of a crossing of two or more cultivars within the same species (may
be intentional or unintentional).

Country wine
See "Fruit wine".

Crackling
Semi-sparkling wine; slightly effervescent. Also called frizzante.

Crmant
French sparkling wine not made in Champagne region.

Crown Gall
A bacteria disease of the vine (usually facilitated by freeze injury to the vine's tissue).

Crush
This term is used specifically to describe the de-stemming process (see crusher), but it's also
used generally to indicate the entirety of grape processing, from the time they enter the winery
to the time they're safely in barrel. Winemakers often try to get unsuspecting friends and
associates to "work a crush", but while it's hard, sticky work, the atmosphere is always festive.
And it tends to produce future winemakers.

Crusher
When grapes come into a winery, winemakers usually (though not always) want to separate the
berries from the stems, since stems left attached can impart a green, woody flavor to the finished
wine. Depending on the kind of grape variety they're fermenting, they may also want those
berries broken open a little so yeasts can get right to work on the juice.
In days of yore, winemakers accomplished this potentially tedious chore by simply dumping the
grape clusters into a vat and walking on them, fishing out stems as their winemaking style (and
the amount of wine they drank during this especially festive time of the year) dictated. Thus the
purple feet winemakers are famous for having, even if virtually none of them do anymore. That
work is more efficiently done by a "crusher", which doesn't actually crush the grapes but
(depending on how expensive a model you have) gently sucks them off the stems and breaks the
berries just enough to let in the reveling yeasts.

Crust
Sediment, generally potassium bitartrate, that adheres to the inside of a wine bottle.

Cult wines
Wines for which committed buyers will pay large sums of money because of their
desirability and rarity.

Curtain

A portion of the canopy composed of the current season's shoot growth. It is normally oriented
downward for Native American & Hybrid cultivars & upward for vitis vinifera.

Cuvaison
The French term for the period of time during alcoholic fermentation when the wine is in contact
with the solid matter such as skin, pips, stalks, in order to extract colour, flavour and tannin. See
also maceration.

Cuve
A large vat used for fermentation.

Cuve
A wine blended from several vats or batches, or from a selected vat. Also used in Champagne to
denote the juice from the first pressing of a batch of grapes.

Decanting
The process of pouring wine from its bottle into a decanter to separate the sediment from the
wine.

Dgorgement
The disgorging or removal of sediment from bottles that results from secondary fermentation.

Demi-sec
Moderately sweet to medium sweet sparkling wines.

Dessert wine
Varies by region. In the UK, a very sweet, low alcohol wine. In the US by law, any wine
containing over 15% alcohol.

Devatting
The process of separating red must from pomace, which can happen before or after fermentation.

Diurnal temperature variation
The degree of temperature variation that occurs in a wine region from daytime
to night.

DO
1. The abbreviation for Denominacin de Origen, or "place name". This is Spain's designation for
wines whose name, origin of grapes, grape varieties and other important factors are regulated by
law.
2. The abbreviation for dissolved oxygen, the degree of oxygen saturation in a wine, which
strongly affects oxidation of the wine and its ageing properties.

DOC
The abbreviation for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, or "controlled place name." This is
Italy's designation for wine whose name, origin of grapes, grape varieties and other important
factors are regulated by law. It is also the abbreviation for Portugal's highest wine category,
which has the same meaning in that country.

DOCG
The abbreviation for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, or controlled and
guaranteed place name, which is the category for the highest-ranking wine in Italy.

Dormancy

That stage when the plant is not actively growing. For grapevines it is usually characterized by
average air temperatures below 50F. Vines need a minimum of about 60 days of dormancy. (see
"life cycle")

Doux
The French word for sweet. Usually refers to the sweetest category of sparkling wines.

Drawing off
See Devatting.

Drip dickey
A wine accessory that slips over the neck of a wine bottle and absorbs any drips that may run
down the bottle after pouring - preventing stains to table cloths, counter tops or other surfaces.

Dry
Wines with zero or very low levels of residual sugar. The opposite of sweet, except in sparkling
wines, where dry means sweet.

Eiswein
German for ice wine, a dessert wine made from frozen grapes.

Enology
American English spelling of oenology, the study of wine.

En Tirage
French for "in pulling", refers to the period of time in which bottled sparkling wine is rested in
contact with lees generated during secondary fermentation. Part of the Mthode Champenoise
process.

Estate winery
A United States winery license allowing farms to produce and sell wine on-site, sometimes known
as a Farm winery.

Extract
Everything in a wine except for water, sugar, alcohol, and acidity, the term refers to the solid
compounds such as tannins. High levels of extract results in more colour and body, which may be
increased by prolonging the wine's contact with the skins during cuvaison.

Extra dry
A champagne or sparkling wine with a small amount of residual sugar (slightly
sweet). Not as dry as Brut.

Farm winery
A United States winery license allowing farms to produce and sell wine on-site.

Fault
An unpleasant characateristic of wine resulting from a flaw with the winemaking process or
storage conditions.

Fermenter
The vessel in which fermentation occurs. Like you couldn't have guessed that, but you may not
have known that fermenters come in all shapes and sizes, from towering stainless steel cylinders
to 5-foot-tall plastic boxes to concrete vats to food-grade garbage cans.


Fiasco
The straw-covered flask historically associated with Chianti.

Fighting varietal
A term that originated in California during the mid 1980s to refer to any inexpensive cork-finished
varietal wine in a 1.5 liter bottle.

Fining
A clarification process where flocculants, such as bentonite or egg white, are added to the wine to
remove suspended solids.

Finish
A tasting term for the lingering aftertaste after a wine has been swallowed.

Flabby
Tasting term used to indicate a wine lacking in structure, often marked by low acidity.

Flagon
A glass bottle that holds two litres of (usually inexpensive) table wine.

Flor
The yeast responsible for the character of dry Sherries.

Flower
When I was first told I was in a flowering vineyard, I thought I must be missing something. I
looked everywhere, but I couldn't find any of the lush, big-petaled flowers I was sure a wine-
producing vine must surely have. When the grower pointed out the actual flowers, I thought he
was joking.
It is true that if your sweetheart is mad at you, a bouquet of grape flowers probably won't do the
trick -- they're small, spindly, and attached like lint to green, cocktail-weenie-like cores. But it's
from each one of these tiny flowers that a grape will grow if pollinated successfully, so they're
critical to the grape growing process.
That's a pretty big if, by the way. Wind, rain, or cold weather can deter flowers from pollinating,
and that can set crops behind schedule if not severely limit them. It's the part of the year in
which growers feel the most powerless: all they can do is watch and pray for warmth and calm.

Fortified wine
Wine to which alcohol has been added, generally to increase the concentration to a high enough
level to prevent fermentation.

