Welcome to our Wine 101 Knowledge Database
Whether you’re just getting started with wine or work in the industry, this page contains many useful resources that will round out your wine knowledge. Let’s get started!
Wine Basics
Most wine is made with grapes, but they’re not like the ones you find in the grocery store. Wine grapes (latin name: Vitis vinifera) are smaller, sweeter, have thick skins, and contain seeds. There are over 1,300 wine grape varieties used in commercial production but only about 100 of these varieties make up 75% of the world’s vineyards.
Find out more about the basics of wine (and which ones to try) in the following sections:
Wine producer countries and regions
Find the countries and their most famous wine producing regions in this world map! Locate your favourite wine and their kin.
Wine knowledge 101
Are you new to wine drinking? In this treasure trove you find the know-how about tasting, and how to best enjoy your favourite wine!
Wine and food pairing guide
Do you wish to know which food goes with which wine? Read our guide to find your best match! You will be surprised how easy it is!
Wine label guide
What each bottle label can tell you about the wine that is in it?
Price guide
Learn what the price of the wine tells you about the wine you buy!
Glossary
Do you know what tannin is? What AOC or AOP means? Look no further. Here you will get the most important words related to wine.
Wine and Food Pairings
There is only one rule for pairing wine with food: Drink whatever wine you enjoy drinking with whatever food you have chosen to eat. While we realize this probably contradicts what you have heard about pairing wine with food, so let us explain.
Over the past few decades the emphasis on black and white rules that dictate that only certain colors or styles of wine can go with certain kinds of food has gotten out of control. This pressure has caused unneeded anxiety among wine drinkers, when the reality is that many of the food pairing rules we have been told are so important, such as you should only drink white wine with fish, are actually bollocks. So, out with the old wine and food pairing guide, and in with something easy that will work for you.
Drinking wine should always come with no judgments.
So the traditional thought process goes, we’re not supposed to pair something like fish with a red wine, because a red will dominate the delicacy of the fish. But in fact, people have proven that what we might consider an overpowering red, such as a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot, can actually be just as pleasurable to drink while eating the fish as a white wine. It all depends on what the flavors are in the dish and how everything plays off each other.
The pressure we experience to pair wine with food comes from nostalgia. We are so ingrained to believe that red wine must go with meat and white wine must go with fish, that for many of us, it’s hard to break this habit, and that’s ok too. If you enjoy the process of pairing wine this way, by all means ignore our advice. As we always say, wine is about your experience, not anyone else’s.
However, if you find the revelation liberating that many different colors of wine can go with food depending on its flavors, but still want a model for selecting wine, we suggest selecting wine based on things like the people you’re going to be drinking with, why you’re drinking with them, and the season.
Wine and Food Pairings

There is only one rule for pairing wine with food: Drink whatever wine you enjoy drinking with whatever food you have chosen to eat. While we realize this probably contradicts what you have heard about pairing wine with food, so let us explain.
Over the past few decades the emphasis on black and white rules that dictate that only certain colors or styles of wine can go with certain kinds of food has gotten out of control. This pressure has caused unneeded anxiety among wine drinkers, when the reality is that many of the food pairing rules we have been told are so important, such as you should only drink white wine with fish, are actually bollocks. So, out with the old wine and food pairing guide, and in with something easy that will work for you.
Drinking wine should always come with no judgments.
So the traditional thought process goes, we’re not supposed to pair something like fish with a red wine, because a red will dominate the delicacy of the fish. But in fact, people have proven that what we might consider an overpowering red, such as a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot, can actually be just as pleasurable to drink while eating the fish as a white wine. It all depends on what the flavors are in the dish and how everything plays off each other.
The pressure we experience to pair wine with food comes from nostalgia. We are so ingrained to believe that red wine must go with meat and white wine must go with fish, that for many of us, it’s hard to break this habit, and that’s ok too. If you enjoy the process of pairing wine this way, by all means ignore our advice. As we always say, wine is about your experience, not anyone else’s.
However, if you find the revelation liberating that many different colors of wine can go with food depending on its flavors, but still want a model for selecting wine, we suggest selecting wine based on things like the people you’re going to be drinking with, why you’re drinking with them, and the season.
