This week’s Wine Word of the Week is noble rot. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Noble rot, also known as pourriture noble in French, Edelfaule in German, muffa in Italian, and sometimes simply as botrytis, is the benevolent form of botrytis bunch rot, in which the Botrytis cinerea fungus attacks […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is old vines. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Old vines are reputed to produce grapes which make better quality wine. The concept that older vines make better wine is much used in marketing wine in the Old World and has more recently been […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is carbonic maceration. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Carbonic maceration is a red wine-making process which transforms a small amount of sugar in grapes which are uncrushed into ethanol, without the intervention of yeasts. It is used typically to produce light-bodied, brightly coloured, […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is must. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Must is the name used by winemakers for a thick liquid that is neither grape juice nor wine but the intermediate, a mixture of grape juice, stem fragments, grape skins, seeds, and pulp that comes from […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is cot. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Cot is an important French synonym for the black grape variety of French origin also known as Malbec and, in Cahors, Auxerrois. Layman’s terms from Kori: Cot is another name for Malbec.

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is viscosity. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Viscosity, the quality of being viscous, is the extent to which a solution resists flow or movement. Honey is more viscous than sugar syrup, for example, which is considerably more viscous than water. Viscosity, which approximates […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is frizzante. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Frizzante is an Italian wine term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to spumante, which is used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial second fermentation in tank, a sort of […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is enology. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Enology, or oenology, is the knowledge or study of wine, derived from the Greek oinos meaning ‘wine’. …. Enology has been used as synonymous with wine-making and distinct from viticulture, which is concerned with vines. Layman’s […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is cellar. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Cellar is a widely used word that is roughly the English counterpart to cave, cantina, and bodega in French, Italian, and Spanish respectively. It can therefore be applied to both wine shops and wine-making premises, but […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is canopy. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Canopy is the part of the vine above the ground, formed by the leaf and shoot system. It includes the trunk, cordon or canes, shoots, leaves, and fruit. Layman’s terms from Kori: Canopy is the part […]