A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
| Acetic | Acetic acid is the acid that gives vinegar its characteristic taste. Small amounts of acetic acid, about 0.5 grams/litre are normal in wine; amounts over 1.0 gram/litre give wine a vinegar-like character |
| Acidity | The agreeable sharp taste caused by natural fruit acids. In moderate amounts it is a favourable characteristic, not to be confused with sourness, dryness, or astringency. |
| Aftertaste | The sensation left in the mouth after a wine has been swallowed. Length of palate or flavour persistence. |
| Aggressive | Opposite to soft and smooth; a young wine may seem aggressive, but can round out with a little time in the bottle. |
| Aging | The process of allowing time to develop the character of a wine. The life differs greatly in different wines. |
| Aging Sur Lie | Translated “aging on the lees,” and often referred to as “yeast contact.” Wine is aged in the barrel with the yeast retained, rather than being clarified before aging. Aging on the lees increases the complexity and creaminess of the wine. |
| Alluvial | Soil that contains clay, silt, sand or gravel deposited by running water is said to be alluvial. Grapes grown in mostly sandy and stony alluvial soil produce wine with more concentrated fruit flavours. |
| AOC | Abbreviation for Appelation d’origine Controlee, the French equivalent to VQA, a guarantee of rudimentary quality control. |
| Aperitif | A drink taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite. |
| Aroma | The fragrance of the fruit directly related to the variety of the grape used to make the wine. The aroma of the grapes will change as the wine ages to its final bouquet. |
| Aromatic | A wine that has an abundant aroma (also perfume). |
| Aromatized wines | Fortified wines flavoured with aromatic substances such as herbs, fruit and flowers. |
| Astringency | A normal characteristic of some young wines, usually caused by an excess of tannin, lessening with age. It has a puckering effect on the mouth. It may be more noticeable with red wines. Astringent; bitter, lots of tannin. |
| Austere | A wine that lacks fruit and is dominated by harsh acidity and/or tannin. |
| Backbone | Capable of aging well. |
| Backward | A wine that is slow in maturing |
| Balance | A term of praise denoting a wine whose sugar, acidity and many odour and taste elements are present in such proportions as to produce a harmonious and pleasant sensation. |
| Barrel Aging | The process of holding wine in oak containers to allow flavour and aromatic compounds to mature and change beneficially. |
| Barrel Character | The flavour and aromatic compounds an oak barrel contributes to the wine. Barrel character varies by the origin or forest of the wood, coopering techniques including toasting and length of oak aging, and the age of the barrel. |
| Barrel fermentation | The conversion of grape juice into white wine by yeast in a 60 gallon French oak barrel. Barrel fermentation gives Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc more complexity and integrated oak flavour. |
| Bentonite | Fine clay containing a volcanic ash derivative called montromillonite, a hydrated silicate of magnesium that activates a precipitation in wine when used as a fining agent. |
| Berry fruit | A character found mainly in younger red wines. Reminiscent of fruits such as blackberry, raspberry, black currant (cassis). |
| Big Wine | Full bodied, powerful flavours and aromas (does not refer to alcoholic strength). |
| Bite | Sharp, high acidity. |
| Bitter | Dries out the mouth. |
| Blanc de Blanc | A French term “white from white”. Usually applied to an outstanding pale green, gold champagne of great delicacy and finesse. It is made primarily from the Chardonnay grape. |
| Blanc de Noirs | A white wine made from black grapes – primarily pinot noir. |
| Blending | The specialized craft of combining wines to achieve a batch of wine of high standard and uniform quality. |
| Blind Tasting | A tasting where the identity of wines is unknown to the taster until after notes and scores have been given. All competitive tastings are blind. |
| Bloom | Flowering of the grapevines. Bloom is also a waxy substance found on the skins of grapes. |
| Blush (Rose) | Wines made by fermenting red grapes in contact with their skins for only a matter of hours until the winemaker judges he has obtained the degree of pink colour which gives the wine its name. The juice is then separated from the skins so no further colouration takes place and fermentation continues. As for white wine, it can be semi-sweet or dry. |