Types of Wine labels

Wines labeled by grape variety
When you see a wine labeled with “grape” words like Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay, then it’s labeled by grape variety. There are hundreds (actually, thousands) of different wine varieties and it’s possible to label a wine with more than one grape.
Wine labeled by variety doesn’t guarantee that the wine is 100% of the listed variety. Each country has their own set of minimum requirements to label wine by variety which is most of the time between 80-85%.
Wines labeled by region
(aka “vin de terroir”) Wines like Bordeaux, Chablis, Chianti, Sancerre, and Rioja are labeled by region. This style of labeling is used mostly in old world wine countries (Europe). Regional labeling likely came from a time when many different varieties grew together in the same vineyards and were blended together into wine.
Each wine region dictates what grapes can be used in the regional wine. So, in order to know what’s inside one of these regionally labeled wines, you’ll want to do a little research. For example, Chablis in France grows Chardonnay, and Chianti in Italy specializes in Sangiovese.
Wines labeled by Name
The last common style of wine labeling includes wines using a made-up or fantasy name. More often than not, named wines are unique blends invented by the wine producer. You’ll also find named wines common in regions that do not allow the use of certain grapes in their regional wine (but still grow them). For example, Tuscan wines made with French-origin grapes including Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet are not allowed to be labeled as an Italian regional wine. (This is how the first Super Tuscan wines came to be!)
Named wines are often blends or unusual wines that don’t fit the wine laws of a particular region. In most cases, you’ll find the unique details about the wine on the winery’s website.

Price Guide
How much should we expect to spend on decent wine? In our estimation the average price of a good quality wine is about €15. Also, if you want to buy a bottle of something hand-crafted, it’s hard to spend less than €20 for wine from a small-production winery.
Value Wine
Cost: €10-15
The first step up from the baseline are value wines. On the lower side of the value spectrum are the wines that usually have a dollop of residual sugar to make them more palatable. On the higher side of the value spectrum is where you’ll find the beginnings of quality. The higher tier value wines are mostly from large, well-known wineries that focus on good baseline quality wine for everyday drinking. There are also a few wines from economically depressed wine regions or made from esoteric varieties such as Greek Agiorgtiko or Portuguese Vinho Verde. Many value wines are varietal wines from single vintages with grapes sourced from larger regions.
Popular Wine
Cost: €15–20
This is the sweet spot for most wine buyers. You can find quite a number of decent varietal wines from good large-production wineries. In our opinion, the good wines within this category show the beginnings of typicity in wine (e.g. “a Cabernet Sauvignon that tastes like Cabernet Sauvignon” etc) and are labeled with a slightly more focused region (e.g. Burgundy vs Bordeaux). Unoaked white wines are generally higher quality at this price point than red wines because oak barrels cost money and red wine grapes typically cost more per ton (save for Chardonnay).
Ka’Mancine Beragna – one of Wicklow Wine Company’s most popular wines
Premium Wine
Cost: €20–30
Good, solid quality wines with both typicity and the beginnings of terroir. The premium wine category seem to be the true start of high quality winemaking. There will be some exceptional finds with high ratings in this category (particularly on good vintages) and you’ll find more wines from focused regions (e.g. Côte d’Or vs. Burgundy). In red wine, they will be oak-aged and from mid- to large-sized wineries that can hand harvest their grapes (especially from economically depressed countries).
Super Premium Wine
Cost: €30–60
The super premium wine category is sort of the entry level for great handmade wines from medium to large production wineries. Also, this price point affords good quality for in-demand wine varieties (i.e. Pinot Noir). Expect terroir, typicity and an element of craft in this category.
Ultra Premium Wine
Cost: €60–80
Great-quality, excellent-tasting, cellar-worthy wines from producers of all sizes. Beyond this price point is where wine prices become a diminishing return to buy wines from in-demand wine regions (e.g. Burgundy, Rioja, Tuscany, Porto) or in-demand wineries.
Luxury Wine
Cost: €80–120
This will get you excellent wines from any of the top wine regions of the world from near-top producers including special vineyard-designates, unique aging requirements and in-demand wine varieties. This cost will get you into prestige as associated with a region (e.g. Côte d’Auxerre, Côte des Blancs, Valle d’Aosta, Brunello di Montalcino etc).
