WinePedia™
WWW

 

WinePedia™ Glossary

A
Acetic	Unless wine is protected from the oxygen in the air its bacteria will rapidly produce volatile acetic acid, giving it a faint taste and smell of vinegar.
Acidity	Don't knock it. At least half a dozen different acids are essential for zest, freshness, liveliness, aroma, longevity - the best wines have plenty of acid balanced by plenty of stuffing. You taste too much acid in poor wines because the stuffing is missing.
Aftertaste	The flavor that lingers in your mouth after a sip. Scarcely noticeable (and occasionally unpleasant) in a poor wine; deliciously haunting in a great one.
Age	Not necessarily a good thing. Cheap wines in general want drinking young.
Alcohol	Between 7 and 25 percent of a wine is alcohol, with most table wines in a range from 10.5 to 13.5 percent. During fermentation all or some of the sugar in the grapes is converted into ethyl alcohol, which acts as a preservative and gives the wine its 'vinosity', or winey-ness.
Allier	Departement of central France just north of the Auvergne whose oak is in great demand for barrel-making.
Amontillado	A matured fino sherry, naturally (and best) dry but often sweetened to be mellow in taste.
American oak	American oak, with a stronger and sweeter scent than most European oak, is in demand for maturing certain wines-, for example Rioja.
Appellation d'Origine Controloge	(AOC). Official rank of all the best French wines, meaning' controlled designation of origin', shortened to Appellation Controlee, (AC). On a label, this guarantees both place of origin and a certain style though not, I'm afraid, quality.
Aroma	The primary smell of a young wine, compounded of grape juice, fermentation and (sometimes) the oak of a barrel.
Astringent	Dry quality, causing the mouth to pucker - the result of high tannin or acid content.
Austese	German for 'selection'. Refers to a category of QmP (qv) white wine made of grapes selected for ripeness above a statutory level, depending on the region. A good Auslese benefits from aging for several years in bottle.
B
Balance	The all-important ratio between the different characteristics of a wine, such as fruitiness, sweetness, acidity, tannin content and alcoholic strength. These should harmonize like the various sounds in a symphony.
Balling	See brix.
Balthazar	A monster Champagne bottle, equivalent to 16 ordinary bottles.
Barrel	A vital part of the stabilizing and early aging process for most of the world's best wines. New oak barrels are now routinely used for adding the strong scent of oak to 'premium' wines not always with entirely happy results.
Barrique	The standard Bordeaux barrel, holding 225 liters (49 1/2 gallons).
Basket	See cradle.
Beerenaustese	German for 'grape selection'. A category of QmP (qv) wine, sweeter and more expensive than Auslese because only the ripest bunches are used. Ages admirably.
Beeswing	A kind of deposit sometimes found in port, so called because of the veined pattern it forms.
Bereich	A large area, although smaller than a 'region', in Germany. Bernkastel and Johannisberg are Bereich (as well as village) names, greatly increasing the quantity of wine available under these fashionable names - but of course doing nothing for its quality.
Bin	A section of a cellar devoted to one wine - hence 'bin-ends' for oddments on sale.
Bitterness	A taste not usually found in good wines - although some young tannins can be bitter - but a characteristic aftertaste of many northwest Italian wines.
Blackcurrants	A smell and flavor characteristic of wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon and sometimes Sauvignon Blanc grapes.
Blend	Nearly every wine involves some blending, whether it be of grapes, vintages or the contents of different vats. With fortified wines blending is almost universal. But blends of wines from different regions or countries tend to lack a distinctive character. (Some Australian blenders would disagree.)
Bodega	Spanish word meaning a large storage vault, a wine-producing establishment or a bar.
Botrytis cinerea	The so-called 'noble rot', a mold that has the effect of concentrating the sugar and flavoring substances in grapes by allowing the evaporation of the water in the juice. Under controlled conditions it is used to produce sweet white wines of the highest quality (for example in Tokay and Sauternes).
