Glossary of Wine Terms
You can browse our topics using the letters below, or search for a term.
Word |
Description |
|---|---|
| Douro | A river in Portugal as well as the wine region famous for producing Port wines. |
| Dosage | A sweetened spirit added at the very end to Champagne and other traditionally made sparkling wines. It determines whether a wine is brut, extra dry, dry, or semisweet. |
| Disgorge | The process by which final sediments are removed from traditionally made sparkling wines prior to the adding of the dosage. |
| Denominazione di Origine Controllata | Italian for a controlled wine region; similar to the French AOC or Spanish DO. |
| Denominacion de Origen | Spanish for 'appellation of origin;' like the French AOC or Italian DOC. |
| Decant | The process of transferring wine from a bottle to another holding vessel. The purpose is generally to aerate a young wine or to separate an older wine from any sediment. |
| Cru | A French term for ranking a wineis inherent quality, i.e. cru bourgeois, cru classe, premier cru, and grand cru. |
| Crianza | A Spanish term for a red wine that has been aged in oak barrels for at least one year. |
| Corked | A wine with musty, mushroomy aromas and flavors resulting from a cork tainted by TCA (trichloroanisol). |
| Cooperative | A winery owned jointly by multiple grape growers. |
| Color | A key determinant of a wine's age and quality; white wines grow darker in color as they age while red wines turn brownish orange. |
| Clos | Pronounced 'Cloh,' this French word once applied only to vineyards surrounded by walls. |
| Claret | An English name for red Bordeaux. |
| Chianti | A scenic, hilly section of Tuscany known for fruity red wines made mostly from Sangiovese grapes. |
| Chenin Blanc | A white grape common in the Loire Valley of France. |
| Chateau | French for 'castle;' an estate with its own vineyards. |
| Chardonnay | Arguably the best and most widely planted white wine grape in the world. |
| Chaptalization | The process of adding sugar to fermenting grapes in order to increase alcohol. |
| Champagne | A denominated region northeast of Paris in which Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes are made into sparkling wine. |
| Chablis | A town and wine region east of Paris known for steely, minerally Chardonnay. |
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