Super Luxury Wine
Cost: €120–150
This category will get you into wines from top producers from the prestigious wine regions in the world, although not necessarily their top bottling (Domaine de la Pépière, Elvio Cogno ‘Bricco Pernice’ Barolo, Alkoomi ‘Black Label’ Riesling).
Icon Wine
Cost:€150+
The pinnacle of wines, wineries, and micro sites of the world (Perrier-Jouet ‘Belle Époque’ Blanc de Blancs, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Chateau Margaux, Dom Perignon, Vega Sicilia Unico).
- Wine Tasting 101
- Body of Wine, Corked wine
- Acidity, Tannin
- Glasses, Decanters
- Temperature
There’s no right way or wrong way to taste wine. It’s this simple — do you like what you’re drinking or do you not like what you’re drinking? Let’s repeat that: There’s no right way or wrong way to taste wine. Tasting wine can be as simple as this — do you like what you’re drinking or don’t you? That said, there’s a formal way to taste wine that reveals more about the wine in your glass, even before you start drinking. It has four simple steps: look, swirl, smell & sip.
Look
The first step in tasting a wine happens before you actually taste the wine. When the wine is first poured into your glass, look at it.
You have to get an idea of its color, as a wine’s color can tell you a lot about the wine. It is better to hold their glass of wine against a white background, which helps you see the color more easily. A wine’s color can tell you a lot about the wine.
The color of a wine comes from contact with the grape skins after the grapes have been juiced. The longer the wine comes in contact with those skins, the more those skins will impart their color on the wine. If the grapes were skinned and were being juiced, never letting them come in contact with their skins, the resulting wine would have no color at all! Because the grape skins have a lot of their own characteristics, just like the zest of an orange has purer orange flavor, the more they can give to the wine the more they in contact with the juice. On top of this, oak can also help make colors lighter or darker, so understanding color, especially for white wines, can help people choose wines better for their own taste.
With White Wine
First the shade of yellow. Light and bright white wines that you can see through have had minimal contact with the grape skins and are usually crisp and refreshing, like lemonade on a hot summer day. Typically, these wines have not been aged in an oak barrel. If the wine is darker and deeper in yellow, then this is usually a good sign that the wine was aged in an oak barrel. It will have a smoother taste and will be much fuller and richer.
With Red Wine
The same steps hold true when examining a red as with a white. If the wine is light red, even approaching pink, it should taste light and bright. It may even be a little tart or “fresh” tasting and that is because the lighter the red of a wine, the less likely that it was ever aged in oak, and oak is what helps round and mellow a wine. As the hue of the red wine gets darker and darker, approaching the colors of maroon and purple, the red will become much bolder and richer. With these types of red wine the darker and deeper the color, the longer they’ve spent aging in an oak barrel.
Swirl
Everyone has their own unique technique for swirling wine, and that’s okay. Some people leave the bottom of the wine glass firmly planted on the table and just make a few circles with the base, while others like to pick the wine glass up and slightly flick their wrist, thereby making little circles in the air. No matter how you swirl the wine, your technique is completing an important next step in the tasting process: getting more oxygen into the wine.
Oxygen is a friend and also an enemy of wine. In the beginning, oxygen is really great for a wine because as soon as a wine encounters oxygen, it begins to break down, which most people refer to as a wine “opening up.” As the wine opens, it gives off its aromas and also softens, which is good. But if you let a wine sit in a glass exposed to oxygen for too long, say overnight, the oxygen will fully oxidize the wine, ruining it and leaving it with an unpleasant taste that can be flat and even bitter.
Smell
One question comes up a lot is why wines taste and smell like so many different things and not just grapes. The more you drink wine, the more you start to notice subtle flavors like vanilla, spice, tobacco, tropical fruits or even ocean air. We know a winemaker doesn’t actually add spices or seawater into a wine, so how does the wine end up inheriting these flavors?
Grapes are an incredibly impressionable and delicate fruit. All of the environment the grape grows within affects the taste: the type of vine, the soil, the rain, the air, the insects and herbs around the wineyard, even the nearby sea or lake. Not to mention all the care the grape gets from the winemaker: the fertilizer, the pruning, the harvest, and so on. Good farming equals great wine, and it is at this stage where the grapes also first come in contact with elements that can impact the wine’s ultimate characteristics.
