Wine Word of the Week: Foxy



By Kori ~ July 24th, 2010.

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is foxy.

Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine:
Foxy is usually a deeply pejorative tasting term for the peculiar flavour of many wines, particularly red wines, made from American vines and American hybrids, vine varieties developed from both American and European species of the Vitis genus, particularly Vitis labrusca. The concord grape, widely planted in New York State, is one of the most heavily scented, reeking of something closer to animal fur than fruit, flowers, or any other aroma associated with fine wine, although the ‘candy’-like aroma is, incidentally, quite close to that of the tiny wild strawberry or fraise des bois.

Layman’s terms from Kori:
Foxy is an unflattering tasting term used to describe animal fur aromas and flavors in wine, often found in Vitis labrusca, which is native to the eastern United States.


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