Botrytized	Affected by the botrytis mold. A regrettable American neologism.
bottle-age	The length of time a wine has been kept in bottle (rather than in cask).
bottle-sickness	A (usually) temporary setback in a wine's flavor for weeks or months after bottling.
bottle-stink	A bad smell, which almost instantly dissipates, sometimes found on opening old bottles. It can be confused with 'corkiness' - but only for a few minutes.
Bouquet	The characteristic smell of a matured wine, by analogy with a posy of flowers. Strictly speaking not the same as aroma (qv).
Breathing	What wine is doing when you expose it to the air by decanting it a few hours before drinking. Opinions are divided as to whether wine benefits.
Breed	A certain kind of polish and distinction in a wine. Found only in impeccably made wines from very good vineyards. A rather difficult word to use without feeling foolish.
Brix	An American measure of the sugar content in grapes - hence the potential alcohol in wine. Formerly known as balling.
Brut	Extremely dry. Usually used only in connection with Champagne.
bunch thinning	The selective removal of some of the ripening grapes in order to concentrate the flavor and color of the remaining crop.
Butt	A sherry or whisky cask that holds 491 liters (108 gallons).
C
Carafe	Stopperless container used for serving wine at table. The 'carafe' wine' (jug wine' in the US) in a restaurant is the standard house wine.
Cask	Another term for a wooden barrel used for storing wine or spirit. Casks come in many sizes and have different names depending on what they contain. A sherry cask is a 'butt'-, a port cask is a 'pipe'.
Caudalie	French measure of the length of time the aftertaste of a wine lasts.
Cave	French for cellar.
Chai	Storage building of a chateau or wine estate (especially in Bordeaux) where wine is kept in cask.
Chambrer	French word meaning to bring (wine) from cellar- to room temperature.
Chaptalization	The French term for the addition of a small permitted amount of sugar during fermentation in order to boost the alcoholic strength of a wine.
Character	Term of praise indicating that a wine has its own distinctive and individual stamp.
Chateau	Used in a wine context, this means either the country house or mansion of a wine-producing estate or the estate as a whole. Where it appears on a French label it means that the wine comes solely from that estate.
Chateau-bottled	Bottled on the estate rather than by the merchant. Other things being equal, chateau-bottled wines are generally more highly valued, whether or not their quality justifies it.
Claret	English term for the red wines of Bordeaux.
Classe	French word meaning 'classed'. There have been many classifications of the vineyards of France, the most famous that of certain Bordeaux chateaux in 1855. Each important area of France has its own 'classed growths', or their equivalents, but there is no unifying system. The term is most often used about Bordeaux.
Classics	Italian for 'classic', referring to the core of a DOC region. Metodo classico on sparkling wine is the legal term for what used to be called 'Champagne method'.
Clavelin	A dumpy, old-fashioned bottle used in France's Jura.
climat	Burgundian word for an individual vineyard site.
commune	The French for parish. Many wines bear the name of a parish rather than that of an individual grower (for example St-Juben, St-Emiliori, PoriLmard).
cooperage	A general term for wooden containers or the workshop where they are produced. A cooper is a barrel maker (and a rich man these days).
corkage	Charge made by a restaurant to those who bring their own wine.
corky or corked	Wine contaminated by a rotten cork, resulting in an unpleasant smell and taste.
coulant	'Flowing'. French term for easy-to-drink wines such as Beaujolais.
couture	A condition of the vine at flowering time, causing the grapes to fall off prematurely.
courtier	French term for a wine broker.
cradle	A device for holding a bottle in a near-horizontal position so that it can be opened and poured without the deposit being disturbed, properly used only for decanting purposes. The basket fulfils a similar function.
cremant	Now a controlled French appellation for the sparkling wines of certain quality regions, notably the Loire, Alsace and Burgundy.
Cru	French word for 'growth', applied to the produce of a vineyard or group of vineyards making wine of a particular character.
crust	A heavy deposit found particularly in bottles of vintage port.
cuvee	The contents of a cuve (vat). It can also mean a quantity of blended wine.