After the grapes transition from the vineyard to the cellar, each decision the winemaker makes has an influence on the overall flavor. How the winemaker chooses to press the grapes, whether the winemaker wishes to age the fermented juice in steel or oak, and how long the winemaker lets the wine sit in these vessels all aid in imparting unique flavors and smells into a wine.
With all of these factors having an influence on the overall taste and smell of the wine, it’s no wonder that so many of us pick up different characteristics when tasting and smelling the same wine. It’s one of the things that makes drinking wine so much fun. When you smell a wine, you’re preparing your brain for the wine you’re about to taste.

Our sense of smell has a profound effect on the way our brain processes flavor. If you want to better understand just how profound, hold your nose and then put a strawberry in your mouth and start to chew. Halfway through chewing, release your nose. You’ll notice right away how much more you actually taste when you have your sense of smell. This is why smell is so important when it comes to tasting a wine. When you go to smell the wine, stick your nose all the way into the glass and close your eyes — sure you might feel silly doing it, but you’re going to notice a lot more smells this way — then breathe in deep. As you smell the wine, think about what scents you’re picking up, and keep in mind that there are no wrong answers! If it’s a white wine, maybe you smell bananas, lemon rind, pineapple or even that scent that is always in the air when you go to the beach. If it’s a red wine, you may smell prunes, cherries, strawberries, peppers, plums or tobacco. In both situations, you may say you just smell grapes, and that is totally fine too. Your brain can only pick up scents that are in your memory, meaning they are scents you’ve smelled before or smell often. That’s why ten people could be sitting around a table smelling the same wine and say they smell ten different things!
You have to beware of the specific smell of corked wine. A corked wine is not pleasant to drink, so if you smell anything that is reminiscent of wet newspaper, a moldy dank basement, old wet rags or wet dog, there’s a chance the wine is corked. If you’re not sure, feel free to ask those drinking with you if they pick up similar scents, and never be afraid to ask your server what they think, because if the bottle is corked, they should replace it. A good rule of thumb to remember here is that the only way a wine can be corked is if the wine bottle was sealed using an actual real cork. If instead the wine is closed with a screw cap or synthetic plastic cork, having a corked wine is not possible.
Sip
Congratulations, you are about to get the great prize! You’ve looked, swirled and smelled, so now it’s time to sip your wine.
Take a sip from your glass and let the wine sit in your mouth for a moment. You need to let the wine linger in your mouth so that your brain can process the taste and you will be able to think about it. What does it taste like? Do you taste any of the smells you picked up? Is the wine drying your mouth out (if this is happening, it means that the wine is strong in tannins)? Then swallow. If you’re tasting with others, talk about the wine. Just sit back, relax and have another drink.
Enjoy, if you like it. Get a different wine if you don’t. The main idea is that you enjoy yourself. And don’t forget there is no right way to taste a wine!
Body of Wine

Here are the general rules:
Wines Under 12.5% alcohol (the alcohol percentage should always be written on the wine’s label) are said to light-bodied. These are generally the white wines we think of as crisp and refreshing. Good examples of these wines are Riesling, Italian Prosecco and Vinho Verde. Wines between 12.5% and 13.5% are considered medium-bodied. Good examples of these wines are Rose, French Burgundy, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc. Finally, any wine over 13.5% alcohol is considered full-bodied. Some wines that are normally over this alcohol level and considered full-bodied are Zinfandel, Syrah/Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot and Malbec. While the majority of wines over 13.5% alcohol are usually red, Chardonnay is a great example of a white that often can also be considered full-bodied.Corked wine

- It’s not the pieces of cork floating around your wine
- When a cork covered in little white crystals (these crystals, which are called tartrate, are a natural by-product of some wines and are totally harmless)
- you also can’t tell if a wine is corked from smelling the cork itself.
- if the bottle you opened used a screw cap or synthetic cork to form the seal, it can’t be corked.
Wine legs
We want to clear something up right now: wine legs don’t matter. In fact, in all of our years involved in wine, we’ve never met anyone who could read them correctly. Nor could they explain why they believe they matter. But, just in case you encounter someone who wants to talk about legs, and claims to understand them, here’s a quick explanation so you’re prepared. Wine legs are the droplets or streaks of water that form on the inside of a wine glass as you move the wine around. While some people think these legs relate to the quality, sweetness or viscosity of the wine, THEY DO NOT. In fact, wine legs are just a representation of how much alcohol is in a wine. And why should they bother when the alcohol percentage is already printed on the wine label?Oaked or not?

