Wine request: Franciacorta Cavalleri Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature Bio Società Agricola G&G Cavalleri, 75 cl.

C –

Chevalier-Montrachet

Great white Grand Cru in Burgundy's Côte d'Or.

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S –

Sélection de Grains Nobles

The richest, most sumptuous ripeness category of Alsace wines.

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E –

Erstes Gewächs

Designates dry wines from a limited number of ostensibly top sites in the Rheingau and Hessische Bergstrasse.

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U –

umami

Japanese term derived from two words meaning "delicious" and "essence" and used to refer to what some consider to be the fifth primary taste. It is variously described as "savory" or "meaty".

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L –

liquoreux

French term meaning "syrupy sweet" used for very rich, often botrytized, wines that are markedly sweeter than moelleux wines.

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N –

Nuits, Côte de

Named after the principal town of Nuits-St-Georges, this is the northern half of the escarpment of the Côte d'Or, producing the greatest red wines of Burgundy, from the Pinot Noir grape, and very occasional white wines.

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R –

récolte

French for harvest.

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R –

ripasso

Italian term meaning literally "repassed", for the technique of adding extra flavour, and alcohol, to Valpolicella by refermenting the young wine on the unpressed skins of Amarone wines after these dried-grape wines have finished their fermentation in the spring, and racked off.

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D –

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

The most prestigious wine estate in Burgundy, based in Vosne-Romanée. The Domaine, as it is frequently called, is co-owned by the de Villaine and Leroy families and produces only Grand Cru wines.

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S –

Sassicaia

One of the first Italian reds made in the image of fine red bordeaux.

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M –

Morey-St-Denis

Important village in the Côte de Nuits district of Burgundy producing red wines from Pinot Noir grapes. Morey suffers, perhaps unfairly, in comparison with ist neighbours Chambolle-Musigny and Gevrey-Chambertin beacuse its wines are usually described as being lighter versions of Gevrey or firmer than Chambolle, according to which side of the village they are located.

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Z –

zinc

Essential element for healthy vine growth. A deficiency of zinc affects the plant's ability to synthesize the hormones auxins, deficiency in which results in a failure of the shoots to grow normally.

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R –

remontage

French word for various systems of pumping over. In winemaking terms it is the pumping of the liquid in the fermentation tank over the cap of skins and solids during the red wine fermentation.

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D –

decanting

Optional and controversial step in serving wine, involving pouring wine out of its bottle into another container called a decanter.

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T –

tannins

Diverse and comples group of chemical compounds that occur in the bark of many trees and in fruits, including the grape.

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B –

Bordeaux

Important French port on the Garonne River. Bordeaux gives ist name to a wine region that includes the vineyards of the Gironde département and, as such, the wine region that produces more top -quality wine than any other region.

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P –

potassium

One of the macronutriments required by the vine for healthy growth, along with nitrogen and phosphorus.

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F –

fermentation

As it appplies to wine, is the process of converting sugar to ethanol and carbon dioxide effected by the anaerobic metabolism of yeast.

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V –

Vendange Tardive

Means literally "late harvest" and in France is restricted to Alsace, where strict regulations cover ist production, even if too many producers are meeting only the bare minima.

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S –

Sauternes

The special distinction of this region embedded within the Graves distric south of Bordeaux is that it is dedicated, in a way unmatched by any other wine region, to the production of unfortified, sweet, white wine.

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C –

cosecha

Is Spanish for vintage year.

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C –

Cava

Spanish sparkling wine made using the traditional method of sparkling winemaking.

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C –

Châteauneuf-du-Pape

The most important, and variable, appellation in the southern Rhône in terms of quality, producing mainly rich, spicy, full-bodied red wines which can be some of the most alluring expressions of warm-climate viticulture, but can also be either impossibly tannic or disappointingly jammy.

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P –

pigeage

French term for punching down, the winemaking operation of breaking up and submerging the cap of skins and other solids during red wine fermentation to stop the cap from drying out.

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S –

Smaragd

The most valuable category of white wines made from the ripest grapes on the best sites of the Wachau in Austria. The category is named after the green lizard that basks in the sun on the Wachau's steep stone terraces above the river Danube. Alcohol levels in the unchaptalized Grüner Veltliners and Rieslings that qualify must be more than 12.5%.

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