D
decant	To transfer wine from a bottle to a stoppered flask (decanter).
Demi	Half.
demijohn	A type of large bottle, usually encased in wickerwork and holding at least 4.5 liters (one gallon). The name probably derives from the French Dame Jeanne.
demi-sec	French for 'half-dry'. The term is usually applied to sparkling wines and means that sugar has been added to produce a degree of sweetness, sometimes marked.
deposit	High-quality wines maturing in bottle almost always develop a greater or lesser deposit, the fallout from chemical changes which give them greater character, complexity and bouquet.
disgorge	Refers to the classic method of making sparkling wines, At one point the bottle has to be opened to remove a deposit of yeasty sediment. In French 'degorgement'.
DOC	Denominazione di Oriqine Controllata (controlled denomination of origin). An Italian classification, similar to the French AOC but here more a bureaucratic control than an assurance of quality.
DOCG	The top category of Italian wines, theoretically superior to DOC (gv) as indicated by the addition of the letter G for garantita (guaranteed).
domaine	A (wine-producing) property. This is the normal word in Burgundy, whereas in Bordeaux they use the term 'chateau'.
dosage	The sweetening added to sparkling wine before the final corking.
double magnum	A four-bottle bottle containing three liters (5 1/2 pints) of wine - the same capacity as Champagne's equivalent, a Jeroboam(qv)
dry	A relative term, implying the opposite of sweet.
E
Einzellage	German term meaning a single, individual vineyard site, as opposed to a Grosslage, which refers to a collection of such sites.
Eiswein	Very sweet German wine made by harvesting frozen grapes during a frost and pressing them while they are still frozen. The flavors and acidity are intensely concentrated and the wine apparently almost immortal.
Elegant	As of a woman, unmistakable but indefinable.
Eleveur	Someone who buys new wine from the grower and prepares it (or 'brings it up') for sale.
Enology	Oenology,
Erzeugerabfullung	Literally 'producer-bottling'. The German equivalent of 'domaine-bottled'.
Extract	Soluble solids from the grape which contribute to the weight and fullness of a wine: the components of its flavor.
F
Fass	German for cask.
Fermentation	The conversion of grape juice into wine through the action of certain yeasts present on the skins which turn sugar into alcohol. See also malolactic fermentation.
Feuillette	A Cliablis barrel.
Fiasco	A Chianti flask. The traditional straw jacket is now more often made of plastic.
Fine	A general term of approbation denoting overall quality.
Flinesse	Literally 'fine ness'. The word implies subtlety and distinction.
Fining	Clarifying wine by pouring on a coagulant (such as egg whites or blood) and letting it settle.
Finish	The final taste left by a sip of wine on swallowing.
Fino	The finest style of sherry - dry, delicate and usually light in color. Finos should be drunk as fresh as possible, and never kept in an opened bottle.
Fliers	Little specks of sediment.
Flute	A tall, narrow, cone-shaped glass, perhaps the prettiest for sparkling wine.
Fortified	Strengthened by the addition of extra alcohol during production.
Foxy	Tasting of native American or 'fox' grapes.
Frais	French term meaning either fresh or cool.
Frappo	French for very cold or iced.
Frizzante	Art Italian term meaning slightly sparkling, as opposed to spumante which is fully sparking.
Fruity	Tasting pleasantly of ripe grapes but a term so widely used as to have little clear meaning.
Fuder	Type of cask, holding about 960 liters (211 gallons), used for Mosel wine.
full or full-bodied	Refers to a wine that is high in alcohol and extract, causing it to feel weighty and substantial in the mouth.
fume	Literally 'smoky'. The term refers to the peculiar tangy aroma of certain young wines made from the Sauvignon Blanc, for example Pouilly Fume.
Fut	General French word for a cask.
G
Garrafeira	Portuguese term for merchant's selection - frequently his best long-matured wine.
