Friday, September 8, 2017

Harvest Terms You Need to Know



September in the Northern Hemisphere is a huge month for winemakers.  Wine lovers should be aware of the following vocabulary, especially if you’re visiting a winery:

  • Alcoholic fermentation:   the conversion of grape sugar to alcohol

  • Battonage:  stirring the wine during fermentation so that the liquid has contact with the lees (the solids)

  • Brettanomyces:  bad yeast that causes wines to spoil

  • Brix:  measurement of the amount of sugar in the grape

  • Carbonic maceration: fermenting whole clusters of grapes that have not been crushed

  • Fining:  process used to clarify the wine (egg whites are used by many)

  • Free-run juice:  juice that has not been pressed but obtained simply by the weight of the grapes themselves

  • Malo-lactic Fermention:  Known also as “ML,” this is the conversion of harsh malic acid to softer lactic acid

  • Must:  unfermented grape juice

  • Lees:  sediment that occurs during fermentation (includes spent yeasts, seeds & other solids)

  • Racking:  process of separating the wine from the sediment by moving the liquid to another barrel

  • Saignee:  French term which literally means “to bleed,” this is the process of removing some of the unfermented grape juice to increase the wine/skin ratio

  • Sulfites:  chemicals that prevent spoilage of wine

  • Tannin:  compound found in the seeds, skins and stalks of grapes

  • TCA:  abbreviation for the destructive chemical that causes cork taint

  • Topping-off:  process of filling a wine barrel that has lost wine due to evaporation




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