| Body | The taste sensation of substance in a wine, which can be related to alcohol content. Wine may have a heavy body or a light body. This cannot be measured. It is a matter of taste or mouth feel. The weight of the wine in the mouth, texture. |
| Bone dry | Very dry with no perception of sweetness (residual sugar). |
| Botrytis Cinera(also called “Bunch Rot”) | A “noble rot” or white mould which forms naturally on the skins of white grapes and occasionally red grapes and shrivels them. This dehydration causes an increase in sugar levels as well as intensity of fruit flavour and bouquet in the resulting wine. |
| Bottle age | How long the wine has been in the bottle; as opposed to vintage which indicates the overall age of the wine, including time in the cask. |
| Bouquet | The fragrance (odours) given off by a mature wine when it is opened. Applies to smells directly attributable to wine’s maturity in the bottle. |
| Breathing | Opening the bottle a period of time before pouring. This process enhances the bouquet by allowing air to come in contact with the wine by removing the cork and/or decanting it prior to serving. A young red wine will benefit from being given at least an hour to breathe. Older wines will benefit less. |
| Brettanomyces(Brett) | A wild yeast strain that can taint wine and or wood barrels if the winery is not very careful about cleanliness. “Brett” can give the wine an off-putting “horsey,” “barnyard,” or “cheap wine” smell and a bitter, metallic aftertaste. The Australians refer to it as “sweaty saddle” and French winemakers refer to it as “animale”. It is considered a major flaw when the flavour is over-pronounced. It is almost impossible to eradicate and most winemakers take great pains to avoid it. |
| Brix | The measurement of soluble solids (sugar content) in grapes at harvest, taken with a refractometer and expressed in degrees. Most grapes are harvested between 10 and 24 degrees brix. One-degree brix corresponds to approximately 18g/L sugar. |
| Brut | Normally reserved for sparkling wine, it literally means “raw” or “bone-dry”. It is a French term designating driest (least sweet) grade of Champagne or sparkling wine. |
| Bung | The wooden or silicone rubber stopper in a wine cask. |
| Burnt | Hot country smell, as if the wines have been given too much heat. |
| Buttery | A developed fruit character detected mainly on the nose of mature Chardonnay. A rich, fat and delicious character. |
| Canopy | The leaves and shoots of grapevines. |
| Cap | The grape skins that float to the top of fermenting red wines, forming a cap. |
| Capsule | Metal foil over the cork and outer top neck of the bottle. |
| Chaptalization | The addition of sugar to fresh grape juice to raise a wine’s alcohol potential. |
| Character | The combination of taste, bouquet, and colour in a wine. |
| Charm | Elegant, attractive, a very pleasant wine. |
| Chewy | Full bodied, you could almost eat/chew it. |
| Clarify | Refers to the wine-making operation which removes lees – dead yeast cells and fragments of grape skins, stems, seeds and pulp – from grape juice or new wine. |
| Classic | Typical of grape variety or region. |
| Clean | Describes a refreshing wine without any foreign or off-character on the palate – a requirement for a quality wine. No unpleasant tastes, smells fresh. |
| Clone | A sub-group within a variety of genetically identical plants propagated from a single vine to perpetuate selected or special characteristics. |
| Closed | No obvious tastes or smell (also dumb). |
| Cloudy | Hazed, protein, whether stored too cold or badly made; a fault. |
| Cloying | Over sweet, sickly. |
| CO2 | Chemical formula for carbon dioxide. It is naturally produced in wine during fermentation when sugar is converted into almost equal parts of alcohol and CO2. The CO2 normally escapes as gas. If the gas is prevented from escaping, the wine becomes sparkling. |
| Coarse | Rough. |
| Cold Stabilization | A technique of chilling wines before bottling to cause the precipitation of harmless tartrate crystals. |
| Complete | All the right elements are there in the correct balance, correct levels. |
| Complexity | The term used when a wine has multiple flavour and aroma characteristics. |
| Cooked | Smell and taste of overheated grape juice. See burnt. |
| Cooperage | The general term used to designate containers where wine is stored and aged. These can be oak casks and stainless steel aging tanks. The term derives from ’Cooper’; one who makes or repairs wooden containers. |
