Wine lingo

More stuff mooched from the other side of the world. I like it because of the word "gobbledygook"

Winemaker lingo made simpleBy LESLEY REIDY - Stuff.co.nz | Thursday, 11 October 2007


Like any industry, those within it employ a number of buzz words and abbreviations that for the rest of us are little more than gobbledygook.

Below are some commonly used terms explained in plain language.

Terroir - Basically meaning 'a sense of place' this French term originally referred to a group of vineyards from the same region, with the same soil type, appellation, weather patterns, grapes and wine making know how. Depending on where you go though, (or who you ask) the definition can be a bit different - but the all encompassing idea is that a number of factors contribute to giving a wine certain unique characteristics.

Cold soak (pre-fermentation maceration) - undertaken in order to increase the aromatic intensity of the wine while improving colour and colour stability.

Lees stirring - Lees are the deposits of residual yeast and other particles that end up in the bottom of tank or barrel after a wine has bee through the fining process. Wines are often left 'on lees' or undergo lees stiring in order for the wine to develop a lees character typified as yeasty and biscuity.

Fining - This gives wine greater clarity and removes any particles that may still remain. While filtering will remove most particles, to avoid wine developing bottle sediment natural substances are used to attract these proteins.

In New Zealand the most commonly used fining agents are milk powder, fish byproduct isinglass and egg whites. Yeast proteins and other particles bind to these agents which then fall to the bottom of the tank.

The amount of fining agent used to wine is miniscule and is barely tracable, but as no one wants to be culpable to allergy sufferers a statement is often made on the bottle alerting consumers to the fact a certain product has been used - e.g. "This wine may contain traces of egg, dairy, fish products".

Racking - the process of pumping wine from one tank to another in order to leave sediment behind.

Whole bunch pressed - This means the grapes are pressed stems and all rather than being de-stemmed first. This helps to reduce the amount of pulp that makes it into the juice and causes less breaking of the skin of the grape which contains phenolic material which can cause wine to taste more harsh and astringent.

Whole bunch pressed grapes have also been hand picked rather than harvested by machines which shake the grapes from the vine.


Lesley Reidy is an owner of online wine retailer www.winefairy.co.nz