Gazgifig	French for fizzy or carbonated.
Generic	In California, the opposite of 'varietal', for example wine called 'Burgundy' or' Chablis' is 'generic', while those labelled 'Pinot Noir' and 'Chardonnay' are 'varietal'.
Grand Cru	Literally 'great growth'. Means different things in different regions of France. In Burgundy it is the top rank. In Bordeaux (particularly St-Emilion) almost everything is a 'Grand Cru'. In South Africa, for some reason, it can refer to a cheap white wine.
Grosslage	In German terminology a group of neighboring Einvzellages (qv) of supposedly similar character.
Gutsverwaltung	German for property or estate.
H
Harmony	A highly desirable quality: a balance of attributes.
Hock	Now archaic British term for the white wines of the Rhine and surrounding areas. It is believed to derive from Hochheim, a town on the River Main.
Hogshead	A cask. The size and contents vary depending on where the word is being used. A hogshead of Bordeaux wine, also known as a barrique, contains 225 liters (49 1/2 gallons), whereas one of whisky holds 248 liters (54 1/4 gallons).
Hybrid	Used in wine circles of a cross between French and American vines, designed for hardiness. Hybrids are much used in the eastern USA and sometimes in England.
I
Imperiale	Outsize Bordeaux bottle, holding about eight standard bottles, occasionally used for very fine wines.
J
Jeroboam	Champagne bottle size, with the capacity of four normal bottles. In Bordeaux a 'Jero' holds six normal bottles.
jug wine	Otherwise known as 'carafe wine', 'vin ordinaire' or 'plonk'. Cheap, workaday wine without pretensions.
K
Kabinett	The first category of Qualitdtswein mit Pradikat, the highest classification of German wine. Kabinett wines are lighter and less expensive than other QmP wines such as Spatlese and Auslese.
Kellerabfiillung	Bottled at the (German) cellar.
kosher wine	Wine for Jewish religious occasions, made under the supervision of a rabbi. It is usually very sweet.
L
Lagar	The stone trough in which the grapes are (or were) trodden by barefoot workers to make port and other Portuguese wines.
Lage	German term for a particular vineyard,
Lees	Solid residue remaining in the cask after the wine has been drawn off.
Legs	The rivulets that run down the side of a wine glass after the wine has been swirled around it. When the legs ('church windows' in Germany) are pronounced it indicates a wine rich in body and extract.
Light	Possessing a low degree of alcohol or, more loosely, lacking in body. Desirable in some cases, most German wines for example, but not where something more intense or weighty is required.
Limousin	Region of north-central France whose oak forests produce strongly perfumed wood for barrels.
Liquorous	Used of wine that is rich, sweet and pretty strong. In French, liquoreux. Sauternes is the classic example.
Liter	Bottle size used mainly for everyday wines. The standard capacity of a wine bottle is 75cl (l 1/3 pints).
M
maderized	The term refers to the brown color and flat taste of a white wine that has been over-exposed to air during production or maturation to the extent that it smells or tastes like Madeira.
magnum	Wine bottle holding 1.5 liters (2 2/3 pints), the equivalent of two normal bottles.
malolactic fermentation	A secondary stage of fermentation in which malic acid is converted into lactic acid and carbon dioxide. As lactic acid is milder, the taste of the wine becomes less acid. Some winemakers encourage it, if necessary, by warming the new wine. Others avoid it to keep a sharper acidity.
marc	The pulpy mass of grape skins and pips left after the fermented grapes have been pressed. Also the name of the strong-smelling brandy distilled from this.
marque	French for brand. In Champagne the 'grandes marques' are the top dozen or so houses.
methode champenoise	The 'Champagne method'. Formerly used world-wide to signify the laborious way of making sparkling wine perfected in Champagne, but now outlawed in favor of the words 'classic method' or local equivalents.