| Corked, Corky | An “off” characteristic in wines due to imperfect corks. Often caused by the chemical compound trichloroanisole or TCA, corkiness is believed to come from fungi that are not detectable on dry corks, or by a cork processed with chlorine. The faulty cork imparts a musty, unpleasant taste and smell to the wine. |
| Correct | Like complete but less so. |
| Creamy | Texture and taste found in some white wines. |
| Crisp | A clean wine with good acidity showing on the finish, yielding a fresh and positive aftertaste. |
| Cross | A vine bred by crossing two plants of the same species with different genetic constituents. |
| Crush | The grape harvest or vintage – measured in tonnes. |
| Cuvee | French for a large vat or tank in which wines are fermented or blended as in champagne. Also a blend made for a special purpose. |
| D.V.A. | Designated Viticultural Area in British Columbia. A term established by the 1990 Wine Act (eg. Vancouver Island (VI), Okanagan Valley (OKV), Similkameen Valley (SV), Fraser Valley (FV)). |
| Decant | To pour wine from the original bottle to a glass carafe or other container. Will assist in breathing or aeration of the wine, and separating any deposits that an aged wine might have in the bottom of the bottle. |
| Declining | Past it’s best and getting worse. |
| Definition | A wine with good definition is clean, with a correct balance of acidity, tannin and fruit and a positive expression of varietal character. |
| Delicate | Not obvious, subtle, light, also elegant. |
| Depth | Refers to a wine’s depth of flavour. |
| Dessert wines | Special wines that tend to have higher alcoholic content of 14% to 20% by volume; they can be either sweet or dry (eg. Port, sherry, ice wine, late harvest). |
| Dilute | Watery taste from overproduced grapes or rain at harvest. |
| Dirty | Unclean, unpleasant smells and flavours. |
| DOC | Commonly used abbreviation for Denominazione de Origine Controllata. DOC is the Italian equivalent to the French AOC and the British Columbia VQA. |
| Dosage | The sweetener added to bottles of sparkling wine or Champagne after disgorging of the sediment accumulated during secondary fermentation in the bottle. |
| Dry | This much-abused word refers to the absence of sweetness. The degree of dryness is determined by the proportion of total grape sugar converted to alcohol. |
| Dry-fermented | Wine that is fermented until it is dry, meaning that all the sugar is converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide during the fermentation process. |
| Drying | Well past it’s peak and losing fruit quickly. |
| Eiswein | (or Ice wine) Originally a German concept, this rare wine is made from grapes pressed when frozen. The ice rises to the top of the vat and is scraped; the remaining concentrated juice produces a wine with a unique balance of sweetness, acidity and extract. |
| Elemental sulphur | A chemical used to dust vineyards as a control for powdery mildew. |
| Enologist | The American and South African spelling of Oenologist, one who studies wine and winemaking. |
| Enology | The American and South African spelling of Oenology, the study of wine and winemaking. |
| Estate bottled | These words indicate that the wine was produced and bottled on a property controlled by the winery and no portion of production was done away from the property. |
| Ethyl Alcohol | In wine, a colourless flammable liquid. |
| Expressive | A wine that expresses true varietal character and “terroir”. |
| Extract | Sugar-free soluble solids that give body to wine |
| Fat | A wine full of body and rich in extract |
| Feel | Term used to describe sensation that wine gives in the mouth before swallowing. |
| Fermentation | A biochemical process by which enzymes secreted by yeast cells convert sugar into alcohol and carbonic gas (carbon dioxide). It is through this process that grape juice is transformed into wine. |
| Filtration | Passage of wine through cellulose pads, diatomaceous earth or membranes to remove suspended solids, yeast or malolactic bacteria. Sweet wines must be filtered to remove yeast and prevent re-fermentation in the bottle. |
| Finesse | A certain fine delicate quality that makes a good wine outstanding. |
| Fining | The clarification of grape juice. |
| Finish | The after-taste of flavour that is left in your mouth after you have swallowed a wine. The longer it lasts, the better. In red wine, tannin and acid provide this character and in white wine, acid gives appealing, clean crisp finish. |