Acidity
So what is acidity in wine? Acidity is a wine’s “pucker” or tartness; it’s what makes a wine refreshing and your tongue salivate and want another sip. The easiest way to think about acidity is to think about a glass of lemonade. That pucker you get when you drink the lemonade, combined with the refreshment the lemonade gives you, is acidity. It’s what makes that lemonade great to drink on its own and also pair well with food.
When someone says a wine is crisp, bright or fresh, what they are really saying is the wine has great acidity. Although these words are most commonly used to talk about white wines, red wines can be crisp, bright and fresh as well.
The common misconception is that not all wines have acidity, but in fact, all wines do. If a wine has no acidity at all, it tastes dull and boring, which people refer to as flat. It is that little bit of acidity that causes your taste buds to want more and recognize other flavors.
For acidity to work best, even when it’s dominant, like in our white wine example, the wine has to be in balance, which is referred to as a balanced wine. This means that the acidity of the wine plays well with the wine’s other components; it doesn’t overpower the wine, causing it to be extremely tart and sour and it also doesn’t leave something to be desired, leaving the wine dull.
Tannins
If you drink wine, at one point or another you’ve probably heard someone refer to a wine’s tannins, but you may not know what they are or why they matter. While knowing what this term means is not a necessity for enjoying a glass of wine — really! — it can help you better understand the wine you’re drinking and even why some wines give you a headache. You experience the effect of tannins any time you drink a wine that creates a drying sensation in your mouth.
Tannins are naturally occurring compounds that exist inside grape skins, seeds and stems. The scientific word for these compounds is polyphenols. Depending on how dry your mouth feels, you can determine whether a wine is high or low in tannins. We say a wine that is high in tannins is tannic.
The longer the skins, seeds and stems soak in the juice, the more tannin characteristics they will impart. This explains why red wines have stronger tannins than white wines. When producing a red wine, the winemaker wants the skins to impart more color, thereby adding more tannins to the juice.
Winemakers love tannins because they work as a natural antioxidant to protect the wine. This is actually a key reason why certain red wines, including Cabernet Sauvignon, can be so age-worthy. And, as we know, antioxidants aren’t just useful for helping us age wine; they also have great health benefits for humans! Now you can tell your nutritionist there’s no need to keep drinking that pomegranate juice; you’re just going to have a nice glass of red wine instead!
The only downside to tannins is that they can give some people headaches. A good way to test if you’re susceptible to tannin headaches is to determine whether or not similar substances that are strong in tannins, such as dark chocolate and strong black tea, produce the same effect. Tannin headaches are rare, usually we just get a wine headache from consuming too much, but if you do realize you suffer from them, sticking to white wine, which is very low in tannins, would solve your tannin-triggered headaches!

Decanting



Acidity: Identified as the crisp, sharp character in a wine. The acidity of a balanced dry table wine is in the range of 0.6 percent to 0.75 percent of the wine’s volume.
Alcohol by volume: As required by law, wineries must state the alcohol level of a wine on its label. This is usually expressed as a numerical percentage of the volume. For table wines the law allows a 1.5 percent variation above or below the stated percentage as long as the alcohol does not exceed 14 percent. Thus, wineries may legally avoid revealing the actual alcohol content of their wines by labeling them as “table wine.”
Alcoholic Fermentation: Also called primary fermentation, this is the process in which yeasts metabolize grape sugars and produce alcohol, carbon dioxide and heat. The final product is wine.
Appellation: Appellation Defines the area where a wine’s grapes were grown, such as Bordeaux, Gevrey-Chambertin, Alexander Valley or Russian River Valley. Regulations vary widely from country to country. In order to use an appellation on a California wine label, for example, 85 percent of the grapes used to make the wine must be grown in the specified district.
Appellation d’Origine Protégée (AOP): This is the European Union’s new designation, meant to replace the old Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (French) for recognition across the member states. It was officially adopted in January 2016.
Balance: A wine is balanced when its elements are harmonious and no single element dominates. The “hard” components—acidity and tannins—balance the “soft” components—sweetness, fruit and alcohol.
