Glossary of Wine Terms
You can browse our topics using the letters below, or search for a term.
Word |
Description |
|---|---|
| Chardonnay | Arguably the best and most widely planted white wine grape in the world. |
| Clos | Pronounced 'Cloh,' this French word once applied only to vineyards surrounded by walls. |
| Cap | Grape solids like pits, skins, and stems that rise to the top of a tank during fermentation; what gives red wines color, tannins and weight. |
| Crianza | A Spanish term for a red wine that has been aged in oak barrels for at least one year. |
| Botryt's Cinerea | A beneficial mold that causes grapes to shrivel and sugars to concentrate, resulting in sweet, unctuous wines; common botryt's wines include Sauternes, Tokay, and German beerenauslese. |
| Blanc de Noirs | The name for Champagne made entirely from red grapes, either Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier, or both. |
| Breathe | The process of letting a wine open up via the introduction of air |
| Barrique | French for 'barrel,' generally a barrel of 225 liters. |
| Beaujolais | A juicy, flavorful red wine made from Gamay grapes grown in the region of the same name. |
| Brut | A French term used to describe the driest Champagnes. |
| Barrel Fermented | A process by which wine (usually white) is fermented in oak barrels rather than in stainless steel tanks; a richer, creamier, oakier style of wine. |
| Beaujolais Nouveau | The first Beaujolais wine of the harvest; its annual release date is the third Thursday in November. |
| Blend | The process whereby two or more grape varieties are combined after separate fermentation; common blends include Cotes de Rhone and red and white Bordeaux. |
| Bacchus | The Roman god of wine, known as Dionysus in ancient Greece; a hybrid white grape from Germany. |
| Burgundy | A prominent French wine region stretching from Chablis in the north to Lyons in the south; Pinot Noir is the grape for red Burgundy, Chardonnay for white. |
| Bordeaux | A city on the Garonne River in southwest France; a large wine-producing region with more than a dozen subregions; a red wine made mostly from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc; a white wine made from Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. |
| Balance | The level of harmony between acidity, tannins, fruit, oak, and other elements in a wine; a perceived quality that is more individual than scientific. |
| Brix | A scale used to measure the level of sugar in unfermented grapes. Multiplying brix by 0.55 will yield a wine's future alcohol level. |
| Blush | A wine made from red grapes but which appears pink or salmon in color because the grape skins were removed from the fermenting juice before more color could be imparted; more commonly referred to as rose. |
| Body | The impression of weight on one's palate; light, medium, and full are common body qualifiers. |
-->