| Flabby | Dull wine, lack of tannin, acid. |
| Flat | Dull wine, sparkling wine that has lost its fizz. |
| Fleshy | A wine that has plenty of fruit and extract. |
| Floral | Smells like fresh flowers. |
| Fortified wine | Wines such as port and sherry, which have distilled spirits added, usually in the form of brandy or grape spirit to increase alcohol content. This is a world-wide practice. |
| Free run | Wine that separates from grape skins with little or no pressing. The wine is generally higher in quality, fruitier and lower in tannins than pressings that follow. |
| Fruit | Term applied to a fine young wine which has the aroma and flavour of fresh fruit. A fruity wine should have the correct balance of acidity, ripeness and tannin. |
| Full | Pleasingly strong in flavour, bouquet or taste. Plenty of flavour. |
| G.I. | Geographic indicator. A term established by the 1990 B.C. Wine Act. |
| Grapey | Applied to the aroma and flavour reminiscent of grapes rather than wine, e.g. Gewurztraminer has a certain grapey aroma. |
| Gravity-flow | Winemakers prefer to rely on the natural force of gravity in the winemaking process to avoid the use of pumping. For example, in the process of racking, the undesirable solids in the wine (lees) fall to the bottom of the tank by force of gravity. The clear wine is siphoned off of the lees into an empty container. |
| Green | Term applied to young wine of excessive acidity and unripe fruit. Can be either a derogatory term or simply and indication of youth. |
| Gutsy | Lots of body. |
| Hard | Wine taster’s term for a wine with excessive tannin. Not necessarily a fault in young wines where it may indicate a long maturity (may soften in time). Usually indicates a certain severity due to excessive acidity and tannin. |
| Heavy | Excessive alcohol content without a corresponding balance of flavour. |
| Hollow | Lacks depth of flavour. |
| Hot | Dusty, hot country wine flavour. Can also describe the mouthfeel of excessive alcohol content in wine. |
| Hybrid | A grape variety made by a combination of two different wine varieties usually vitis vinifera and one of the American native vines, such as vitis labrusca or vitis rotendifolia. This is achieved by cross pollination. |
| Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) | When hydrogen combines with sulphur dioxide, the result is a smell of bad eggs. If allowed to progress, hydrogen sulphide can develop into mercaptans and ruin the wine. |
| Ice Wine | Produced from grapes that are left on the vine well past normal harvest times. The temperature must drop to at least 130 F or -90C before picking the grapes. The grapes are then pressed while frozen to achieve concentration of both sugars and acid. The end result is a wine that is sweet, acidic and highly concentrated in flavour. |
| Inoculation | The introduction of a special yeast culture, or any other organism into the pressed grape juice. |
| Ink | Refers to deep purple colour found in young wines. |
| Integrated | Describes the wood/fruit balance in wines. |
| Jammy | A term used to describe a fat and eminently drinkable red wine, rich in fruit. Can sometimes refer to a wine of heavy character that results from over pressing big-ripe fruit. As such wines age, the fruit oxidizes to produce a character reminiscent of port. |
| Lees | The sediment made up of mainly spent yeast cells that are deposited in the storage vessel. The lees are left behind by racking. |
| Length | The amount of time that the aftertaste stays in the mouth. The better the wine, the longer the length; also applies to very bad wines. |
| Light | A complimentary term applied to pleasant refreshing wines; the opposite of full-bodied. Pale colour, light weight. |
| Lingering | Flavour/aroma that stays. |
| Lively | A wine with lots of fizz. |
| Loam | A soil containing a mixture of clay, silt and sand that is best for the growth of most plants. Loam is not necessarily ideal for viticulture, as it can encourage excessive growth. |
| Maceration | A period when the fermenting juice is in contact with the grape skins. |
| Maderized | Derived from Madiera, a fortified wine that undergoes a heating process to achieve a certain desirable character. When applied to table wines, the term is derogatory. A Maderized wine will display a dull nose and flat taste. Storage in bright sunlight or excessive heat can cause maderization. |