Methuselah	Not an unusually long-lived wine but a bumper Champagne bottle with a capacity equivalent to that of eight normal bottles.
millesime	French for the vintage year (for example 1998),
mise	French word meaning 'putting', used for bottling. The past Participle occurs in such phrases as mis en bouteille au chateau (chateau-bottled). But sometimes you will see simply mise du chateau, meaning the same thing.
moelleux	French for 'marrow-like'. Used of a wine it means soft and rich, particularly of Loire wines such as Vouvray that vary from dry one year to moelleux the next.
monopole	A wine whose brand name is the exclusive property of a particular firm or grower.
mousseux	French for sparkling. Not usually used for first-class wines.
N
Nebuchadnezzar	The largest size of Champagne bottle, holding the equivalent of 20 ordinary bottles. Named after the colorful king who destroyed Jerusalem and built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. He would doubtless have appreciated the tribute
negociant	French term loosely translated as ,shipper', but implying a dealer who buys @ie from the estates and distributes it either wholesale or retail. See also eleveur
nerveux	A term of praise implying fineness combined with firmness and vitality.
noble rot	See Botrytis cinerea.
nose	Wine jargon for smell, whether aroma or bouquet (qqv).
nouveau	As in Beaujolais Nouveau - the wine of the last harvest, in its first winter.
O
oaky	Refers to a wine that has picked up something of the taste and smell of the oak cask in which it was matured. Many producers go to great trouble to obtain the right nuance of oakiness by choosing oak of a certain type for their barrels. See Allier, American, Limousin, tronqais.
Oechsle	System used in Germany for measuring the proportion of sugar in the must.
oeil de perdrix	'Eye of the partridge', a metaphor used to describe the pink color of certain rose wines as well as some pink Champagnes and even whites with a pinkish tinge.
oenoconomy	Counting the change (if any).
oenology	Knowledge or study of wine (from the Greek oinos, wine).
oenophile	A lover or connoisseur of wines.
oloroso	A natural style of sherry classified as 'pungent' (as opposed to 'fine'). With age it becomes the noblest, nuttiest, most memorable of all.
organoleptic	A high-falutin way of saying 'sensory'. Organoleptic evaluation is the judging of a wine by measuring its effect on the different senses.
Originalabfullung	The German equivalent of mis en bouteille au chateau. It means 'original bottling' and signifies that the wine has been bottled on the premises by the grower. Originalabzug means the same.
Oxidized	Possessing a stale, flat taste owing to excessive exposure to air. See also maderized.
P
palo cortado	A rare and excellent style of sherry, between fino and oloroso (qqv).
passito, vino	Strong, sweet Italian dessert wine made from grapes that are dried, traditionally on straw mats, for a brief period before being pressed.
Pasteurization	Process invented by Louis Pasteur (1822-95) in which substances are sterilized by heat. It is used for certain run-of-the-mill wines, but it is not considered desirable for the finer ones.
pelure d'oignon	Onion skin. This is how the French describe the pale, orange-brown color of certain rose wines and some old reds.
periant	Showing a slight degree of sparkle, much less than mosseux (qv).
Perlwein	German name for a wine that is p(itillant.
petillant	Having a very light, natural sparkle, even less pronounced than that of a perlant wine.
phyuoxera	An American vine pest accidentally introduced into Europe in the latter part of the 19th century . It destroyed almost all vineyards; not only in Europe but throughout the world with a few exceptions such as Chile, in a disaster without precedent. Most vines world-wide are now grafted onto American phylloxera-resistant stock.
pied	French for a single vine.
pipe	A port cask containing 522-48 liters (115 gallons). The word is also used to refer to a Madeira cask containing 418 liters (92 gallons) and a Marsala cask holding 422 litres (92 2/3 gallons).
plastering	Not getting someone drunk, but boosting the acid content of a wine by the addition of calcium sulfate (plaster of Paris). The practice is more common in Mediterranean countries (especially in making sherry) where the natural acid content of the wine tends to be low.