Blending: Wines are blended for many reasons. To make a more harmonious or complex wine, wines with complementary attributes may be blended. For example, a wine with low acidity may be blended with a high-acid wine or a wine with earthy flavors may be blended with a fruity wine. To create a uniform wine from many small batches is another goal, since grapes from different vineyards, stages of the harvest and pressings are frequently vinified separately and the small batches differ slightly. Red Bordeaux offers a prime example; five different grapes may be used, each contributing its own nuances to the blend.
Château: French term for “castle.” In the wine world, it translates loosely as “estate.” However, in France, the term is protected.
Corked: Describes a wine having the off-putting, musty, moldy-newspaper flavor and aroma and dry aftertaste caused by a tainted cork.
Cuvée: A blend or special lot of wine.
Decanting : A technique that removes sediment from wine before drinking. After allowing the sediment to settle by standing the bottle upright for the day, the wine is poured slowly and carefully into another container, leaving the sediment in the original bottle.
Dry: Having no perceptible taste of sugar. Most wine tasters begin to perceive sugar at levels of 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent.
Fruity: Having the aroma and taste of fruit or fruits.
Grand Vin: The premier cuvée made by a winery. Grand vin, or “great wine,” is an unregulated term frequently used in Bordeaux to indicate that a wine is the best of multiple wines made at a given winery.
Harvest: The process of picking the grapes, whether by hand or machine. Also the time period when the grapes are picked; usually September through October in the northern hemisphere and March through April in the southern hemisphere.
Ice wine: A dessert wine made from frozen grapes.
Mature: The stage at which the wine will not gain any additional complexity with further bottle aging and is ready to drink. Also describes grapes when they are fully ripe.
New World: The New World is comprised of countries that have started producing wine more recently than the countries of Europe, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and South Africa.
Noble Rot: Also known by its scientific name, Botrytis cinerea, noble rot is a beneficial mold that grows on ripe wine grapes in the vineyard under specific climatic conditions. The mold dehydrates the grapes, leaving them shriveled and raisinlike and concentrates the sugars and flavors. Wines made from these berries have a rich, complex, honeyed character and are often high in residual sugar. Noble rot contributes the unique, concentrated flavors in such wines as BA and TBA Riesling from Germany, Sauternes from Bordeaux, Aszu from Hungary’s Tokay district and an assortment of late-harvest wines from other regions.
Noble Varieties: Considered the classic grape varieties, originating in the Old World, which have the ability to make outstanding wines. Reds include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and Syrah (Shiraz in the Southern Hemisphere). Whites include Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Gerwürztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon.
Old World: The Old World refers to the countries of Europe where winemaking dates back centuries. The Old World was once associated primarily with traditional winemaking techniques, while the New World was known for modern winemaking, though those stereotypes are no longer as accurate.
Oxidized: Describes wine that has been exposed too long to air and taken on a brownish color, losing its freshness and perhaps beginning to smell and taste like Sherry or old apples. Oxidized wines are also called maderized or sherrified.
Phylloxera: Tiny aphids or root lice that attack Vitis vinifera roots. The vineyard pests were widespread in both Europe and California during the late 19th century, and returned to California in the 1980s.
Reserve: A quality classification. The term indicating that the wine has been aged for an extra period of time prior to release. Wines must be aged at least a couple of years, with a minimum of one year in oak.
Rich: Describes wines with generous, full, pleasant flavors, usually sweet and round in nature. In dry wines, richness may be supplied by high alcohol and glycerin, by complex flavors and by an oaky vanilla character. Decidedly sweet wines are also described as rich when the sweetness is backed up by fruity, ripe flavors.
Rosé: Rosés, also known as blush wines, range in color from muted salmon-orange to bright pink. These wines are made from red grapes, colored through limited skin contact or, in rare cases, the addition of small quantities of red wine.
Rustic: Describes wines made by old-fashioned methods or tasting like wines made in an earlier era. Can be a positive quality in distinctive wines that require aging. Can also be a negative quality when used to describe a young, earthy wine that should be fresh and fruity.
Sherry: Sherry is a fortified wine made in Jerez, Spain, most often from the Palomino grape but also from the Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel varieties. Following fermentation, the wine is fortified with distilled wine spirit, up to the minimum strength of 15.5 percent alcohol. The fortified wine is then usually aged in oak barrels arranged in a solera system of multiple vintages, and which may include more than a hundred vintages of Sherry blended together. Sherries may be classified by their quality, age, sweetness and or alcohol contents into categories which include fino, manzanilla, amontillado, oloroso, cream, etc.