| Malolactic Fermentation | The bacterial conversion of the crisper, apple-like malic acid to the softer, milk-type lactic acid in wine. Also called ML or secondary fermentation, this acid conversion yields wines with increased complexity and softer acidity. |
| Mature | A wine in which all the elements have softened over time and will not develop further. Maturity; a state reached by wine through aging. |
| Mellow | A soft, easy drinking and well matured wine (usually reds or port). Mature and soft. |
| Mercaptans | Foul-smelling compound derived from a problem with hydrogen sulphide, which gives a smell of onions, garlic, burnt rubber or stale cabbage. |
| Metallic | An almost bitter, tinny or inky, hard finishing flavour of metals in reds. |
| Methode champenoise | A French term describing the original method of champagne-making in which the wine undergoes a secondary fermentation to obtain the gas which gives it bubbles, but in the same bottle in which it is finally sold. This process is used for sparkling wines other than champagne as well. |
| Mouthfeel | The in-mouth impression of wine when wine tasting, especially the tactile sensations such as “heat” from high alcohol content or “heaviness” or body due to the viscosity form high alcohol and residual sugar in the wine. |
| Must | Freshly pressed, unfermented grape juice, with our without skins and pips. |
| Musty | Unpleasant mouldy taste and smell. |
| Native Yeast | Yeast occurring naturally in the winery. |
| Nematodes | Microscopic worms that live in the soil and feed on vine roots. Nematodes can stunt the growth of vines, and transmit viral diseases. |
| Nose | A term used to describe the odour or smell of a wine, encompassing both aroma and bouquet. |
| Oaky | A warm, toasty flavour from maturation in oak barrels. |
| Oily | Texture, also smell and taste, sometimes in Riesling. |
| Opaque | Cloudy and oxidized; a wine left exposed to the air, turning to vinegar. |
| Open | A fully developed wine, showing all of its characteristics. |
| Oxidized | A fault in wine caused by excessive exposure to air. Can be detected both by nose and by palate. Oxidized wine tastes stale, flat and sherry-like. |
| Palate | The part of the mouth that identifies flavour. |
| Peak | At its peak, fully mature. |
| Peppery | Usually used to describe the spicy characteristics of certain red wine varieties, particularly cool climate, and immature wines. |
| Perfumed | Term used for a very aromatic wine whose bouquet smells of flowers or fruits (especially traminers). |
| Petillant | Lightly sparkling or crackling wine. |
| pH | The measure of acidity. The warmer the growing climate, the higher the pH of the wine made, the cooler the climate, the lower the pH. The scale is from 0 to 14, 0 being the most acidic and 14 being the most alkaline. Lower pH helps prevent bacterial spoilage and gives wine a better colour. |
| Phenolics | A large group of compounds, found in grapes and wine, including many colour, tannin and flavour compounds. |
| Phylloxera | A tiny louse that attacks the root system of wine grape vines, responsible for killing over three million acres of vines in /Europe in the 1800s. Grafting to resistant rootstock is the only known way to combat this pest. |
| Pomace | The debris from grape processing which consists of stems, seeds, pulp and dead yeast cells. It can be distilled into brandy and is also called press cake. |
| Porty | The over-ripe character on the nose and palate that is produced by hot-picked over ripe fruit. (Not common in British Columbia wines) |
| Post-fermentation maceration | Skin contact with red wines following fermentation. Also called “extended skin contact,” the process extracts flavour compounds, colour and tannin, resulting in greater varietal character and more developed tannins. |
| Powdery mildew | One of several fungi that can cause severe damage to grape crops; also called oidium. |
| Press | A machine which, by applying direct pressure forces the juice from the grapes. There are many types of presses, ranging from the ancient hand-operated wooden press to sophisticated hydraulic or air-bladder filled machines made of stainless steel. |
| Pump-Overs | The pumping of fermenting red wine over the cap of skins to extract more flavour, colour and tannin from the skins. |
| Pungent | A very aromatic sometimes “earthy” wine with a high level of volatiles. |
| Punt | The indentation in the base of a wine bottle originally intended to strengthen it (especially champagne bottles). |
| Quaffing Wine | Unpretentious wine that is easy and enjoyable to drink. |
