A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z /

A

Abboccato: wine that has a slightly sweet taste. When referring to sparkling wines is synonymous with demi sec.

Acescente: a wine attacked dall'acescenza and is indicative therefore, the nose and in the mouth, a hint of vinegar. This characteristic is is mainly due to the presence of ethyl acetate.

Acetobacter: His name does not bode well. When he is there, your wine is transformed into acetic acid, the liquid only good for salad dressing. You know those pundits who discuss "Volatile too high"? They're talking about our bacteria but did not express the best of his ability so the wine "sa Breakaway" but it is not completely lost. Among the compounds that Acetobacter is able to produce, include acetaldehyde, responsible for qurel annoying tones of apple dented of certain white passsati cooking. Unlike others, it needs oxygen to live and reproduce, so just keep the wine away to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Auslese: vintage choice; 1) in Alto Adige, a term reserved for wines entitled to the description Katarer See (Kalterersee); 2) in Austria, a wine made from fully ripe grapes, separated from the immature, imperfect or defective. Minimum weight of the wort: 21 ° KMW, 105 ° Oechsle; 3) in Germany, a wine produced with each predicate .qba with mature, selected and harvested to harvest forwarded.

B

Barrique: cask, usually for the elevation of wines - even for whites to fermentation - the capacity of which varies according to region (225 litrinel Bordeaux, 205 in Cognac). Its Italian translation is carat.

Botrytis Cinerea: parasite mold of a large number of fruits, including grapes, whose development is normally harmful. Under certain conditions can develop in hidden form and then give rise to wines of high quality.

Brettanomyces: the protagonist of fierce debate among fans, the good old Brett recognize him immediately for quell'odorino of horse sweat in cases luckier strays in the scents of leather (present in some seasoned rum). Of unknown origins and habits, live a little bit where he pleases, preferring the wooden barrels of a certain age and pompo found in the basement. In addition to horse sweat you know at least a dozen other farts spiteful produced by the fungus such as pharmaceuticals, plastics, rubber burned and others.

C

Chaptalisation: is sweetening, or the addition of sugar to the must before fermentaszione, in order to increase the alcohol content of wine. Theoretically, it should be tolerated in a transaction vintages ungenerous; in fact it is an established practice. Too bad that is not obvious to the lack of structure of the wine, but only add alcohol. In France it is allowed the use of rectified concentrated must, as in Italy, or of simple sucrose. The name comes from Jean Antoine Chaptal, who developed this technique.

Classement: the classement are a craze in the history of French wine. Their main purpose is to establish a hierarchy and a system of stable values, especially in a commercial key, id linked to the sale price of the wine. The classement by far the most famous is that of Bordeaux established in 1855 at the request of Napoleon III in view of the universal exhibition in Paris, and reserved to the chateau best known and appreciated. The union of the courtier at the bag of Bordeaux drew up a classification based on the reputation of the properties and the average price of their wines over the last 200 years; were established five classes of merit, from the premier cru cru cinquième, limited to the crus of Medoc and Sauternes (with the exception of Chateau Haut Brion, Pessac). In the decades following the classement were established in Saint Emilion and the Medoc Cru Bourgeois and Artisan. In Burgundy the official classification in fact coincides with the appellation controlée of 1935, which legally sanctioned the presence of grand cru, premier cru and village appellation in other climat.

Climat: term linked to Burgundy, but sometimes also used elsewhere. Indicates that the single cru vineyard plot considered as an entity in itself. This identity can be microgeographic (linked to geology, soil science, the local microclimate), historical (as the vineyard was limited in time) but also winemaking (when the winemaker chooses to isolate this identity in terms of production , giving rise to a wine made only from grapes of that parcel). The correspondence between the vineyard and wine is at the base of premier and grand cru Burgundy: in this case it is sanctioned by addirirttura riconoscimeto of an appellation of origin to HOC.

Courtier: it is a historical figure in the world of French wine, in particular in the sale of bulk wine, including that of lata quality and prestige. It is an intermediary, a sort of broker, appointed to facilitate negotiations between buyer and seller, in this case between producer and retailer. In Bordeaux the courtier has for centuries had such a force to influence the destination of the wines, and consequently also their price, by leveraging supply and demand. It was the very first court to manage the 1855 clasement.

Cru: is a synonym of climat, but is used more widely throughout France. If climat is a term linked to a very limited vineyard surface, cru is a more ambiguous word, because it can refer to very different areas of extension: the vineyard of very few hectares in Burgundy, as well as the entire surface of a municipality of Champagne or even an average-large appellation of origin in the Beaujolais.

