WORDS OF WINE

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 12

WORDS OF WINE

amaroso: medium dry type of sherry. Amontillado: dry type of sherry. apertif: appetiser. Appelation d’Origine or Appelation Controlee: term which appears on labels of fine French wines—signifying origin and right to the name it bears are

guaranteed by French law. Beaume hydrometer: an instrument for measuring the degree of sweetness in wines and spirits, blume: bouquet, aroma, bouquet: aroma or fragrance of a wine or spirit. brut: driest type of champagne. burgundy: a full bodied dry red wine made from the Cabernet grape. Though used to describe darker and stronger dry red wines it was first applied to the red and white sparkling wines produced in BurgundyCabernet: a grape variety with berries which are small, bluish-black, thickskinned, and juicy, used for making quality red wines to which the name

also refers. Chablis: a dry white wine originally made from Pinot

Chardonnay grapes grown from any of the vineyards at Chablis, France, chamu: a wine of full body. Chateau, chateau • bottled: wine bottled at the chateau, estate or vineyard where grapes from which it was made are grown. Chianti: usually a dry red wine produced in the district of Chianti Ferrese, Italy. . . claret: a clear red table wine of delicate bouquet and flavour made from Pinot grapes. First used for the red wines of Bordeaux. corkage: a fee charged for opening and serving a customer’s own bottle, or often applied to any bottle consumed on the premises, cradle: a basket in which vintage wines are sometimes carried and served. crust: the hardened deposit (mainly cream of tartar) thrown off by red wines which have been long in bottles: applies principally to vintage ports.

cuvee: a French term used to describe contents of a vat, hence blending or vatting. demi-sec: half dry—term used to describe a fairly sweet type of champage. doux: sweet. dry: a term used to denote the opposite of sweet; literally it means lack of sugar, lacking in sugar. egrappage: de-stemming process before grapes are pressed. esters: the result of mixing the alcohol compound With acid.

excise: a, tax levied on alcohol -' and other substances. extra sec: extra dry term used to denote a type of dry champagne. fermentation: the chemical process whereby sugars are broken down into alcohol, carbonic acid gas, and other by-products. finings: a process of clarifying wines by adding gelatin, albumen, etc. fine: the term applied to the driest type of sherries. flor: a minute yeast organism which forms on the surface during wine making, it gives a delicacy to Fino sherry. fortified wines: wines whose natural alcoholic strength is increased by the addition of brandy. frappe: iced, term applied to serving of liqueur with finely cracked ice. fruity: a frank taste of grape found in good wines. hock: a dry white table wine made with selected white grape varieties, in which as with other white wines the fermentation takes place after the skins have been separated. This preserves the delicate flavour which is a characteristic of the wine. Hock was originally produced at Hochhiem, Germany. > Madeira: a rich dry fortified

wine of the sherry class originally from the island of Madeira. It is made from white grapes and has additional sugar added for sweetening. Moselle: a dry white wine with aromatic flavour, it has a greater bouquet than other white wines. The name given to wines from the Moselle region in Germany. Muscat(el): a rich spicy fortified wine made from the muscat or similar grape. must: grape juice before and while it is fermenting. oenology: the science or study of wines. oloroso: a sherry of medium type, darker and richer than amontillado. Palomino (or Palamlno): a white grape which ripens early, it has a thick yellowish-golden skin and produces a sherry type wine. pinot: dry white table wines fresh straw coloured, slightly fuller than Riesling or any White Hock. Grapes or wine originally from Burgundy. pourriture noble: "noble rot” —the state of over-ripe-ness of the grapes in the Sautemes region of Bordeaux—it is in reality a yeast or mould known scientifically as Botrytis cinerea. racking: the process in wine making of transferring liquor from one vessel to another to free it from sediment. ■

red wines: any wine which has the slightest part of red colouring, obtained from the pigment found on the inside of the grape skin. rich, riche: a wine having a generous bouquet, flavour, and fullness of body. Riesling: a dry white table wine of light body and pale colour, also used to refer to grape varieties which have small greenishyellow berries and are used in the production of dry and sweet wine of low acidity. \ rondeur: roundness, a wine which drinks easily. rose: pink wine: a very pale red wine obtained by removing the grape skins as soon as the required amount of colour has been attained by the wine. ruby: a port of very deepred colour, usually quite S, as opposed to one has been aged . for some time in wood and has become "tawny”—this is pale in colour through repeated finings. sack, sacke: the old English spelling of the Spanish seco, which became the generic term used to denote the drier fortified wines as opposed to "mountain” which were sweet: the term fell into disuse during the last century: today it forms part of a trade marked brand owned by one of the larger English sherry shipping houses. Sautemefs): a medium to sweet white light table wine. First produced at Sautemes in the Gironde, France. see: French term for dry, also term used to denote a medium sweet champagne, solera: is a term used for the method of blending types of sherry and the tiered basis in which this is done, tawny: the quality of paleness or golden tinge which ports acquire when matured in wood; this comes from the loss of the red colour resulting from repeated finings; such wines are tawny ports. tendre: a rather light and delicate wine, usually a young wine. tent: the ancient name for sweet Spanish wine. vin doux: a sweet wine, vin sec: a dry wine. vin mosseux: sparkling wine, vin nature: natural, unsweetened wine. vin ordinaire: ordinary cheap Wine for general consumption. vin rose: a pink wine, vintage wines: in most wine regions the product of exceptional years only is dated. A vintage wine is presumed to be one of outstanding merit. viticulture: the cultivation of the grape vine. (From the Industries and Commerce Department booklet, New Zealand wine, 1970).