Foxy
A tasting term for the musty odor and flavor of wines made from Vitis labrusca grapes native to
North America.
The distinctive taste of the grapes and wine of some Native American cultivars, especially Vitis
labrusca and some of its hybrids. Think of grape Kool-Aid) Methyl anthranilate is the (often)
offending compound.

Free Run
When a red wine is finished fermenting, it must be separated from the grape skins it's been
soaking in. A wine press does this pretty well, but a press will also tend to squeeze out more
tannins from the skins than a wine can handle. That's why winemakers often let the juice drain
from the fermenter first: this "free run" wine will generally make a more balanced, fruitier wine,

though winemakers may add some of the subsequent "press run" to the blend to give it some
tannic backbone. Juice obtained from grapes that have not been pressed.

French/American Hybrid
An interspecific cultivar which was created, in Europe, as a result of the phylloxera devastation of
the late 19th Century, in an effort to create a high-quality, pest resistant, cold hardy, direct
producing (able to survive on its own roots), wine grape. These cultivars are the result of the
intentional genetic combination of two or more other cultivars (at least one of which is a classic
vitis vinifera wine cultivar & at least one of which is a native American cultivar), in an effort to
promote the most desirable characteristics of each parent cultivar.
The desirable characteristics of the vitis vinifera parent(s) being the high yield production of high
quality wine grapes, and the desirable characteristics of the native American parent(s) including,
phylloxera & nematode resistance, insect, fungus & virus resistance, early ripening & cold
hardiness.

Frizzante
See "crackling".

Fruit
The main component of the wine, usually grape but other fruits are also used to make wine, such
as pear, plum, etc. Often mentioned when the fruit isn't grown in the same site as the winery,
such as "the wine is produced here on-site, but the fruit is purchased from a vineyard upstate."

Fruit flavors
When winemakers say they taste banana or raspberry -- or old socks, for that matter -- they're
not saying that those things have actually been squeezed into grapes or wines. As grapes ripen,
and as they become wine, their chemical composition changes, and some of these chemical
compounds are remarkably similar to those of other, non-grape flavors. They're so similar, in
fact, that they trigger an association in the person tasting. In the case of old socks, this is not
always a good thing.

Fruit wine
A fermented alcoholic beverage made from non-grape fruit juice which may or may not include
the addition of sugar or honey. Fruit wines are always called "something" wines (e.g., plum
wine), since the word wine alone is often legally defined as a beverage made only from grapes.

Fruiting Wood
The vine's one year old wood. This wood will produce the current season's crop. One year old
wood is about the thickness of a pencil & the buds on this wood will grow into fruit bearing shoots
throughout the upcoming growing season. Fruiting wood is usually pruned to either short spurs
(1 to 3 nodes) or long ( 4+ nodes) canes.

Fruiting Zone
A horizontal band running down the row of vines, wherein all of the fruit clusters can be found.
Many grape growers will often aim to create a tight or narrow fruiting zone so that certain
vineyard operations (such as leaf removal around the clusters & harvesting) can be simplified.
Fruiting Cane

Gewrztraminer
Gewrztraminer is a white wine grape variety from the wine producing region of
Alsace in France.

Globalization of wine

Refers to the increasingly international nature of the wine industry, including vineyard
management practices, winemaking techniques, wine styles, and wine marketing.

Grafting
Broadly, inserting a section of one plant into another so that they unite and grow as one plant. In
a viticultural context, usually grafting a European fruiting vine (or scion) on to a native or hybrid
rootstock, often chosen for its resistance to phylloxera.
Grape juice
The free-run or pressed juice from grapes. Unfermented grape juice is known as
"must."

Grenache
A red wine grape of the Rhone Valley of France, and elsewhere (especially Spain). In the
southern Rhone, Grenache replaces Syrah as the most important grape (Syrah being more
important in the north).

Green harvest
The harvesting of green (unripe) grapes in an attempt to increase the yield of
quality grapes.

Growing Season
For grapevines, the growing season is defined as the number of days between Spring and Fall
which have with a mean average temperature of 50F+ [10C+]).

Grow Tube
A hollow, cylindrically shaped, man-made tube (usually made of plastic) which is sometimes
placed over vines in an effort to enhance the growth environment of the vine.

Hard
A tasting term for a wine that contains too much tannin and is therefore unpleasant. Hard wines
often take a long time to mature.

Heat Summation Units (Hsu)
The "heat summation units" for any given growing site is calculated by totaling the number of
day degrees above 50F (10C) for the entire growing season. For example, a day during the
growing season with an average temperature of 62F contributes 12 HSU to the site. Viticulture is
generally restricted to sites with a HSU rating of about 1500 - 5000, with 2500 - 3000 being
about optimum. For more information.

Hectare
A metric measure that equals 10,000 m (2.471 acres).

Hock
Term for Rhine wines, usually used in England.

Hogshead
A wine barrel that holds approximately 239 litres (63 gallons).

Hybrid
A cultivar bred from members of different species. A cultivar which was created by the intentional
genetic combination of two or more other cultivars (either intra or interspecific), in an effort to
promote the most desirable characteristics of each parent cultivar.

Ice wine

Wine made from frozen grapes. Written, and trademarked as a single word -
Icewine - in Canada. Called Eiswein in German.

IGT
Abbreviation for "Indicazione Geografica Tipica", the lowest-ranking of the three categories of
Italian wine regulated by Italian law.

Insect Pests
The major insect pests of the grapevine are: The grape berry moth, the Japanese beetle, the
grape flea beetle, the European red mite, the grape phylloxera (q.v.), the grape root borer & the
blue-green sharpshooter (as a vector for Pierce's disease [q.v.])

Internode
The portion of the cane or shoot between nodes.

Jeroboam
A large bottle holding three litres, the equivalent of four regular wine bottles.

Jug wine
American term for inexpensive table wine (French: Vin de table).

Kabinett
A wine designation in Germany (where it is a Prdikat) and Austria. Kosher wine.Wine that is
produced under the supervision of a rabbi so as to be ritually pure or clean. Although commonly
sweet, it need not be so.

Late harvest wine
Also known as late picked, wine made from grapes that have been left on the vine longer than
usual. Usually an indicator for a very sweet or dessert wine.

Leaf
The primary source of green on the grapevine. Along with tendrils & clusters, the leaf is grown on
the shoot and it is the vine's primary engine of photosynthesis. Although the grapes get some of
their sugar from the carbohydrates stored in the perennial wood of the vine during the earliest
stages of ripening, the vast majority of sugar production is performed by the vine's leaves during
the middle and later stages of ripening. Also used in viticulture to refer to the age of a vine: as
in: a vine in its "third leaf" is three years old.

Lees
Wine sediment that occurs during and after fermentation, and consists of dead yeast, grape
seeds, and other solids. Wine is separated from the lees by racking.

Legs
The tracks of liquid that cling to the sides of a glass after the contents have been swirled. Often
said to be related to the alcohol or glycerol content of a wine. Also called tears.