'plonk'	Slang for everyday wine, possibly a garbled version of blanc, as in vin blanc.
poron	Double-spouted Spanish drinking vessel which enables the wine to be drunk without the glass touching the lips. When the glass is raised one spout lets out a stream of wine while the other lets in air.
port	English name for the fortified wine produced on the banks of the Douro River in northern Portugal and matured in the cellars at Vila Nova de Gaia. It is made in both red and white forms,
pot	A type of fat-bellied wine bottle now largely confined to Beaujolais.
pourriture noble	See Botrylis cinerea.
Prddikat	See QMP.
Premier Cru	First of the five categories of Medoc chateaux established by the classification set up in 1855 which comprises chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Chateau Latour, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, chateau Margaux and Chateau Haut-Brion. But in Burgundy the term refers to the second grade of classed vineyard (the first is Grand Cru).
premium	California term for wines over a certain fairly modest price - the opposite of 'jug'.
pricked	A useful, if archaic, term for the unpleasantly sharp quality caused by the presence in the wine of too much volatile acidity.
primeur	Term applied to certain wines sold very young, especially Beaujolais.
punt	The hollow mound poking up inside the bottom of a wine bottle. Universal in old hand-blown bottles but now generally limited to Champagne and port.
Q
QbA	Abbreviation for the term Qualitatswein ei s bestimmten Anbaugebietes (quality wine from a specific region), the second-highest category of German wine. QbA wines are closely delimited in their origins but are made of grapes that ripened insufficiently to make wine without added sugar - as distinct from the next category, QmP
QMP	Qualitatswein mit Pradikat (quality wine with special attributes), the top category of German wine, made with only fully ripe grapes. QmP wines are subdivided into five further categories: Kabinett (light and usually fairly dry), Spatlese (fuller and usually fairly sweet), Auslese (rich and usually sweet, sometimes superbly honeyed), Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese (qqv).
R
racking	Transferring the fermented wine from one cask to another to separate it from its lees (qv).
ratafia	Brandy mixed with sweet unfermented grape juice, also available as Pineau des Charentes. A specialty of Champagne.
recolte	French word for the harvest, crop or vintage.
Rehoboam	Another of those biblical names for big Champagne bottles. This one holds the equivalent of six normal bottles.
remuage	Technique invented by the widow Clicquot in the early 19th century for removing the deposit in Champagne without removing the sparkle. It involves shaking and turning each bottle and inclining it at a progressively sharp angle until it is almost upside. This goes on for six weeks or more until all the deposit has settled on the cork. Then the cork is taken out and the deposit extracted.
reserve	Italian term for wine that has been aged for a statutory period, its length depending on the DOC (qv).
reserve	An uncontrolled French term implying superior quality.
Rhenish	Archaic term for Rhine wine.
riddling	English term for remuage (qv).
riserva	Spanish equivalent of reserve (qv), with similar statutory limits. Gran riserva is the highest official category.
rosato	Italian for rose.
rose	Pink wine made from black grapes pressed quickly to allow only some of the skin-color to tinge the wine. Roses vary in color from deep pink, almost red, to pale, almost white.
rosso	Italian for red.
rouge	French for red.
ruby	The name given to young red port, darker and fruitier than tawny, that has aged in wood for two to three years.
rurale, methode	Probably the original way of making sparkling wine, antedating the methode champenoise. Still used, with modifications, in Limoux in southwest France.
S
sack	Archaic term for sherry and similar strong wines.
Salmanazar	The third-largest size of Champagne bottle, holding the equivalent of 12 normal bottles.
Schaumwein	German for sparkling wine. No implication of quality.
Schillerwein	A type of German rose wine, made from a mixture of black and white grapes. The name comes from the word Schiller meaning luster and has nothing to do with the poet Schiller.
Schoppenwein	The 'open' wine sold in a German Weinstube or tavern.
sec	In French this word means dry or fermented out, but in relation to Champagne it is used in a somewhat specialized way. A very dry Champagne is described as 'brut'. Sec means containing some added sweetness. Demi-sec means decidedly sweet. With other wines the word see is an indication of relative rather than absolute dryness. The same applies to the Italian word secco.
secco See sec.
sediment	Solid matter deposited in a bottle in the course of the maturing process. Nearly always a good sign.
