Wine glossary

A

Abboccato

The term abboccato refers to a wine with a residue of natural sugars between 4 and 12 grams per liter: in the quality scale in use, it represents a level of sweetness lower than "sweet".

Affinamento

The term affinamento refers to a series of operations, which are carried out in the cellar, following fermentation and prior to bottling (clarification, cutting, filtering, storage, etc.), which have the purpose of improving, maturing and caring for the wine.

Amabile

The term amabile indicates a wine with a residue of natural sugars between 12 and 45 grams per liter, which gives it a clear sweet note.

B

Ballon

The term ballon refers to a glass with a particular bellied shape. There are some variations: the short stem is the classic Cognac glass; with longer stem it is instead used for tasting very structured red wines.

Barricato

The term barricato refers to wine aged in barrique, that is to say a typical French oak barrel whose capacity is around 200-250 liters. In general, this refinement gives the wine the essences of wood, vanilla, toasted and smoked.

Barrique

La barrique è una botta di rovere francese. La sua peculiarità è quella di essere costruito con doghe piegate a fuoco diretto, il che conferisce al vino un sapore molto particolare. Vedi barricato.

Blend

The term Blend or Taglio indicates the mixing of different wines once fermentation is finished: this can happen both between wines produced with grapes of different origins, and with grapes of the same grape variety.

Bouquet

Il termine bouquet si riferisce all'insieme delle sensazioni olfattive di un vino, le quali vengono generalmente acquisite dopo un certo iter. Un bouquet legnoso o tostato, ad esempio, è il risultato di un invecchiamento in una barrique di rovere.

Brut

The term Brut refers to a dry sparkling wine, with residual sugar less than 15 g / l.

C

Cantina

The Cantina/ cellar is the room or set of rooms used for the conservation and aging of wines, before and / or after bottling.

Chiarificazione

This is the process by which the wine is made clear following the removal of the small particles of solid present in suspension. The clarification occurs naturally in the wine due to the effect of some enzymes present but takes some time.

Corposo

For corposo wine, reference is made to a wine rich in alcohol and dry extract where the olfactory and visual aspect are structurally in harmony with each other.

Cru

French term that indicates a specific area of wine production delimited, even a single vineyard, with its own particular and valuable characteristics.

D

Decanter

The decanter is a glass or crystal container that is used for settling - that is, the practical service used for red wines in order to oxygenate it and remove any sediment - and the service of aged wines.

Demi-sec

Sparkling wine or champagne tending to sweet, with a sugar level between 33 and 50 grams per liter. It can be translated from French into "moderately sweet" or "moderately sweet". It is one of the six terms used to indicate the sweetness of a Champagne. In ascending order: extra brut (totally dry), brut, extra dry, sec, demi-sec and doux (sweet).

E

Enoteca

The (Enoteca) wine shop is a particular type of shop for the sale of wine (originally only local or regional wine, today more often from various national and international territories).

F

Fermentazione

(Fermentazione) Fermentation represents the central phase of wine production. It is a chemical process during which the sugar contained in the must is transformed into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Fruttato

The term fruttato is used to refer to a wine that has the aroma and taste of fresh fruit. This term refers mostly to young wines.

I

Innesto

The term indicates the practice of transplanting a fragment of one variety of vines to the stump of another. Indispensable for fighting phylloxera and for adapting the vine to specific soil conditions.

M

Macerazione

The operation during which red wines take on color and tannins thanks to the contact between must and grape skins.

Marsalato

The term refers to a process due to excessive contact of the wine with oxygen, except for wines that make oxidation their main characteristic, such as Marsala wine.

Metodo Charmat (o Martinotti)

Sparkling method which involves fermenting the wine in large watertight containers at controlled pressure and temperature over a period of time between 1 and 6 months. The sparkling process is completed before bottling and the bottled wines are ready to drink. Used for example for Prosecco.

Metodo Classico (o Champenoise)

Unlike the previous one, this method of sparkling wine is longer (from 6 to 30 months) and involves refermentation in the bottle through the introduction of selected sugars and yeasts.

Morbido

Indicates an attribute of a generally positive wine. It is often used for aged red wines that have rounded the angularity of the acids and the bitterness of the tannins, making them very soft and pleasant in the mouth.

Mosto

By mosto we mean grape juice before alcoholic fermentation. The juice is the juice obtained by pressing or pressing the grapes, in which hundreds of substances are dispersed in water, which represents 70-80% of them

P

Pas Dosè

Sparkling wine at zero dosage, that is obtained without the addition of sugars, which contains only natural sugars born from fermentation.

Passiti

Mostly sweet wines, with a high alcohol content, obtained from semi-dried or dried grapes.

Perlage

The term perlage refers to the rows of carbon dioxide bubbles that develop in sparkling wines when they are poured into the glass, which seem precisely strings of pearls - hence the term Perlage.

Polifenoli

Natural substances that affect the color and taste characteristics of wine. These include flavonols, which give color to white wines, anthocyanins, which give color to red wines, and tannins, which are also responsible for the color as well as for the bitter component of red wines.

R

Riserva

Riserva wines are defined as high quality wines whose aging period is greater than that established by the specification of the wine in question.

S

Solfiti

Chemical substances that stabilize wine in various ways during the winemaking process. Sulphites are naturally present in all wines, but in most cases they are also added during production.

Superiore

Wines produced in full compliance with the specification and with an alcohol content higher than that of the corresponding base wine.

T

Tannini

Polyphenolic compounds contained in the peel and seeds (grape seeds) of the grape, as well as in the wood of the barrels, which give the wine its red color and are responsible for the sensation of astringency given by its flavor.

U

Uvaggio

Indicates which grapes make up a wine. If a wine is made 100% from the same grape it is a "monovarietal grape", while we speak of "multivarietal grape" in the event that several grapes are united before fermentation and vinified together.

U