Life Cycle
The annual cycle of the vine. It includes:
-Dormancy - The period of rest for the vine.
-Activation: The vine waking from dormancy. Its buds begin to swell. This occurs in Spring at the
approximate time that the air temperatures reaches 51F (11C).
-Bud Swell - buds become engorged & shed their scaled sheaths.
-Bud Break - buds begin to show green. Young, green shoots begin to grow from the buds.

-Debourrement (Fr.) - The period between bud break & the appearance of the first inflorescence.
Characterized by shoot growth of approximately 10" (25 cm)
-Pre-Bloom - During this period all of the shoot's inflorescences are formed & the shoot continues
to grow (to about 14" [36cm]).
-Bloom - Occurring at about the time that the air temperature reaches 68F (20C), the many tiny
individual blossoms on the inflorescences loose their caps & begin to self fertilize. During this
period the inflorescences take on a very characteristic "Chia Pet" appearance. The period of
bloom usually takes about 14-21 days (depending on weather).
-Berry (Fruit) Set [Nouaison in Fr.] - The ovaries of the blossoms on each inflorescence which
have properly self-fertilized become small, hard berries. The inflorescences are thusly
transformed into grape clusters.
-Shatter - Unfertilized berries fall from the new clusters. Usually occurs about 7 - 10 days after
bloom.
-First Cover - The vegetative growth which follows berry set.
-Vraison - The beginning of the ripening of the berries. Characterized by a softening of the fruit
& color change (to either translucent or red).
-Aoutement (Fr. - augusting) - The slowing of the vegetative burst started during first cover. The
shoots stop growing & begin to look woody. In many cultivars the leaves & shoots change color.
-Harvest - Being suitable for the production of wine, the clusters are harvested.
-Hardening off - The vine sheds it leaves, hardens its shoots further & prepares for its winter
rest.
-De-activation - The vine re-enters dormancy.

Lightstruck
A tasting term for a wine that has had long exposure to Ultraviolet light causing "wet cardboard"
type aroma and flavour.

Liqueur de tirage
French term for a liquid containing saccharose and yeast used to effect the second fermentation
in sparkling wine production.

Liqueur d'expedition
French term for "shipping liquid", used to top up and possibly sweeten sparkling wine after
disgorging. Usually a solution of saccharose in base wine.

Look
A tasting term for the casual sensory evaluation of a wine.

Maceration
The contact of grape skins with the must during fermentation, extracting phenolic compounds
including tannins, anthocyanins, and aroma. See also cuvaison.

Madeirized
A wine showing Madeira-like flavour, generally evidence of oxidation. Sometimes used to describe
white wine that has been kept long past its prime.

Magnum
A bottle holding 1.5 litres, the equivalent of two regular wine bottles.

Malolactic fermentation
Also known as malo or MLF, a secondary fermentation in wines by lactic acid
bacteria during which tart tasting malic acid is converted to softer tasting lactic acid.

Marc

French for "fruit skins". See "pomace".

Marginal climate
When Eyrie's David Lett says that Oregon and France's Burgundy region are "marginal climates,"
he's talking about how tricky it is to get fruit ripe in these areas. These areas are far enough
north (or in the case of New Zealand in the southern hemisphere, south) that fruit barely has
enough time to get ripe before winter cools things down and stops the show. Some winemakers -
- especially Lett, who planted the first Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris vines in the Willamette Valley
more than 30 years ago on the principle -- believe this makes for better, more complex wines. It
also makes for a wilder ride, as Life in Vine shows.

Master of Wine
A qualification (not an academic degree) conferred by The Institute of Masters of Wine, which is
located in the United Kingdom.

May wine
A light German wine flavored with sweet woodruff in addition to strawberries or other fruit.

Mead
A wine-like alcoholic beverage made of fermented honey and water rather than grape juice.

Merlot
Merlot is a variety of wine grape used to create a popular red wine.

Mthode Champenoise
Process whereby sparkling wines receive a second fermentation in the same bottle that will be
sold to a retail buyer. Compare with Charmat or bulk fermented.

Methuselah
A large bottle holding six litres, the equivalent of eight regular wine bottles.

Microoxygenation
The controlled exposure of wine to small amounts of oxygen in the attempt to reduce the length
of time required for maturation.

Midpalate
A tasting term for the feel and taste of a wine when held in the mouth.

Millerandage
A French term referring to a viticultural problem in which grape bunches contain berries of
greatly differing size and levels of maturity. Caused by cool weather during flowering.
Abnormal & uneven fruit set in which bunches contain berries of very different sizes because of
poor fertilization, often caused by unfavorable weather or improper thinning of unfertilized
clusters.

Mis en bouteille au chteau
French for "bottled at the winery", usually in Bordeaux.

Mud
See "Lees".

Mulled wine
Wine that is spiced, heated, and served as a punch.

Muscadine
A native American species of grape indigenous to the south Atlantic region of the US. With the
scientific classification Vitis rotundifolia, the muscadine grapes have a very unique, intense, fruity
aroma and are so genetically different from the other vitis species that they can only be crossed
with the former through the use of very modern, sophisticated genetic technology. Botanists
have given this unique group their own sub-genus (Muscadinia), unique from the "true" grapes
(sub-genus Euvitis). Common varieties of Muscadines used for wine making include: Red:
Burgaw, Eden, Hunt, James, Mish & Thomas. White: Scuppernong, Topsail & Willard.

Must
After winemakers crush their grapes, but before they have actual wine, they have must. It's into
the must that they'll pitch their yeast to start fermentation. A term in use for at least a thousand
years, its origin is unclear.
Unfermented grape juice, including pips (seeds), skins and stalks.

Must weight
The level of fermentable sugars in the must and the resultant alcohol content if all the sugar was
converted to ethanol.

Mycorrhizal Fungi
A type of fungus which is often applied to the roots of a vine at planting. The mycorrhizae forms
a mutually beneficial relationship with the plants' roots. As such it acts as an extension of the
root system, increasing the roots' ability to absorb nutrients and water. Some research indicates
that the co-dependent symbiotic relationship between the fungi and the vine helps the vine to
survive stress, absorb more water and nutrients, and increase its resistance to soilborne
diseases.

Native American Variety
A cultivar belonging to the many & diverse vitis species indigenous to the North American
continent (the most extensive & common are vitis labrusca, vitis riparia & vitis rupestris).The
most common Native American varieties used in winemaking include:
White: Niagara
Pink: Delaware (usually made as a white)
Red: Concord Catawba Norton (Cynthiana) Steuben

Nebuchadnezzar
A large bottle holding 15 litres, the equivalent of 20 regular wine bottles.

Ngociant
French for "trader". A wine merchant who assembles the produce of smaller growers and
winemakers and sells the result under its own name.

New World wine
Wines produced outside of the traditional wine growing areas of Europe and North Africa.