Cuvée: word very used but equally ambiguous, since it has more meanings. 1. Strictly speaking, the cuvée is the quantity of wine contained in a tub (cuve), 2. but generally this term is used to name a version of a wine: whether it is a name of pure fantasy, of a denomination of origin, of a vineyard or of the definition of a typology (reserve, vieilles vignes, etc ...) each of these wines identifiable by a label that makes it recognizable. 3. The term is however used in some cases to talk about the assembly of id provenineza wines or different types, in this case the cuvé and is the mixture of different batches of wine.

D

D.O.C.: controlled denomination of origin. The geographical names and the geographical qualifications of the corresponding production areas, used to designate wines with the denomination of orignie whose characteristics depend on the natural conditions, related to the wine vocation. These names are reserved for wines that meet the conditions and requirements established, for each of them, in the relevant production regulations.

Domaine: stands for winery, conceived as an entity with a geographical and historical continuity, therefore linked to a place. It is in a sense a synonym of the Italian Tenuta, a term more related to the cultivated area; the term domaine also sums up the productive use made of it.

E

Elevage: literally "breeding". It is used for animals, but also for wine, and is the set of winemaking practices between the end of fermentation and bottling. This maturation period (or affinametno) is of great importance for fine wines, and takes place mostly in wood. For this reason the French used this word also in the organoleptic description of the wine itself, almost the elevage was a substance of the wine. In this case, speaking in one way or another about the elevage may indicate, for example, that the taste of oak is too invasive, or on the contrary that the sapoe of a wine has been wisely polished precisely by an accurate refinement.

Extraction: it is the operation through which the must is enriched with the solid parts of the grape (starting from the phenols and tannins present in the skin, in the grape seeds and stems), acquiring body and structure. The extraction is obtained through the maceration of the solid parts (marc) in the liquid. Contrary to what happens in Italy, in the French wine sector the term is however generally used with a pejorative meaning, in that it designates an excess of solid matter or an ungainly extract, which hardens and makes the wine more appealing. An "extracted" or "too much extraction" wine can for example be the result of a too prolonged, too violent maceration or of a badly managed.

F

Alcoholic fermentation: biochemical process of transformation of sugars by yeasts, with formation of ethyl alcohol, carbon dioxide and many other secondary compounds resulting from chemical processes parallel to alcoholic fermentation properly so called. It is divided into two phases: tumultuous fermentation and secondary fermentation.

Fermentation with pomace: all the phenomena and operations that occur during the fermentation of red grape musts, from their introduction into the tank until the drawing off; involves two simultaneous but very different phenomena: the alcoholic fermentation of sugars and the extraction of the constituents of grapes by maceration.

Malolactic fermentation: process of transformation of malic acid into lactic acid, which can take place, at different times, at the end of alcoholic fermentation (it is desirable only in wines with good acidity and great balance; it makes them softer and more complete). It allows a natural deacidification of wines and can take place spontaneously or be favored by an increase in the temperature of the wine or by an inoculation of lactic bacteria.

G

Grado Oechsle: gradation unit of the homonymous aerometer that expresses the density of musts compared to 1000.

H

I

I.G.T. : geographical indication tipia; the geographical name of an area used to designate the resulting product; this name is reserved for wines that correspond to the conditions and requirements established, for each of them, in the related production regulations. The IGT mention can be replaced by the mention vin de pays for wines produced in Valle d'Aosta, by French bilingualism, and by the mention of landweine for wines produced in the province of Bolzano, of German bilingualism.

J

K

L

Lieu-dit: means "locality", and in the world of viticulture defines a precise vineyard from which the grapes come. It is a synonym of clamat and cru, but generally uses to identify a very restricted sector, sometimes a portion of land within a cru. Other times, it replaces its two synonyms, in the case in which the denomination is not official, but falls within the memory and uses of a given region.

M

Marne: sedimentary rocks formed mainly of limestone and clay; it is sometimes used for amendment.

Matter: in France it is a rather common term in the language of tasting. Paela of the substance of the wine (ie of its body, of its fullness), but at the same time it also evokes the quality and maturity of the grapes.

Noble mold: sdevelopment in larva form, and therefore "noble", of botritys cinerea. Only in the case of sweet wines, and contrary to the other forms of rot, it allows to obtain wines of particular fatness, complexity and longevity. It is known as pourriture noble in French, edelfaule in German, noble rot in English.

N

Nebbiolo: one of the (few) large Italian varieties of red grapes, if not the largest. Widespread in many regions (even in southern Italy!), It reaches its maximum expression on the hills of the Albese. In the provinces of Novara and Vercelli it also gives rise to other wines that were once very well known, such as Gattinara and Ghemme, which, despite having a different register, also have considerable potential.

