Wine request: Corton Charlemagne grand cru Thierry et Pascale Matrot (2021), 75 cl.

B –

Blanc de Noir

French for "white of blacks", describes a white wine made from dark-skinned grapes by pressing them very gently and running the pale juice off the skins as clear as possibl.

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V –

viscosity

The quality of being viscous, the extent to which a solution resists flow or movement.

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C –

Cava

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

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S –

sec

Is French for dry.

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M –

Mâcon

Important commercial centre on the River Saône and capital of the Mâconnais dynamic district of Burgundy which produces considerable quantities of white wine and some red.

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M –

Marsannay

Northernmost appellation of the Côte de Nuits district of the Côte d'Or. It is unique in Burgundy for having Appellation Contrôllée status for red, white, and pink wines.

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S –

sommelier

Widely used French term for a specialist wine waiter or wine steward. The sommelier's job is to ensure that any wine ordered is served correctly and, ideally, to advise on the individual characteristics of every wine on the establishment's wine list and on food and wine matching.

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B –

BYO

Stands for "Bring Your Own" (wine) and is a type of restaurant most common in Australia and New Zealand, where the term was coined.

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O –

oxidation

The term usually refers to a wine fault resulting from excessive exposure to oxygen. Oxidation is a threat as soon as the grape is crushed.

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T –

training systems

Methods of vine training, which vary considerably around the world. The word describes the actions of pruning in winter and summer, and shoot and cane placement, so that the vine's trunk, arms, and cordons and buds are appropriately located on the trellis system.

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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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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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É –

Échezeaux

Grand Cru of the village of Flagey-Échezeaux in Burgundy's Côte de Nuits, producing red wines from Pinot Noir grapes.

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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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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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S –

saignée

French term meaning "bled" for a winemaking technique which results in a rosé wine made by running off, or "bleeding", a certain amount of free-run juice from just-crushed dark-skinned grapes after a short, prefermentation maceration.

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B –

Blanc Fumé

Is a French synonm for Sauvignon Blanc, notably in Pouilly-sur-Loire, centre of the Pouilly-Fumé, or Blanc Fumé de Pouilly, appellation, many of whose aromatic dry whites do indeed have a smoky, if not exactly smoked, perfume.

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R –

residual sugar

Occasionally RS, the total quantity of sugars remaining unfermented in the finished wine. This may include both fermentable sugars, mainly glucose and fructose, which have for some reason remained unconverted to alcohol during fermentation, and small amounts of those few sugars which are not readily fermented by typical wine yeast.

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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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M –

Melon

Or Melon de Bourgogne, the most planted grape variety in the Loire valley, planted on 10798ha/26671acres in 2011 and famous in only one respect and one region, Muscadet.

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M –

microclimate

Widely misused term meaning strictly the climate within a defined and usually very restricted space or position. In viticulture, it might be at specific positions between rows of vines, or distances above the ground.

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G –

grafting

The connection of two pieces of living plant tissue so that they unite and grow as one plant, has been a particularly important element in growing vines since the end of the 19th century.

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B –

botte

Italian word for a large wooden cask. The plural is botti.

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A –

AVA

The acronym for American Viticultural Area and the US relatively rudimentary answer to France's appellation Contrôlée.

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P –

powdery mildew

The first of the vine fungal diseases to be scientifically described, in 1834 in the United States.

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