Noble rot
Another name for the Botrytis cinerea mould that can pierce grape skins causing dehydration.
The resulting grapes produce a highly prized sweet wine, generally dessert wine. The benevolent
form of botrytis (q.v.). Usually caused by an early morning, high humidity, fog or dew, allowing
for primary infection, which is followed by a windy, warm morning.

Node
The thickened portion of a shoot or cane where the leaf and its compound bud are attached.

Nose
A tasting term for the aroma or bouquet of a wine.

Nuggins
A highly technical wine term used by a winemaker in Life in Vine to describe a part of his naked
body. Perhaps you'll have to buy a copy of the documentary to find out which part.

Oak (Barrel)
Much, but by no means all wine is stored and aged in oak barrels. Lightly charred on the inside,
they may impart a toasty, vanillin smell to the wine and help it mature. Winemaking usage often
includes "on oak", as in "we put the Pinot Noir on oak for 10 months." If winemakers put too
much oak on, usage can further be modified to "so much oak it's like sucking a 2x4."

Oak chips
Small pieces of oak wood used in place of oak barrels in fermenting and/or
ageing wine.

Oechsle, chsle or degrees Oechsle
A measure of must weight

Oenology
The science of wine and winemaking.

Oenophile
A wine aficionado or connoisseur.

Off-dry
A wine that has the barest hint of sweetness; a slightly sweet wine in which the residual sugar is
barely perceptible.

Old vine
Wine produced from vines that are notably old.

Old World wine
Wines produced inside of the traditional wine growing areas of Europe and North Africa.

Perennial Wood
The permanent wood of a grapevine. It is the older, "woodier", thicker wood of the trunk &
cordons of the vine.

pH
For many, pH is the Rosetta Stone of winemaking. It measures the concentration of hydrogen
ions in grapes, wines or soils, which is to say, their active acidity. In juice or wine, a low pH
indicates that the acids are still high and the liquid will taste tart, while a high pH means they're
low and the liquid will taste flat. In Life in Vine, when Cameron Winery's John Paul says his pH is
3.14 and "nyaaaah", he's saying that it's still a little lower than the ideal of somewhere between
3.2 and 3.4. An acronym for "potential hydrogen" a measure of acidity. The lower the pH, the
higher the acidity.However pH is actually a shorthand for its mathematical approximation: in
chemistry a small p is used in place of writing log10 and the H here represents [H+], the
concentration of hydrogen ions.

Phenolics
A varied group of compounds found mainly in skins, stems and seeds in the case of grapes. They
include anthocyanin, tannins and many flavor compounds. Precipitated, they form an important

part of wine's sediment and play a considerable role in wine ageing. Phenolics are known to have
beneficial effects on human health. Red wines are much higher in phenolics than white, which is
why red wine is better at protecting against heart disease.

Phomopsis Cane & Leaf Spot
A fungal disease of the vine.

Photosynthesis
The formation of carbohydrates (sugars [mainly glucose & fructose]) in the vine (mostly stored in
the fruit) from water and carbon dioxide, by the action of sunlight on the chlorophyll in the vine
(produced mostly in the leaves)

Phylloxera
Fatal vine pest which destroys the soft vine roots of vitis vinifera cultivars. The only remedy is to
replant on phylloxera-resistant rootstocks. The roots of most Native American & hybrid vines are
immune to the effects of the pest. Phylloxera will generally not inhabit soils which are 80+%
sand. In all other soil textures, vinifera cultivars should be grafted onto phylloxera resistant
rootstocks.

Phylloxera Palate
A tasting term for the feel and taste of a wine in the mouth.

Powdery Mildew
A fungal disease of the vine. The major grape pest in California.

Primordial Shoots
The buds which develop on this year's fruiting wood. They will give rise to the fruiting shoots for
next vintage.

Phylloxera
A microscopic underground insect that kills grape vines by attacking their roots.

Picking Window
The picking window is the time between when the grapes are ripe enough to use and when
winter, rain or birds yank the ripe fruit away. Depending on where grapes are grown, it might be
large enough to walk through, or small enough to fit only a piece of paper scrawled with a prayer.
In Life in Vine, winemakers are worried that because the grapes are behind schedule, their
picking window may not even open.

Pierce's Disease
A bacterial infection of the vine that is spread by an insect called the blue-green sharpshooter.
What is now called Pierce's Disease was known as Anaheim's Disease in the 1880s when it wiped
out thousands of acres of vineyards in Southern California. In very warm climates, such a Florida,
Pierce's Disease has rendered commercial vineyard development all but impossible. The name
Pierce refers to Newton B. Pierce, California's first professionally trained plant pathologist, who
was the first to attempt to isolat the cause of the disease. Pinot Noir "Pee-no nwar" is a kind of
grape, or variety. There are literally thousands of grape varieties in the world, but the most
commonly known in the US are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay. Pinot Noir is the
grape used to make red wines in France's famous Burgundy region, but it is also planted in other
cooler climates around the world like coastal California, New Zealand, and most famously (after
Life in Vine) Oregon.

Pip
Grape seeds.


Pipe
A cask holding two hogsheads or 126 U.S. gallons of wine.

Plonk
British English slang for an inexpensive bottle of wine. The term is thought
to originate from the French word for white wine, "blanc".

Pomace
The skins, stalks, and pips (seeds) that remain after making wine. Also called marc.

Port
A sweet fortified wine, which is produced from grapes grown and processed in the Douro region
of Portugal. This wine is fortified with the addition of distilled grape spirits in order to boost the
alcohol content and stop fermentation thus preserving some of the natural grape sugars. Several
imitations are made throughout the world.

Porto
The legal name for a true Port wines sold in the United States since imitation ports may be
labeled as a "port" there .

Potassium sorbate
A wine stabilizer and preservative.

Prdikat
A wine designation for high quality used in Germany and Austria, based on grape ripeness and
must weight. There are several Prdikate ranging from Kabinett (Sptlese in Austria) to
Trockenbeerenauslese.

Prdikatswein
The highest class of wine in the German wine classification, formerly called Qualittswein mit
Prdikat. These wines always display a specific Prdikat on their label.

Press
After stomping grapes with your feet (which is rarely done these days, and then only for show),
pressing wine may be the practice most famously associated with making wine. It's a way of
squeezing everything you can out of a grape, and after it's finished, the remains can feel nearly
bone dry.
Pressing happens at different stages in the winemaking process depending on whether white or
red wine is being made. In many ways, it's a matter of how long you want the juice in contact
with the skins of a grape. Since white winemakers want a light, clear wine, they crush the grapes
and send the goo directly into the press for squeezing. Only then do they add yeast and get
fermentation going. Red winemakers like those featured in Life in Vine, however, want the color
and tannin that prolonged skin contact provides, so their crushed grapes go into a fermenter,
where yeast is added to start fermentation. Only when fermentation is over is the wine pressed.