| Racking | The process whereby clear wine is drawn off its lees and sediment and transferred from one storage container to another. |
| Racy | French; meaning breed, exciting and vital. |
| Red wine | Made by fermenting red grapes in the presence of their skins so that pigments in the skins can colour the wine. Red wines are often aged in wooden barrels one to two years before bottling. |
| Remontage | The process of circulating the liquid in the fermentation during red wine fermentation. This aerates the wine, prevents drying on the top, (the cap) and encourages extraction of colour and tannins into the wine. |
| Residual sugar | The fructose and glucose that remains after the fermentation of wine has been completed – gives sweetness level. The quantity of sugar is usually measured in grams/litre. |
| Richness | A balance of wealth of fruit and good depth on the palate and finish. |
| Riddling | Used in champagne making, the process of working the sediment into the neck of the bottle during the second fermentation stage. Traditionally performed by hand. |
| Rounded | A complimentary term for wine whose qualities, while not necessarily individually great, are in balance. Soft, easy wine, not much tannin or acid. |
| Sappy | The slightly “stalky” character often found in young wines (particularly pinot noir) and usually a sign of potential quality. |
| Sec | French word for dry, as it applies to wine, i.e. wine without sweetness. This does not mean there is no fruit; wines with plenty of very ripe fruit can seem so rich they may appear to have some sweetness. Secco in Italian is used similarly. |
| Sekt | A German term for sparkling wine. |
| Sediment | The harmless solid matter created by wine during fermentation and aging. In the aging process it sometimes forms a deposit on the side or bottom of the bottle. Wines with heavy sedimentation should be decanted before serving. |
| Sharp | High acid. |
| Short | A wine that may have a good nose and flavour, but the flavour disappears quickly on the finish. |
| Skin contact | In wine-making, leaving the grape skins in contact with the juice or wine for a period of time is used to extract flavour and colour from grape skins into the grape juice or wine. |
| Smooth | Opposite to rough, astringent or aggressive. An agreeable and harmonious flavour showing balance on the palate. |
| Soft | Term describing pleasant smoothness of wines of low astringency. Interchangeable with smooth. |
| Sour | A disagreeable taste, acid, vinegary, indicating a spoiled, undrinkable wine. Not to be confused with tartness, astringency or dryness. |
| Sparkling wine | Wine that undergoes a secondary fermentation in vat (charmat process). |
| Spicy | Term used to describe the taste of some wines although no spice has been added to them. A characteristic of traminers. |
| Stalky | Grape stem taste. |
| Stable | When wine is in a state in which it will not develop negative characteristics in the bottle, due, for example to re-fermentation, premature browning or protein haze. |
| Still wine | A non-effervescent wine in which most of the carbon dioxide gas, formed during fermentation, has escaped. The opposite of sparkling wine. |
| Sulphites | Sulphur-based compounds used to protect wine from oxidation and bacterial activity. |
| Sulphur | Smells of rotten eggs, over sulphuring, bottle sickness. |
| Sulphur dioxide(SO2) | Traditionally used to protect wine from oxidation and bacterial activity. |
| Supple | A round yet lively wine, easy to drink. Table wine; a wine between 10% – 14% alcohol by volume. It may be red, white or rose, and vinted off-dry. |
| Sur Lie | Translated “aging on the lees”, and often referred to as “yeast contact”. Wine is aged in the barrel with the yeast retained, rather than being clarified before aging. |
| Tannic | High levels of tannin. |
| Tannins | The group of astringent and bitter compounds found in the seeds and skins of grapes which slow oxidation and promote aging. Found more in red wines than white. The proper level of tannin is essential to aged, high-quality red wines, excess is detrimental. |
| Tart | The sharp, astringent taste of fruit acid, like the taste of an apple. When present in a moderate degree, lends a pleasant freshness to the wine. |
| Tartrate crystals(Wine Diamonds) | Tartaric acid, the primary acid in grapes, forms tiny crystals when chilled. These crystals adhere to the cork or form sediment in the bottle, and are not considered a defect. Cold stabilization removes the crystals. |
