Wine request: Chambolle Musigny "Les Amoureuses" 1er cru Domaine Robert Groffier Père & Fils (2021), 75 cl.

W –

Weissherbst

Is by German law a rosé wine at least 95% of which is made by direct pressing of a single red wine grape variety named on the label (Spätburgunder and Portugieser are especially common).

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U –

ultra brut

Brut Nature, Pas Dosé or Zéro Dosage. Residual sugar under 3g/lit

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H –

hard

Tasting term applied to wine that is high in astringent tannins and apparently lacking in fruit.

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A –

AC or AOC

Stands for Appellation d'Origine Contrôllée, France's famous denomination for ist best wines, sometimes known as Appellation Contrôlée.

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P –

primeur

French word for young produce which has been adapted to mean "young wine".

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F –

fining

Winemaking process with the aim of clarification and stabilization of a wine whereby a fining agent, one of a range of special materials, is added to coagulate or adsorb and precipitate quickly the colloids suspended in it.

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R –

Rhône

One of the most important wine rivers, linking a range of vineyards as dissimilar as those of Châteauneuf-du Pape in southern France, sparkling Seyssel, and Fendant du Valais in Switzerland.

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C –

Chassagne-Montrachet

Village in the Côte de Beaune district of Burgundy's Côte d'Or more famed for its white wines from the Chardonnay grape than for its equally plentiful red wines from Pinot Noir.

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C –

commune

French for village or Parish.

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B –

Banyuls

Appellation for France's finest and certanly most complex vins doux naturels, made from vertiginous terraced vineyards above the Mediterranean at the southern limit of Roussillon.

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C –

cépage

French for vine variety. A varietal wine, one that is sold by the name of the principal variety from which it is made.

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C –

Côte

Means literally slope or hill in French. Côtes is the plural, while Coteau (of which Coteaux is the plural) means much the same thing.

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B –

brut

Adapted by the champagne industry for wines made without (much) added sweetening or dosage. The upper limit for the resiudual sugar of a brut champagne has been reduced from 15 to 12 g/l.

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B –

BIN

Traditional term for a collection of wine bottles, normally stacked horizontally on top of each other, or the process of so storing, or binning, them.

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S –

Superiore

Italian term applied to DOC wines which are deemed superior because of their higher minimum alcoholic strength, usually by a half or one per cent, a longer period of ageing before commercial release, or a lower maximum permited yield, or all three.

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W –

whole-bunch fermentation

Ultratradaitional method of red wine fermentation in which grape berries are not subjected to destemming. This was the default position before the introduction of the crusher-destemmer. The possible disadvantages are that, unless the stems are vey ripe, i.e. well lignified, and the must is handled very gently, the stems may impart harsh tannins to the wine.

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G –

Grands Échezeaux

Red Grand Cru in Burgundy's Côte d'Or.

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X –

Xérès

French name for both Jerez and Sherry.

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B –

bottle ageing

The process of deliberately maturing a wine after bottling, whether for a few weeks as a conscious effort on the part of the bottler to allow the wine to recover from bottle sickness or, in the case of very fine wines, for many years in order to allow the wine to mature.

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M –

Meursault

Large and prosperous village in the Côte de Beaune district of Burgundy's Côte d'Or producing mostly white wines from the Chardonnay grape. Although Meursault contains no Grand Cru vineyards, the quality of white burgundy from Meursault's best Premier Crus is rarely surpassed.

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C –

Clos de Vougeot

Also frequently known as Clos Vougeot, famous walled vineyard in Burgundy created originally by the monks of Cîteaux.

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A –

American hybrids

A group of vine hybrids developed in the eastern United States, mainly in the early and mid 19th century.

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B –

Beaune

Vinous capital of Burgundy giving ist name to the Côte de Beaune sction of the Côte d'Or.

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V –

veraison

Word used in viticulture for that intermediate stage of grape berry developement which marks the beginning of ripening

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C –

Chambolle-Musigny

Village and appellation of particular charm in the Côte de Nuits district of Burgundy.

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