Proof
Refers to the alcohol content of a beverage. In the United States, proof represents twice the
alcohol content as a percentage of volume. Thus, a 100 proof beverage is 50% alcohol by volume
and a 150 proof beverage is 75% alcohol. In the Imperial system, proof, (or 100% proof), equals
57.06% ethanol by volume, or 48.24% by weight. Absolute or pure ethanol is 75.25 over proof,
or 175.25 proof.

Pruning

Pruning can be a cold, wet, and unglamorous activity which is nevertheless critical to a good
harvest. Pruning essentially cuts away enough of the vine so its energy can be focused on
ripening fruit efficiently. In general, growers cut away most of the canes left over from the
previous year's activity, leaving a few which will, in turn, produce shoots which grow into canes
which produce fruit. As Eyrie's David Lett says in Life in Vine, "pruning sets the stage for
harvest."
Aside from weed control, the single most important operation of the vineyard year in terms of
wine quality. Simply put, Pruning is the removal of portions of the vine for the purpose of
maintaining its size & productivity. The size and productivity is maintained by ensuring that the
vine retains a proper number of fruiting buds.
During either fall or winter the wood of the vine is cut back leaving a specific number of buds
(usually from 20 to 40) on one year old wood (canes or spurs) which will produce the crop for the
next vintage. Although many other factors come into play, low-yielding vines in general tend to
produce more concentrated wine.

Punch down
During fermentation, carbon dioxide pushes grape skins to the top of the fermenter, forming a
cap. Left undisturbed, it becomes a kind of blanket and temperatures can get disastrously high
underneath and all kinds of unpleasant microbial activity can result, changing the taste of the
wine for the worse. So, usually twice a day at least, winemakers must "punch down" the cap to
ensure a healthy fermentation, which also extracts more color and tannin from the skins as a
bonus. Depending on the size of the fermenter, the cap can be so thick and solid that you can
literally stand on it, but no matter what size, punching down is hard work. Many winemakers
have hydraulic gizmos to help them, or they use pumps to "pump over" juice from underneath
the cap over its top. In Life in Vine, Westrey's David Autrey does it the old fashioned way.
Puncheon
A wine barrel that holds approximately 84 U.S. gallons (318 litres) .
Punt
The indentation found in the base of a wine bottle. Punt depth is often thought to be related to
wine quality, with better quality wines having a deeper punt.

QbA
German acronym for Qualittswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete.

QmP
German acronym for Qualittswein mit Prdikat.

QPR
An acronym for Quality-Price Ratio.

Qualittswein
A designation of better quality German wines. When used in isolation on a wine label, it refers to
Qualittswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete.

Qualittswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA)
A designation of better quality German wines from recognized viticultural areas. It formally
represents the second-highest level of German wine.

Qualittswein mit Prdikat (QmP)
A former designation of the best quality German wines, since 2007 shortened to Prdikatswein.

Quality-Price Ratio (QPR)
A designation for rating wine based on the ratio of its quality and its price. The higher quality and
less expensive price a wine has, the better the ratio.


Racking
The process of drawing wine off the sediment, such as lees, after fermentation and moving it into
another vessel.

Rain
If you're used to rain saving the farm, the idea that it can be bad for an agricultural crop may
sound a little strange. It is true that rain is important to vines, especially over the winter and
early spring, when the water soaks into the ground and, ideally, is stored for use through at least
some of the dry summer months. But once harvest draws near, rain is a predator. At best, rain
brings with it cooler weather, and that can slow the ripening process, pushing harvest closer and
closer to cooler weather when the grapes will simply stop ripening. But rain can also dilute
grapes, making watery wine, and worse, it can swell the grapes so much that they burst and
expose the grapes to rot and other disease, compromising the whole crop. If it's late September
(in the northern hemisphere) and it's raining where you are, a grower somewhere is probably
grumbling.

Red grapes
Red grapes are, uh, grapes which are red. To this soaring platitude I add: red grapes are
different from white grapes. What do I win, Johnny?
As dumb as it might sound, however, it's important to make a distinction between red wine
grapes and white wine grapes, for the simple reason that they're processed differently and make
different wines. Both kinds of grapes follow the same arc of budbreak to flowering to ripeness,
though growers may coax them along with different techniques, and they may be picked at
different times. And at the winery, the first stop for both will usually be the crusher (with some
variation based on the style and flavor of the wine envisioned), which will separate the berries
from the stems.
But once the grapes have run this harrowing gauntlet, their fates diverge. That's because of their
skins. Grape skins give wines much of their tannin, which can add backbone and a little longevity
to the finished wine. White wines, however, get most of their backbone from acid, and in fact, too
much tannin can make a white wine kind of gritty (yum). So as soon as the grapes safely pass
the crusher, winemakers will want to separate the juice from the skins as quickly as possible, so
they send them directly to the press. After press, the juice goes straight to the fermenter to
begin its transformation into wine.
Where red wine grapes are concerned, by contrast, winemakers want tannin. In fact, they crave
it -- so much that some will let the juice soak on the skins for weeks before they even pitch any
yeast. In any case, red winemakers (like those in Life in Vine) send the whole mess, skins and
all, straight to the fermenter. This goo, by the way, is called a must. Only after fermentation is
complete does the wine see the press.

Rehoboam
A large bottle holding 4.5 litres, the equivalent of six regular wine bottles.

Rmuage
See "riddling".
Renewal Spur
During winter pruning, growers cut back a vine to a few bare canes. This is done differently all
over the world, but in Northern Oregon, it often results in a kind of T shape, leaving a main trunk
and two canes each heading different directions down the trellis wire. From these canes new
canes will sprout in the spring, and one of these will in turn get laid down on the wire to begin
the process again the next winter. Nevertheless, some growers like to have a little insurance that
they'll have quality canes close to the trunk, so they leave little spurs behind in addition to the
two canes. Usually, these little spurs are short enough they'll only produce two sprouts, but the
two canes that grow out of them are nicely positioned for the following year.

Reserva
Spanish and Portuguese term for a reserve wine.

Reserve
A term given to wine to indicate that it is of higher quality than usual.

Renewal Zone
A zone established by some growers, whereby the buds which will produce next year's shoots are
assured proper positioning. It is generally believed that placing these renewal buds (or primordial
shoots [q.v.]) in a location of high sunlight will make them more fruitful next vintage.

Residual sugar
is sugar left un-converted by yeasts during fermentation. Given the right conditions, once the
yeasts get to work in a fermentation, they usually tear off the rear view mirror and don't stop
until they've converted all the sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide. But it's important for
winemakers to know whether they've finished or how far they are away from doing so, because
once they stop, they'll stop producing CO2, which protects the new wine from the ravages of
oxygen. Some winemakers also like to finish the last little bit of fermentation in a barrel to help
soften the wine. Whatever the reason, they often take repeated measurements of residual sugar
as the end of fermentation draws near, usually with a diabetes test kit, as it turns out. In Life in
Vine, Doug Tunnell's wines have reached .1% residual sugar, which is the point at which he
wants to press. Also known as RS, the level of sugar that remains unfermented in a wine.