| Tasting | The mouth can taste acid, sugar, bitter and salt. Most of the taste is sensed by the tongue, though the palate is sensitive to some tastes as well. Taste is less developed than the sense of smell. Smell accounts for more than 75% of all taste sensations. In tasting wine, the sensations of taste and smell must be analyzed and identified. |
| Tawny | Applied to wines which have turned from a red to a brownish colour with maturation. Also a type of port. |
| Terroir | Describes all the influences on the flavours in the wine that come from where the vines grow, especially soil, climate, slope, the aspect of the slope. There is no exact translation in English, but ‘terroir” is an important concept in the expression of the origin of wine. |
| Thin | Light, watery. |
| Toasted | Sometimes from storage in charred oak also flavour of many champagnes (the French would say it’s a fault, but the British like it). |
| Toasting | Heating the inside of a barrel during its construction to caramelize the flavours. This impact the flavour and aromatic characteristics of the wine during barrel aging. |
| Total acidity (TA) | Acids in wine are principally tartaric, malic and citric. Their total level is given in grams/litre. TA can also refer to the term titratable acidity, again a measure of the acidity in grape juice, amounts are given in millilitres/sample. |
| Unfiltered | Wine that has not gone through a filtering process to clarify it. |
| Varietal | The grape variety used to make the wine. Some examples are: Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon. |
| Vegetal | A vegetable-like compound (ie. Asparagus flavour). Tastes, smells like cooked vegetables. |
| Velvety | Silky, smooth texture. |
| Veraison | The stage when grapes on the vine begin to soften and gain colour. The grapes start to gain sugar at this point. |
| Vinifera | The botanical name for the European grape species. The most prominent of the 32 species making up the genus Vitis in the botanical classification Vitis Vinifera have been successfully introduced into British Columbia. |
| Vinifera hybrid | A cross between species of Vitis Vinifera grapes. Used in Canadian premium table wines. |
| Vinification | Broad term that covers the entire process of turning grapes into wine, except for vineyard operations. Includes fermentation, clarification, and aging. |
| Vintage Wine | Wine labelled with the year the grapes were harvested and made into wine. Applied to the crop of grapes or the wines of one season. |
| Vintner | A broad term, applied to wholesale wine merchants, wine growers, wine makers, wine blenders etc. |
| Viticulture | The science or practice of growing grapevines, especially for wine making. |
| Vitis Vinifera | The species of vine from which most wine is made. In most regions, however, the vinifera vine is grafted onto rootstock of vitis species native to America, such as vitis labrusca, because of their resistance to Phylloxera. |
| Volatile Acidity(VA) | The acid of vinegar (acetic acid). Not found in the grape, but develops after fermentation. It is considered a fault in wine. |
| Voluptuous | Full bodied. |
| VQA | The Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) is an Appellation of Origin system of regulations by which consumers can identify wines of Canada based on the origin of the grapes from which they are produced. Wines are evaluated by an independent panel of experts, and only those that meet or exceed the appellation standards are awarded the VQA designation. Such wines may show a VQA medallion on the bottle or label. In addition, the VQA gold medallion is awarded to wines that show exceptional quality, as judged by the VQA tasting panel. |
| Weight | A term applied to the feel of the wine in the mouth. |
| Wine press | A machine which squeezes juice from grapes. |
| Woody | A character that varies with the length of maturation in cask and degree of seasoning/age. Usually a red wine term but can also apply to wood-aged whites (Chardonnay, Semillon & Sauvignon Blanc). |
| Yeast | A small single-celled fungus that ferments sugars and other carbohydrates, and reproduces by budding. Genus: Saccharomyces. Yeast is found naturally in the “bloom” on grape skins and other fruit. |
| Yeasty | The smell of fermenting yeasts. A faint aroma of freshly baked bread. Wines bottled off the lees often taste yeasty, some champagnes will have a toasted yeast flavour. |
| Yeast Autolysis | The breakdown of yeast during aging on the lees, in which compounds are released that heighten the sensory qualities of the wine and increase its complexity. |
