Wine Terms You Might not Know from A to Z (Part 1 ends with M)

We're grounded today because ... well, because I said we're grounded. I just don't have the energy to travel, vicariously or not, to some faraway place. I don't have the energy to think about a grape I haven't written about. But, I'm going to make an effort to be remotely educational or entertaining anyway. So, somewhat in the spirit of Sue Grafton, here we go.

A is for appassimento -- You're probably not surprised just looking at the word and pronouncing it to yourself that this is an Italian term. While it is used elsewhere, its primary usage is in Valpolicella where it's part of the process of making Amarone. After grapes are harvested, they are placed on straw drying mats or sometimes on bamboo racks to dry them. In the case of the finest Amarone, this process may go on for several months. It serves to concentrate the sugars and gives the Corvina and Rondinella the raisiny notes so common in Amarone.

B is for botrytis cinerea usually simply botrytis -- It sounds so much more useful than the more common term of noble rot. It's a mold that grows on (over)ripe grapes when the climate is right. Botrytis dehydrates the grapes, shriveling them and concentrating the sugars. It's the key to most of the world's sweet, non-fortified wines in that it gives them the sweet, honeyed flavor for which Sauternes, Barsac, (Trocken)Beerenauslese, and Tokaji are famous.

C is for claret -- While it sounds quite fancy, claret from the French for clear, because older red blends tended to be somewhat clear and pale, is the British and sometimes other term for Bordeaux-style blends.

D is for délestage -- This is the part of the winemaking process where the must, seeds, stems, and other wine trash forms a "cap" on top of the wine. The wine is drained through a valve leaving the solids in the tank. The "reserved" wine is then pumped or poured back on top of the cap giving the wine greater color extraction from the solids.

E is for extra dry -- This is one of the most misleading terms in wine. Often used for sparkling wines, an estra dry sparkler is actually quite sweet and usually of lower quality.

F is for fiasco -- No, it's not a wine term for a debacle. Typically used in Chianti, this is the combination straw basket around the round-bottome bottle that is traditional in many Sangiovese-based wines.

G is for garagiste -- These are wine merchants or negociants who specialize in very limited production bottlings, so small that they could be done in a garage. Leftover juice is purchased from wineries at very low prices and blended into proprietary, but often strange, bottlings.

H is for hot -- This has nothing to do with the temperature of a wine, but it does relate to the sensation that we get. A hot wine is one that tastes far too much like alcohol. It has a lack of balance causing the wine to resemble a spirit with perhaps three times the alcohol content.

I is for isinglass -- Isinglass is a protein commonly found in the bladders of sturgeon that may have been harvested for their caviar. During the fining process, it can blend with excess tannins to make an overly tannic wine less harsh.

J is for jereboam -- When you're feeling really thirsty, you uncork a jerboam. Containing 4.5 liters of wine, this is the equivalent of 6 bottles or 30 standard restaurant pours. It's great for a party and do to the additional surface area, a fine jereboam will tend to age for much longer than a standard-sized bottle.

K is for kabinett -- this is the lowest level of the pradikatwein high-quality wine in the German classification system. Having rigorous standards and usually low levels of residual sugar, it gets the name for the German word for cabinet. It is said to have originated because these were the wines that the winemaker thought were good enough to keep some for himself in his own wine cabinet.

L is for liqueur de tirage -- Liqueur de tirage is the solution consisting of yeast, sugar, and wine that is added to the still base wine in the production of Champagne or other sparkling wines using the méthode traditionnelle or méthode Champenoise. It starts the second stage or secondary fermentation.

M is meritage -- For starters, this invented word rhymes with heritage. It is a trademarked term that carries with what I would call, probably incorrectly, a licensing fee. To use it on a wine, the wine must be a (Bordeaux-style) blend -- red or white -- containing less than 75% of any one varietal. And, a wine that uses the term is required to pay the Meritage Association $1 per case for its use.