Reverse osmosis
A process used to remove excess water from wine.

Riddling
Also known as "Rmuage" in French, part of the Mthode Champenoise process whereby bottles
of sparkling wine are successively turned and gradually tilted upside down so that sediment
settles into the necks of the bottles in preparation for degorgement.

Riesling
Also known as White Riesling in countries outside of Germany. Riesling is a variety of grape used
to make white wine. It is grown mainly in Germany, where the relatively cold climate enables it
to produce grapes for some of the best white wines in the world. Riesling grapes are also used
also for high quality wines in Austria and can be found in countries like Australia, South Africa
and Canada. Riesling is famous for its vivid acidity and fruitiness both in the nose and on the
palate.

Ripe
As Shakespeare's Edgar says in King Lear, "Ripeness is all!" Though the character is actually
talking about something else (death, despair, fate, the usual peppy Lear topics), he couldn't have
described the ultimate goal of grape growing more perfectly. The trouble is, however, that there's
no objective standard of what's ripe. As we see in Life in Vine, while Westrey's David Autrey and
Amy Wesselman take a similar tack as Cameron's John Paul about deciding when to pick, they
each have their personal strategies based on their experience and the wines they like to make.
Fifteen years ago, many winemakers simply went by the numbers: when grapes reached 23 Brix
(for instance), they came off the vines with no ifs, ands or buts. But these days, higher-end
winemakers rely on their sense of taste to decide ripeness, looking for ripe and mature berry
flavors with no green vegetal components.
Rootstock
A cutting taken from a vine (usually Native American or hybrid) and cultivated to serve as a
rootsystem for a grafted vine. Hence a grafted vine consists of a scion (the above ground growth)
& a rootstock (the below ground growth).


Ros wines
Pink wines are produced by shortening the contact period of red wine juice with its skins,
resulting in a light red colour. These wines are also made by blending a small amount of red wine
with white wine.
Rot
Rot -or botrytis bunch rot- is the scourge of late harvests, and it can wipe out whole vineyards in
a few days. This fungal disease can take many forms, but at its worst, it spreads over berries and
breaks down the skins, and the result is downright ugly. Worse, it can give wines made from the
grapes it infests a moldy, vinegary taste, so winemakers who spot it will often spend untold hours
sorting their fruit in a grim attempt to minimize the damage. In general, rot flourishes in moist,
still, and lukewarm environments as the grapes near ripeness, so growers often pay special
attention to retaining airflow around their grapes.
As an aside, not all rots are shunned. One form is called noble rot, and winemakers bent on
making sweet, late harvest wines welcome it. Coveting botrytized grapes is most famously
practiced in Sauternes, a region within the Bordeaux appellation in France, but late harvest
winemakers in Germany and the US also seek it out.

Ruby
A style of Port wine that is generally sweet.

Sack
An early English term for what is now called Sherry.

Salmanazar
A large bottle holding nine litres, the equivalent of 12 regular wine bottles.

Sangiovese
The preponderant grape for making the Italian wine known as Chianti.

Sangria
A tart punch made from red wine along with orange, lemon and apricot juice
with added sugar.

Scion
A cutting (or bud wood) taken from a vine (usually vitis Vinifera) and grafted onto a rootsystem
from another vine (usually native American or a hybrid thereof). Hence a grafted vine consists of
a scion (the above ground growth) & a rootstock (the below ground growth).

Screwcap
An alternative to cork for sealing wine bottles, comprising a metal cap that
screws onto threads on the neck of a bottle. Also called a "Stelvin".

Sec
French for dry, except in the case of Champagne, where it means semi-sweet.

Secondary fermentation
Most commonly the term is used to refer to the continuation of fermentation in a second vessel -
e.g. moving the wine from a stainless steel tank to an oak barrel.

Sekt
German sparkling wine.

Semi-generic

Wines made in the United States but named after places that the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and
Trade Bureau requires be modified by a US name of geographic origin. Examples would be New
York Chablis, Napa Valley Burgundy or California Champagne.

Set
Also known as "fruit set," this is a term used by growers to refer to how successfully a the flowers
in a vineyard have pollinated -- as in, "we had a good set this year". In other words, since these
flowers will grow into grapes, the quality of the set will determine how good the crop will be
months later.

Shatter
The physiological stage following bloom when impotent flowers and small green berries begin to
fall from the cluster (see life cycle). Also used to refer to the annoying habit of some cultivars to
have their over-ripe grapes simply fall from the vine.

Sherry
A fortified wine that has been subjected to controlled oxidation to produce a
distinctive flavor.

Shiraz
Shiraz or Syrah is a variety of grape used to make red wine.

Shoot
This term for the part of the vine which emerges from a young bud is no understatement. Unless
the weather is unforgivingly cold, shoots will literally shoot upwards, growing perceptibly in just
one day.
The green, leafy growth developing from a bud on a cane, spur, cordon, or trunk. The developing
growth of the shoot is the source of all of the vine's leaves, stems, tendrils, flowers & fruit.

Solera system
A process used to systematically blend various vintages of Sherry.

Sommelier

A trained wine expert who often works in fine restaurants.

Sparkling wine
Effervescent wine containing significant levels of carbon dioxide.

Sptlese
German for "late harvest". A Prdikat in Germany and Austria.

Spinning cone column
Used to reduce the amount of alcohol in a wine.

Split
A wine bottle that holds approximately 6 oz (175-187 mL) or one-fourth the
equivalent of a typical 750 mL bottle; a single-serving.

Spraying
Especially in Oregon, but in other wine regions as well, growers can't simply prune the vines and
then kick back until harvest. Among other things, they need to constantly monitor the vines for
disease, which means they need to spray their vineyards periodically. In Oregon, the chief
scourge is powdery mildew, which many growers combat by spraying sulfur every 1-2 weeks like

clockwork. While there are other more high tech chemicals available, sulfur is gentler on the
vineyard's ecosystem, and promotes fewer side effects. In fact, spraying sulfur is even
considered "organic."

Spumante
Italian for "sparkling". Generally any sparkling wine from Italy, although producers of
Franciacorta have recently started stating that Franciacorta is not a "spumante".

Spur
A cane pruned to 3 or fewer nodes, generally on a cordon. A "Renewal Spur" - is a spur whose
primary purpose is to position a cane for fruiting the following season (see renewal zone).

Stem/Stalk
Woody attachment of grape to bunch, high in often harsh tannins. All or most are usually
deliberately eliminated by a mechanical destemmer prior to fermentation

Stelvin
A brand of screwcap.

Still wine
Wine that is not sparkling wine.