Single Vineyard: A bottling whose grapes hail from one particular vineyard or site. They are often regarded superior to their multi-vineyard counterparts.
Skin Contact: Refers to the process of grape skins steeping in juice or fermenting must to impart color and flavor to the wine.
Stale: Wines that have lost their fresh, youthful qualities are called stale. Opposite of fresh.
Super Tuscan: Wines from Tuscany made using international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah rather than relying primarily on local varieties such as Sangiovese. Although their quality can be outstanding, these wines must be labeled with the lower levels of Italy’s classification system, Vino da Tavola or Indicazione Geografica Tipica, since they do not conform to Tuscany’s traditional winemaking practices.
Sweet: Sweet describes the sugar content in a wine, found at higher levels in late-harvest and sweet wines. Not to be confused with fruity wines. Most people begin to perceive sweetness at concentrations of 0.3 to 0.7 percent residual sugar.
Table Wine: Still wines containing 7 percent to 14 percent alcohol. The term is also a quality classification in many European Union countries, indicating the lowest level of quality: Vin du Table in France, Vino da Tavola in Italy and Tafelwein in Germany.
Tannins: The mouth-puckering polyphenols, most prominent in red wines, that are derived primarily from grape skins, seeds and stems, but also from oak barrels. Tannins are an important component of a wine’s structure and texture, and act as a natural preservative that help wine age and develop.
Tartaric Acid: The principal acid in grapes and wine; contributes to taste and stabilizes color. Unlike malic acid, tartaric acid does not decline as grapes ripen. Tartaric acid can precipitate out of solution in bottled wine to form harmless tartrate crystals resembling shards of glass.
Terroir: A term describing the interaction of soil, climate, topography and grape variety in a specific site, imprinting the wine and making each wine from a specific site distinct. Derived from the French word for earth, “terre.”
Varietal: Refers to a wine labeled with a single grape variety. Used predominantly in the United States and Australia, the term “varietal” denotes a wine named after and made from a single grape variety. For example, “The popular varietal is served in many restaurants” and “The herbal aromas of this Sauvignon Blanc are varietally correct.” For varietal bottling, a minimum of 75 percent of that wine must be made from the designated grape variety. The term is frequently misused in reference to a grape variety itself.
Variety: A variety refers to the grape itself, whereas the term varietal refers to the wine made from that grape variety. For example, “Chardonnay is an early-ripening variety.”
Vin de Pays: French quality classification meaning “country wine”; it is one level above vin de table.
Vin de Table: France’s lowest level of wine classification, meaning “table wine.” There are no limits on vineyard yields for wines labeled vin de table, and they do not require a vintage date.
Vino de Pago: The highest classification of wine in Spain, requiring that wines be made entirely from estate-grown grapes in addition to the requirements of the Denominatión de Origen Calificada (D.O.Ca.) classification.
Vinous: Literally means “winelike” and is usually applied to dull wines lacking in distinct varietal character.
Vintage: Indicates the year in which the grapes were grown. For vintage dated wines made in the United States, 95 percent of a wine must come from grapes that were grown and picked in the stated calendar year. In the southern hemisphere where the grapes may grow in the year preceeding a February through March harvest, the vintage date refers to the year of harvest. Also refers to the time of year in which the harvest takes place.
Viticultural Area: Defines a legal grape-growing area distinguished by geographical features, climate, soil, elevation, history and other definable boundaries. Rules vary widely from region to region, and change often. Just for one example, in the United States, a wine must be 85 percent from grapes grown within the viticultural area to carry the appellation name.
Vitis Labrusca: The species of grape native to the eastern U.S. that includes the Concord and Catawba varieties.
Vitis Vinifera: Classic European winemaking species of grape. Examples include Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay and most of the famous varieties grown around the world.
Winemaking: Largely synonymous with “Vinification,” winemaking is the process by which harvested grapes are crushed, fermented (and otherwise manipulated through yeast inoculations, temperature control, punch-downs, pump-overs, racking, oak-chip additions, filtering, etc.), aged in barrel, steel tank or other vessel, and finally bottled.