Négoce: it is the activity of wineries that buy grapes, musts or wines from winemakers and direct producers, to make them ripen or to condition them before selling. The stores can in turn have vineyards, or limit themselves to the only activity of winemaking, aging and buying and selling. Due to its often significant economic and financial dimensions, the weight of the cheese can be such as to affect not only the price of grapes (and therefore the income of winemakers), but also the style and quality of the raw material. Regionio traditionally very linked to the négose are the Champagne, Burgundy, Beaujolais and Jura.

O

P

Pirata: a "pirate" wine is a bottle misleadingly inserted into a blind tasting (ie with covered and anonymised bottles). A morgon in a fleurie battery, a barbaresco in a barolo, a 1995 in a 1996 can be a pirate, for example. Its presence can be used to calibrate quality, typicality, homogeneity or recognisability of wines belonging to the tasting typology.

Phylloxera: tiny and pernicious parasite of the leaves and, even more, of the roots of the vine, arrived in Europe from America towards the end of the last century. It is two ways of spreading a new culture based on foot, but of bimembre in which the root system (rootstock or subject), resistant to phylloxera, is supplied by species of vines American, while the epigean portion (grafted variety), also resistant to phylloxera, belongs to the vitis vinifera.

Primeur / en primeur: il primo termine identifica in gener semplicemente il vino nuovo, ancora molto giovane. La dicitura en primeur invece sta a significareuno stadio di maturazione incompleta, durante il quale il vino è in una forma da considerarsi ancora provvisoria e indatta al consumo. Le degustazioni en primeur di vini in fase di elevage sono in genere riservate ai professionisti, e destinate a valutare il potenziale dei vini, al fine di acqusitarli anticipatamente o di prenotarli.

Q

Q.B.A: abbreviation of qualitatswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete.

Qualitatswein mit pradikat: quality wine (Q.b.a.) with predicate, that is to say produced according to the criteria relating to higher quality wines; this denomination can be accompanied by one of the following possible mentions: Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese, Esiwein, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese.

Quarto di Brenta: large format glass container with a capacity of about 12.5 liters

R

S

Saccharomyces cerevisiae: the magician of fermentation. Thanks to this small untiring mushroom the bread rises and the must ferments becoming Chianti. As greedy as anyone, he spends his time devouring sugars and turning them into alcohol. Saccharomyces preferably lives on the skins of grape berries but it is also used in the fermentation of beer. It usually dies when the wine reaches 16/17 alcoholic degrees. If the must has a higher sugar content, the wine will consume just enough sweet to make it a dessert wine.

T

Tannins: substances that are characterized by their property of fixing on proteins (a property that explains the astringency of tannic wines); they have great importance for fixing the color and preserving red wines; from the chemical point of view they result from the polymerization of elementary molecules with phenolic function; based on the nature of these molecules there are two families: catechic or condensed tannins and hydrolysable or pyrogallic tannins.

Terroir: earth. Term whose meaning goes well beyond the literal translation. Contrary to what we are led to believe, the word terroir does not mean solely the type of soil on which the vineyard is planted but also the climate, or better still the microclimate, enjoyed by that particular vineyard.

U

V

Verduzzo: white berry variety, originally from Friuli and widespread here. It is vinified both in dry and sweet versions, producing a more interesting wine only in the second case, where the golden color is accompanied by notes of apricot and honey and a slight tannins. However, only in rare cases can it produce particularly thick wines

Vieilles Vignes: literally "old vines". It is a very common term (sometimes abused) to identify a cuvée, or simply to suggest a superior quality of the wine. The old vines (from 25/30 years onwards) produce better grapes. However, as there is no regulation on this expression, its use is left to the discretion (and honesty) of the producer.

Vin de cépage(s): literally "wine of vine / i". Contrary to the work of classification, delimitation and denomination carried out historically on the basis of the terroir, which ended up establishing a correspondence between the name of the place and the name of the wine (for example cirò, chablis, bandol, chianti....) today is increasingly taking the name of the grape / wine name as a strength (for example: cabernet, nero d'avola, pinot grigio, sauvignon ...). Obviously, this second option does not contain in itself any reference to the relationship with the terroir.

Vinification: according to EU legislation, the transformation into wine by total or partial alcoholic fermentation of fresh grapes, whether or not crushed, of grape must, concentrated grape must, partially fermented grape must, juice of grapes, concentrated grape juice or new wines still in fermentation.

Vitis Vinifera: European species of vine from which all European quality wines are obtained. With some exceptions, after the phylloxera epidemic that struck Europe at the end of the nineteenth century, all the vines are grafted onto an American rootstock.

W

X

Y

Z

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