Sekt	The German word for sparkling wine.
solera	The name for a system of blending and maturing sherry, also applied to the storage building where the process takes place. The sherry is arranged in different casks according to age and character, and the contents of the casks are transferred and blended in complex permutations that vary from one firm to another.
sommelier	French term for a wine waiter.
sparkling	Containing bubbles of carbon dioxide gas. This condition can be brought about in three different ways: (1) fermentation in the bottle (Champagne or 'classic'method); (2) fermentation in a closed vat (Charmat method); (3) pumping CO2 into the wine (rudely called the Bicycle Pump method).
Spatlese	German term for a wine made from late-harvested grapes.
spritzer	A drink made with white wine diluted with soda or mineral water.
spritzig	German adjective describing a wine with a light, natural sparkle.
spumante	Italian for fully sparkling.
stuck	Of fermentation: the point where, owing to an uncontrolled rise in temperature, the yeasts are overcome by the heat and the fermentation stops.
Stuck	The traditional 1,200-liter (264-gallon) cask of the Rhine.
sulphur	The most common disinfectant for wine. It is dusted onto the vines to prevent fungus, burnt inside casks to fumigate them and added to the must, usually in the form of sulfur dioxide, to destroy harmful bacteria. Unless it has been carelessly used the flavor of the sulfur will not be transmitted to the wine.
suss	German for sweet.
Siissreserve	Unfermented, and therefore naturally sweet, grape juice. Used in Germany to blend with dry wines to balance them.
T
table wine	In common use, this means any non-fortified wine. In EEC terms it means a wine below the rank of Vin de Qualite Produit dans une Region Determinee or VQPRD (qv).
Tafetwein	Deutscher Tafelwein is the lowest of the three categories of German wine. The presence of the word 'Deutscher' indicates that the wine is made entirely in Germany. If it is called simply Tafelwein it may be blended with wines from other countries.
tannin	A substance found in the skins, stalks and pips of grapes. It is also absorbed into wine from oak casks and is sometimes added artificially Tannin acts as a preservative and is therefore an important ingredient if the wine is to be matured over a long period. In excess it imparts a hard, dry quality. But fine ripe tannins contribute the essential, satisfying, 'structure' of a wine in the mouth.
tappit-hen	Pewter vessel holding 4.1 litres (7 1/4 pints), formerly widely used in Scotland. Alternatively, a port bottle with the capacity of three normal bottles.
tartaric	An acid occurring naturally in grapes and the main constituent of the acidity in wine.
tastevin	Shallow vessel of silver, glass or ceramic, used in Burgundy for sampling wine. Its shape, with indentations and a raised boss in the center, makes it easier to judge the color of a wine in a dark cellar.
tawny	The name given to port that has been aged in wood until it has acquired a tawny color.
terroir	A French word meaning soil and site in their ecological totality. A wine is said to have un gout de terroir (a taste of the soil) when it has gathered certain nuances of taste and flavor from the land on which it was produced.
tete de curve	A term used mainly in the Burgundy area to refer to the 'cream' of the wine sold under a particular name.
tinto	Spanish for red.
tirage	French word usually meaning the transfer of wine from cask to bottle. Literally 'drawing' off'.
Tischwein	German for table wine. Not an official term (see Tafelwein) but used to refer to ordinary mealtime wines.
tonne	French for a large cask or container of unspecified size.
tonneau	A general French term for a cask, but in Bordeaux it refers to a quantity of wine, namely 1,000 liters, or 100 cases.
trocken	German for dry. Trocken wines are often good with food in the QbA and Spatlese categories.
Trockenbeerenauslese	(TBA) A category of German wine. It is made by picking out individual grapes affected by the noble rot, Botrytis cinerea, which produce an exceptionally rich, luscious (and expensive) wine.