Stoving wine
A production method of artificially mellowing wine by exposing it to heat.

Strohwein
A German word for "straw wine", same as the French term vin de paille. Refers
to a dried grape wine. A Prdikat in Austria.

Sucker
A shoot arising from a bud below ground. Can be used to create multiple trunks. (Note: MUST be
removed from a grafted vine as the sucker is originating from the rootstock & not the scion)

Sugar
In many ways, sugar is the reason you're here, reading this glossary. It's certainly the engine
that drives the wine industry, because without sugar, yeasts would yawn at the sight of grapes
and never transform them into wine. The chemical evolution of sugar (or glucose) into alcohol is
complex, but it occurs naturally and almost anywhere -- the spritz you taste in the apple cider
you left too long in the back of the fridge tells you that you probably have a little less sugar in
the juice than when you bought it.

Sulfites
Compounds (typically: potassium metabisulfite or sodium metabisulfite) which are added to wine
to prevent oxidation and microbial spoilage.

Sulphur dioxide
A substance used in winemaking as a preservative.

Sweetness of wine
Defined by the level of residual sugar in the final liquid after the fermentation has ceased.
However, how sweet the wine will actually taste is also controlled by factors such as the acidity
and alcohol levels, the amount of tannin present, and whether the wine is sparkling.

Table wine
Generally any wine that is not sparkling or fortified. In the US these wines must also be between
7% and 14% alcohol by volume. The term table wine is also used to describe a wine that is
considered a good, everyday drinker.

Tannin
Polyphenolic compounds that give wine a bitter, dry, or puckery feeling in the mouth. Tannin is
the primary culprit behind a surprising amount of wine babble,"structure", "backbone", even
"grip". But that's because tannin is so central to the way a (red) wine tastes, and therefore, how
critical it is in the winemaking process.
If you can imagine over-steeped tea -- or sucking on a tea bag -- that's tannin. Of course, any
wine that tastes like over-steeped tea would be a difficult sell, so winemakers try to get just the
right amount, enough to add a firmness to the wine without making the wine bitterly astringent.
Tannin is most often found in red wines, and that's because most of the tannin in grapes comes
from the skins -- in general, red wines ferment on the grape skins, white wines do not. But
prolonged storage in new or newer oak barrels can also infuse a wine with tannin, so winemakers
will decide how long to keep a wine in barrel in part to determine how much tannin they want in
the wine.
By the way, tannin isn't the only component in a wine that gives a wine "structure": Acid plays a
part, too. Together with tactile impressions of body or alcohol, they're like the framework of a
building, and they're what hold a wine together.

Tart
A tasting term describing a wine high in acidity. Often displayed by young, unripe wines.

Tartaric acid
The most important acid found in grapes.

Tasting flight
Refers to a selection of wines, usually between three and eight glasses, but sometimes as many
as fifty, presented for the purpose of sampling and comparison.

T.B.A.
An abbreviation for the German wine Trockenbeerenauslese.

T budding
A technique that permits grafting of different grape varieties onto existing rootstocks in a
vineyard.

Tears
See "legs".

Tendril
A curled structure arising from some nodes of the shoot and capable of attaching itself to other
portions of the vine & non-vine structures (like trees or a trellis). They give the vine the ability to
climb.

Terroir
French for "soil", the physical and geographical characteristics of a particular vineyard site that
give the resultant wine its unique properties.
The ecology of a wine. The total, inter-related environment wherein a grapevine is cultivated for
the purpose of making wine. Key factors include, but are not limited to, cultivar type, soil,
climate, vineyard location, planting density, training system, pruning philosophy & the cultural
and social milieu wherein the whole enterprise takes place.


Texture
A tasting term for the mouthfeel of wine on the palate.

Thief
A tubular instrument for removing a sample from a cask or barrel. Also called a pipe.

Toast
The charcoal that is burned into the inside of wine casks. To toast refers to that process. It also
refers to the practice of drinking an alcohol beverage along with wishing good health or other
good fortune.

Training
In its simplest terms: Placing the fruiting buds of a vine so as to maximize the effective
production of that vine. Effectively shaping a vine into a specific shape, usually to effect some
form of canopy management. Training systems are often referred to by indicating the location of
the fruiting wood in terms of it relation to the vine's perennial wood (trunk, head or cordon) & by
indicating the length of the fruiting wood (spur or cane). Hence, one might use a "cordon/cane"
system or a "head/spur" system.

Transparency
The ability of a wine to clearly portray all unique aspects of its flavor--fruit, floral, and mineral
notes. The opposite would be a wine where flavors are diffused and thoroughly integrated.

Trocken
German for "dry".

Trockenbeerenauslese

German term meaning approximately "harvest of selected dry berries". A type of German wine
made from grapes affected by noble rot. Such grapes can be so rare that it can take a skilled
picker a day to gather enough for just one bottle. A Prdikat in Germany and Austria.

Tun
A wine cask that holds approximately, two butts, or 252 U.S. gallons.

Trunk
The main upright structure of the vine from which cordons, shoots, & canes may arise. Vines may
have more than 1 trunk.

Typicity
A wine tasting term used to describe how much a wine expresses the typical characteristics of the
varietal.

UllageAlso known as headspace, the unfilled space in a wine bottle, barrel, or tank. Derrived
from the French ouillage, the terms "ullage space" and "on ullage" are sometimes used, and a
bottle or barrel not entirely full may be described as "ullaged".

Unoaked
Also known as unwooded, refers to wines that have been matured without contact with wood/oak
such as in aging barrels.

Varietal

Some writers make a distinction between "varietal" and "variety" (a varietal wine being one
which is marketed and sold on the basis of its variety), but the distinction is blurring. At the core
of both is a reference to the kind of grapes used in making a wine. The most famous (and best-
selling) varieties in the marketplace are Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Merlot. They're
grown all over the world, but they were made famous in France: Cab (you may have been the
victim of bad puns leeched from this abbreviation) and Merlot are two major components in
Bordeaux, while Chardonnay is the grape used exclusively in white Burgundy.

Pinot Noir, the red wine grape featured in Life in Vine, was also made famous in Burgundy, and it
is notoriously difficult to grow well. This, and the popularity of the so-called Big Three varietals
mentioned above has kept Pinot's market share comparatively low. In fact, as vineyards around
the world are being replanted with the Big Three because they're such cash crops, some people
are anxious about a future barreling increasingly toward monoculture. There are thousands of
grape varieties in the world (most famously in Italy, with thousands alone), each creating a
different kind of wine, and many represent specific regions so exclusively that their wines are
essentially the flavor of their towns or districts. As growers see how much more money they can
make growing Cabernet, some often uproot their old, characterful vines along with centuries of
tradition, propelling the world one bit closer to bland uniformity.

