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Wine Glossary

Understanding the words and terms used to describe the wine making process is critical to improving your craft.  Even the vernacular used to describe flavors, mouth feel and aromas when tasting wine can be confusing.  This comprehensive glossary to the words of wine will help. 

• Castello: The Italian word for castle; refers to a wine estate, such as Castello d'Albola. Cedary: A woody aroma that characterizes certain red varietals.

• Champagne: Refers to sparkling wines made from grapes grown in the Champagne region of France and vinified using the Methode Champenoise winemaking process. Term is sometimes used to refer to sparkling wines from different regions, however, only sparkling wine from Champagne may be called Champagne.

• Charry: Aromas and flavors of a toasty nature created by the application of oak barrel aging to the wine.

• Chateau: A French winery estate, typically found in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley, the architecture of chateaux can range from grand to mundane.

• Classico: Italian term indicating that wine comes from the heart of a specific region.  While Chianti Classico is a demarcated DOCG district, the Classico for Verdicchio, for example, refers to the central part of the appellation.

• Clone: A selection within a grape variety, which exhibits certain characteristics distinct from others in the group. Viticulturists and winemakers experiment with different clones of the same variety to optimize their plantings and provide specific flavor and tactile characteristics.

• Colheita: Term used in Port winemaking referring to vintage.

• Commune: Typically refers to a wine-growing village in the Burgundy region of France. Compact: Wine described as intense but not full.

• Complex: Opposite of simple.  A wine that has a lot going on. 

• Concentrated: Dense aromas and flavors.

• Concentration: Wines with dense aromas and flavors evidence (as opposed to weak and watery).

• Cooperage: Collective term for wooden containers, also used to refer to the activities and workplace of coopers who make and repair small barrels and large wooden vats.

• Creamy Wines: particularly barrel-fermented Chardonnay that has undergone a secondary, malolactic fermentation, that have a rich, smooth mouth feel and are fuller in body are often characterized as creamy.

• Crisp: Describes wines that are clean, and possibly a bit on the tart side.  Opposite of soft.  Wines that are crisp are typically higher in acid, and go well with food.

• Cuvee: A blend of many lots of still wines, particularly Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, designed to become a well-balanced Champagne or sparkling wine.

• Decant:To transfer wine from the bottle into another container, to aerate or to separate a red wine from its sediment.

• Demi-sec: A Champagne style that is semi-dry, but sweeter than sec.

• Depth: The impression of many layers of complexity in a fine wine.

• Disgorging: The process by which the sediment collected in the neck of the Champagne bottle during the riddling process is frozen and expelled prior to the final corking. 

• District: Refers to a geographic area more specific than region, but less specific than commune. 

• DO: Abbreviation for Denominacion de Origen, which means place name and refers to Spain's official category for wines whose name, region of origin, variety and other defining factors are regulated by law. 

• DOC: Abbreviation for Denominazione di Origine Controllata, which means controlled place name.  Italy's official category for wines whose name, region of origin, variety and other defining factors are regulated by law.  In Portugal, DOC is also an abbreviation for the highest official wine category, Denominacao de Origem Controlada. 

• DOCG: Abbreviation for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, meaning controlled and guaranteed place. Italy's official category for its highest ranking wines. 

• Dosage: The liqueur, or sugar dissolved in reserve wine, added to the Champagne just before final corking.  The dosage finishes the Champagnes and determines its level of sweetness.

• Doux: A Champagne style that is sweet.

• Domaine: French term for wine estate, commonly used in Burgundy.

• Dry: Refers to a wine that is not sweet. Can also mean a wine that feels rough or dry in the mouth. 

• Dull: Opposite of bright and clean; can refer to a wine's appearance, aromas and flavors or overall style.

• Earthy: Refers to aromas and flavors that suggest wet or dry earth or minerals. 

• Elegance: Suggests a wine of a certain delicacy and grace as opposed to power and intensity.

• Estate: A property that grows grapes and makes wine from its own vineyards. 

• Extra-sec: A Champagne style that is extra dry but sweeter than Brut. 

• Fermentation: A naturally occurring process by which the action of yeast converts sugar in grape juice into alcohol, and the juice becomes wine.

• Finish: The final impression of the wine in the mouth after swallowing, particularly in terms of length and persistence of flavor. 

• Firm: Describes a wine neither soft nor harsh in reference to tannins in a red wine and acidity in a white. 

• Flabby: Describes wines that are too soft. 

• Flavor: Compounds Organic compounds in grapes responsible for many of the aromas and flavors in wine. 

• Flavor Intensity: How strongly wine flavors are perceived.

• Flavors: The aromatic components of wine that define its varietals characteristics as noted in the mouth.

• Fleshy: Wines described as fleshy have a rich texture and mouth feel.

• Fortified: Wines such as Port to which alcohol has been added.

• French Oak: Considered by many to be the finest oak for the aging of white wines; also used for reds. 

• Fruit Character: The characteristics of the wine has derived from the fruit, including aromas, flavors, tannins, acidity and extract.

• Fruity: The fruit aromas and flavors evident in wine.  Can be fresh, dried, cooked; examples include fresh apples, dried figs, and strawberry jam.