Troncais	France's finest oak forest, in the Allier (qv). Twenty-five thousand acres of great trees giving fine-grain subtly scented oak which is used for the very best wine barrels.
tun	Archaic term for a barrel.
U
uhage	The amount of wine that would be needed to top up a bottle (or barrel) right to the cork (or bung). 'Ullaged' bottles (with empty necks) can be disappointing.
V
varietal	A varietal wine is one that is named after the grape variety from which it is made. 'Varietal' is an adjective, 'variety' the noun.
vat	Large vessel or tank for fermenting or blending wine. Nowadays vats may be made of wood, concrete or stainless steel, sometimes with a glass lining.
VDQS	(Vin Delimite de Qualite Superieur) The second official category of French wines, subject to slightly less rigorous regulations than those applying to Appellation Controlee wines. The category was set up in 1949 and has since become firmly established.
vendange	The French word for vintage.
vendemmia	The Italian word for vintage.
vignoble	French for vineyard.
vin de garde	A wine whose potential to mature makes it worth keeping.
vin de l'annee	Literally 'wine of the year', that is to say of the current vintage.
vin de la region	What you ask for when you want a wine made in the region where you happen to be.
vin de liqueur	This is the French name for what in Britain would be called 'fortified wine', a term which in France would imply an improper addition of alcohol.
vin de paille	A (now rare) way of producing sweet wine with a mild but fresh and lively taste by drying the grapes on straw (paille) mats before crushing and fermenting them. Usually marketed in half-bottles.
vin de pays	Not to be confused with vin de la region, this is the third official category of French wines, established in 1976. The wines are now innumerable, some large (vin de pays de zone), some covering departements (vin de pays departementale), some (the most interesting), small districts.
Vin Doux Naturel	(VDN) - A description used for a type of wine made in southern France. These wines are high in natural sugar and are fortified by the addition of extra alcohol, making them about as strong as an average sherry. Drink them as dessert wines, after meals or on their own, like sherry.
Vin jaune	These are white wines with a yellowish hue caused by bacterial action during the long fermentation process. They have a strong and distinctive flavor and bouquet and are made solely in the Jura region of France. The best is known as Chateau Chalon.
vin nouveau	New wine, made to be drunk just after the vintage. Beaujolais is the most famous, but many other French regions now market a nouveau.
vin ordinaire	Not an official category of French wine but a loose term for basic wine, bought often by the alcoholic degree per liter and regarded as a grocery commodity, not a subject for connoisseurship.
vina	Spanish for vineyard.
vinho generoso	Spanish term for aperitif and dessert wines such as sherry.
vinho verde	A light, tangy wine made in northern Portugal. The name, meaning 'green wine', refers to its newness, not its color. It comes in both red and white, but the term is mainly associated with the white version.
vintage	The annual harvesting and production of a wine. More particularly, a vintage wine is one that bears the date of the vintage on the label, either because it is meant to be drunk young or because it was made to be matured over a number of years.
viticulture	The science and art of growing grapes.
VQPRD	Vin de Qualite Produit dans une Region Determinee (quality wine produced in a defined zone). This is an EEC quality category. Italian DOC, French AOC and German QbA (qqv) wines all qualify. In the eyes of Brussels, all else is just 'table wine'.
W
Weingut	Term used in Germany and Austria for a wine-producing estate that grows its own grapes.
Weissherbst	A type of white wine made in Baden, Germany, from black grapes.
Winzergenossenschaft	The German word for a wine cooperative, a group of growers who have clubbed together to produce wine.
Y
Yeast	A collection of microorganisms that cause fermentation (qv). Wild yeasts are naturally present on grape skins, but artificially developed yeasts are used by most modern winemakers (except the best).
Yield	The amount of wine produced by a vineyard, usually expressed in hectoliters (100 liters) per hectare or hl/ha. Higher quantity means lower quality or lighter wine that matures more rapidly.