This week’s Wine Word of the Week is clarification. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Clarification is the winemaking operation which removes suspended and insoluble material from grape juice, or new wine, in which these solids are known as lees. …. Clarification can usually be accomplished naturally by simply holding the […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is fermentation. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Fermentation, as it applies to wine, is the process of converting sugar to ethanol (ethyl alcohol) and carbon dioxide effected by the anaerobic (oxygen-free) metabolism of yeast. It comes from the Latin word fervere, to boil; […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is crushing. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Crushing is the wine-making operation of breaking open the grape berry so that the juice is more readily available to the yeast for fermentation. Modern winery equipment that permits sufficiently thorough crushing has effectively speeded up […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is harvest. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Harvest is both the process of picking ripe grapes from the vine and transferring them to the winery (or field pressing station), and its occasionally festive, if frenetic, duration. This transition period in the wine-making cycle […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is oaky. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Oaky is a tasting term usually applied to wines too heavily influenced by oak flavor, which smell and taste more of wood than fruit, and may be aggressively tannic and dry. Layman’s terms from Kori: Ms. […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is fortified. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Fortified wines are those which have been subject to fortification and therefore include sherry, port, Madeira, vermouth, Malaga, mantilla, Marsala, liqueur Muscat, Liqueur Tokay, and several strictly local specialties. Fortification is the practice of adding spirits, […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is sparkling. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Sparkling wine is wine which bubbles when poured into a glass, an important and growing category of wine. The bubbles form because a certain amount of carbon dioxide has been held under pressure dissolved in the […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is terroir. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Terroir is a much-discussed term for the total natural environment of any viticultural site. No precise English equivalent exists for this quintessentially French term and concept. …. Major components of terroir are soil (as the word […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is closures. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Closures for wine containers are necessary to avoid harmful contact with oxygen and have changed remarkably little until recent times. Corks are still the principal closures used for wine bottles, just as they were more than […]

This week’s Wine Word of the Week is corked. Official definition from Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Corked is the pejorative tasting term for a wine spoiled by a cork stopper contaminated with cork taint. This is one of the most serious wine faults as in most cases it irrevocably imbues the wine […]