Acid: integral to white wines
Clones: winemakers will often clone a particular vine known for it's disease-resistance, flavor, or other characteristic rather than relying on old-fashioned vine reproduction. Click here to learn more.
Aging: letting a wine rest in the bottle for several years to allow the tannins to smooth out. Some varietals (and certain swell-made wines of those varietals) are more receptive to aging than others.
American Viticultural Area (AVA): a designated wine growing region in the U.S. As of March 2015, there were 230 AVAs in the United States. 85% of the wine in the bottle must have come from grapes grown within the geographical AVA boundaries.
Appellation: a legally defined and protected geographical indication used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown. Each country has a different system; the U.S.'s is AVA.
Barrel tasting: on special occasions some vintners will allow you to taste wine straight out of the barrel. This wine is NOT ready to drink and won't taste like it. Vintners will do this to see if a wine needs more time in a barrel or to see what it might blend well with.
Bordeaux blend: wines made up of the five typical Bordeaux varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet franc, merlot, Malbec, and petit Verdot)
Bottle shock: opening a a bottle of wine too soon.
Bouquet: the aroma of a wine.
Breathe: to be exposed to air after being uncorked, in order to develop flavor and bouquet.
Cellaring: putting bottles of wine in a cellar for aging. Cellars are usually kept absolutely dark, at a specific temperature, and at a specific humidity to keep the cork from drying out and to keep the wine from turning to vinegar.
Decanting: technically this just means pouring your wine from the bottle into another (usually a decanter). You want to do so slowly and carefully so as not to disturb any sediment. This is usually done for older, red wines to allow them to breathe (hence the larger surface area exposed to air in the decanter).
Dosage: the process of adding a sugar solution to champagne and other sparkling wines before final corking.
Estate grown: the wine only includes grape s that were grown on the estate. Many winemakers will have vineyards in other parts of Sonoma or Napa Valley and California.
Fortified: a wine, as port or sherry, to which brandy has been added in order to arrest fermentation or increase alcohol content.
Good year: the weather conditions of a particular year will affect how a wine tastes. How hot was it? When did it rain? How much? Note: what was a good year for cabs may not be a good year for chardonnays .
Legs: the rivulets of wine that slowly descend along the inside of a glass after the wine has been swirled, sometimes regarded as an indication that the wine is full-bodied.
Laying down (a wine): cellaring a bottle of wine for a number of years so it will age. It is important to lay bottles on their side to keep the cork from drying out.
Méthode Champenoise (aka méthode traditionnelle): the labor-intensive process whereby wine undergoes a secondary fermentation inside the bottle, creating bubbles. The process begins with the addition of a liqueur de tirage (a wine solution of sugar and yeast) to a bottle of still base wine, triggering a secondary fermentation inside the bottle which produces both carbon dioxide and spent yeast cells, or lees, which are collected in the neck of the bottle during the riddling process.
Nose (the): see bouquet
Oak: certain varietals of wine are traditionally aged in oak barrels.
American v. French v. Hungarian
The oak barrels impart flavor to the wine. Where the oak is from determines the flavors the wine takes on. American is more vanilla where as French is spicier. Hungarian oak is just coming back into fashion after most of their forests were destroyed in WWII. Read more.
Neutral v. New
The newer the barrel the more flavor it imparts. Neutral oak will have held wine for at least 2 years.
Old vine: grapes that came from a vine that is more than 50 years old. The older a vine, the less fruit it will produce.
Points: wines are rated on a 100 point scale by sommeliers. A score of 90+ means a wine is exceptional. Notes: 1) a vineyard may only have one 90+ bottle; this does not mean the rest of there wines are worth anything. 2) just because Robert Parker says it's good, doesn't mean you'll like it 3) a 90+ or score one year does not means the next year will be any good.
Riddling: one step in the traditional method of making Champagne or sparkling wine, that helps to consolidate sediment to facilitate removing it. A worker grabs the bottom of each bottle, giving it a small shake, an abrupt back and forth twist, and while slightly increasing the tilt, drops it back in the rack. This action recurs every one to three days over a period of several weeks. This method is still done by hand for expensive bottles of champagne while cheaper bottles often use a machine.
Tannins: any of these compounds occurring in wine and imparting an astringent taste, especially in red wine.
Terroir: the environmental conditions, especially soil and climate, in which grapes are grown and that give a wine its unique flavor and aroma.
Turning: when a wine has been exposed to air to long it becomes vinegar.
Varietal: the species of grape used in the wine.
Vertical: several years in a row of a particular bottle of wine from a vineyard.
Young: a wine is called this when the tannins haven't had a chance to smooth out. (See: aging)