Veraison
Veraison ("vuh-RAY-zon") is a truly magical time in the grape growing year. Before veraison, red
wine grapes are green, bitter and hard, poor fodder for glossy coffee table books. But toward the
end of the summer, over about a week or so, their color changes to a more appetizing deep
purple. On the way, vineyards are decked multicolored clusters, since each grape within a cluster
changes on its own timetable. With a little backlighting, the result is amazing to behold.
Veraison tells growers that the ripening process which will culminate in harvest has begun, since
red grapes change color when the sugar in them increases to 5-10 brix. White wine grapes also
change color about this time, but the change is much more subtle.

Vermouth
A fortified wine that has been flavoured with as many as 40 herbs and spices.

Vertical and horizontal wine tasting
In a vertical tasting, different vintages of the same wine type from the same winery are tasted.
This emphasizes differences between various vintages. In a horizontal tasting, the wines are all
from the same vintage but are from different wineries. Keeping wine variety or type and wine
region the same helps emphasize differences in winery styles.

Vieilles Vignes (Fr. "'old vines")
Mature, established vines, which generally produce more concentrated wine than young ones.
Studies show that stored carbohydrates in very old vines can give the vine an early start to fruit
ripening.

Vigneron
French for vine grower.

Vigor
A vine's natural tendency to sprout forth leaves & other green growth (often at the expense of
quality fruit production).

Vin
French for wine.

Vine

A plant on which grapes grow.

Vine density
Important vineyard parameter, the number of vines planted per unit of area (usually acre). New
World plantings tend to be relatively low density (less than 800 vines per acre), while Old World
plantings tend to be very high density (1000+ vines per acre). Density is directly determined by
vine spacing (the distance between the rows of vines & the distance between the vines in the
rows).

Vinegar
A sour-tasting, highly acidic, liquid made from the oxidation of ethanol in wine, cider, beer,
fermented fruit juice, or nearly any other liquid containing alcohol.

Vineyard
A place where grape vines are grown for wine making purposes.

Vinho
Portuguese for wine.

Vinho verde
An effervescent white wine produced in Portugal.

Viniculture
The art and science of making wine. Also called enology (or oenology). Not to be confused with
viticulture.

Vinifera (Also Vitis Vinifera)
Vine species of European origin. Members of this species are known for their ability to produce
the finest grapes for wine. The most "Noble" examples are Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir,
Chardonnay & Riesling.

Vinification
The process of making grape juice into wine.

Vin jaune
French for "yellow wine", a wine fermented and matured under a yeast film that
protects it, similar to the flor in Sherry production.

Vino
Italian and Spanish, Originally derived from Latin, for wine.

Vintage
The year in which a particular wine's grapes were harvested. When a vintage year is indicated on
a label, it signifies that all the grapes used to make the wine in the bottle were harvested in that
year.
Vintage sounds like a word you'd say with your nose in the air and an ascot tied around your
neck. But this snobby-sounding word is used by winemakers in a much more functional way to
essentially indicate a winemaking year. Life in Vine, for example, covers the entirety of "the '99
vintage."
On the shelf, wines are often classified by vintage, both to keep one year's produce separate
from another, and to indicate a certain quality level. If you don't see a date on a bottle of wine,
it's what's called a "non-vintage" wine, which means it's a blend of wines from at least two
different years. When wineries issue both vintage and non-vintage wines, the vintage-dated
bottles are almost marketed as better wines, but at a higher price.


VSP - Common abbreviation for "Vertical Shoot Positioning".
Describes the common training technique of forcing the growing shoots of a vine into a vertical
(up & down) position perpendicular to the ground. Note that with low-wire trained systems the
shoots are trained "up", while with high-wire trained systems they are trained down. This practice
facilitates easy canopy management (q.v.)

Viticulture
Is iticulture is the science and practice of growing grapes, most famously taught in the United
States at the University of California at Davis. Compare to "enology," the science and practice of
making wine.
The cultivation of grapes. Not to be confused with viniculture.

Vitis
The vine genus.

Water Sprout
A shoot arising from a bud located on wood which is older than one year old usually the trunk).
Generally; it will not be fruitful & is unwanted.

Wine
An alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of unmodified grape juice.

Wine cave
A large cave that is excavated to provide a cool location for storing and aging wine. Similar to
wine cellar.

Wine cellar
A cool, dark location in which wine is stored, often for the purpose of ageing.

Wine fault
Undesirable characteristics in wine caused by poor winemaking techniques or
storage conditions.

Wine fraud
Any form of dishonesty in the production or distribution of wine.

Wine label
The descriptive sticker or signage adhered to the side of a wine bottle.

Wine lake
Refers to the continuing surplus of wine over demand (glut) being produced in
the European Union.

Winemaker
A person engaged in the occupation of making wine.

Wine-press
A device, comprising two vats or receptacles, one for trodding and bruising grapes, and the other
for collecting the juice.

Winery
A building, property, or company that is involved in the production of wine.

Wine tasting
The sensory evaluation of wine, encompassing more than taste, but also mouthfeel, aroma, and
colour.

White Grapes
See Red Grapes.

Yeast
Yeasts are the high livin' dynamos that take gray, mucky grape juice and transform it into wine.
Yeasts are everywhere. There are untold strains of them in the world and they float around
virtually everywhere, poised to ferment something at a moment's notice.
The popular conception that yeast gobble up sugar and spit sugar, heat and carbon dioxide out
the other side isn't exactly right, but it's close enough (a mercenary enzyme also plays a part).
But as festive a process as that might be, it ultimately ends in tragedy -- as the yeasts convert
sugar to alcohol, the alcohol level rises, and after a while, it actually kills them off. How's that for
a morality play?
That's why winemakers must always be careful which yeasts dominate their fermentations. Not
only will different yeasts impart different flavors to a wine, but they'll also give up at different
alcohol levels. If a wimpy yeast gets the upper hand in the fermentation, they might stop after
processing only half the sugar. The result is a "stuck fermentation", and that is a winemaker's
kryptonite (though it is what gave us Kendall-Jackson Vintners Reserve Chardonnay).
The danger of a stuck fermentation is why many winemakers use yeasts isolated and cultured in
the lab -- they know what they're going to get. But more and more winemakers (and many in
Life in Vine) like the complexity and naturalness so-called "wild yeasts" give to a wine. Luckily,
yeasts which successfully dominate a fermentation tend to hang around for more action the
following year, so wineries tend to maintain a population which can do the job. Nevertheless,
many winemakers have cultured yeasts on standby in case the unthinkable should occur.

Yield
The amount of wine or grapes produced per unit area, usually measured either as ton/acre,
tons/ha or, in much of Europe, hl/ha. Many factors such as planting density, pressing regime,
grape variety, and style of wine affect the conversion of weight of grapes into volume of wine but
1 ton/acre is very approximately equivalent to 17.5 hl/ha.

Young
Wine that is not matured and usually bottled and sold within a year of its vintage.

Zymology
The science of fermentation.

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