This week’s Wine Word of the Week is trellis systems. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Trellis systems are support structures for the vine framework required for a given training system. Normally, these are man made, although vines are still occasionally trained to trees. The trellis system in its simplest form […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is clos. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Clos is French for ‘enclosure’, and any vineyard described as a Clos should be enclosed, generally by a wall. This is a particularly common term in Burgundy, but is also used elsewhere. Layman’s terms from Kori: […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is ampelography. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Ampelography is the science of description and identification of the vine species vitis and its cultivated vine varieties. A volume of vine descriptions is also called an ampelography, the word coming from the Greek ampelos for […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is TTB. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: TTB is the teetotal acronym for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the US regulatory body responsible for AVA approvals, federal taxation, and label approval. (These are enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is INAO. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: INAO, the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine, is the organization in charge of administering, regulating, granting, and protecting the French appellations controlees, not just for about 470 different wines and spirits, but for more than 40 […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is Masters of Wine. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Masters of Wine are those who have passed the examinations held every year by the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW), the wine trade’s most famous and most demanding professional qualification. …. The examinations […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is first growth. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: First growth is a direct translation of the French premier cru but its meaning tends to be limited to those Bordeaux wine properties judged in the top rank according to the various classifications: Chx Lafite, […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is sustainable viticulture. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Sustainable viticulture is a form of viticultural practice which aims to avoid any form of environmental degradation while maintaining the economic viability of the vineyard. It is defined by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is biodynamic viticulture. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Biodynamic viticulture is, depending on your perspective, an enhanced or extreme form of organic viticulture. This controversial regime has produced some impressive results but without the reassurance of conclusive scientific explanation. It is based on […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is organic viticulture. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Organic viticulture is a system of grape-growing broadly defined as shunning manmade (industrially synthesized) compounds such as fertilizers, fungicides, and pesticides, as well as anything that has been genetically modified. It contrasts with “conventional”, sometimes […]