Aroma
The smell of a wine.
Capital of the West Indian island of Bouquet.
Aroma wheel
Diagram listing characteristic aromas of different wine types.
Someone very big in the aroma business.
Austere
A wine displaying firm structure but little fruit.
Ascetic style of wine perfected by 12th-century French monks; a hard-cell.
Balance
A harmonious marriage of all a wine's elements.
Wine geek term best understood by its negative, "imbalanced," i.e., a wine acting strangely in mixed company.
Barrel fermentation
When fermentation occurs in wood barrels rather than stainless steel tanks.
Process in which white wines undergo alchemical indignities while residing in charred, porous, overpriced oak containers air-dried in the imaginary forests of France.
Berrylike
Smelling and tasting of berries.
Condensed version of famous quote from late baseball star Roberto Clemente, who said: "I like wine; it has been berry berry good to me."
Body
The weight and texture of a wine.
A receptacle for wine.
Bouquet
Aromas that develop in a wine with aging.
Same as aroma, but with two more letters.
Brix
Measurement of sugar content in wine grapes.
French plural for "brick." Some winemakers follow the yellow Brix road and never return.
Brut
A dry sparkling wine.
A tough, tannic wine that bullies the palate.
Carbonic maceration
Whole cluster fermentation in a sealed, oxygen-free tank.
Painful, controversial behavior-modification technique used to punish winemakers who insist on making Brut wines rather than "elegant food wines."
Clone
Genetic variant of a grape variety.
A derogatory term for winemakers who produce $30 over-oaked Chardonnays to get profiled in the Wine Spectator.
Complex
Possessing an interlocking set of distinctive aromas and flavors.
Cork-sniffer term with no genuine meaning outside the fields of housing and clinical psychology.
Crush
Mechanical process to extract grape juice.
What people and machines do to tiny, defenseless wine grapes.
Dirty
An unpleasant, earthy aroma.
A useful generic term for wines that smell like soiled diapers or rotting eggs. Has no sexual connotations.
Dumb
A wine in a backward stage not revealing all its qualities.
A wine so irredeemable it's hard to imagine why it was made, as in, "That really is a dumb wine."
Elegant
An understated wine of finesse rather than power.
A wine geek term often used to describe insipid wines made by famous winemakers.
Ethyl Acetate
Spoilage organism manifesting as a nail polish aroma.
Pioneering Sonoma County woman winemaker.
Fermentation
Process of converting sugar to alcohol.
Process by which wine grapes are turned into dollars
Hot
A wine that is harshly alcoholic.
A wine that is very trendy, or stolen, or both.
Jammy
A wine displaying a jam-like fruit aroma.
Wines best consumed in bed, of particular appeal to jazz musicians, or popular during the Carter Administration.
Labrusca
Wine grape species native to North America.
Long-suffering daughter of eastern wine don Vitis Labrusca.
Methode Champenoise
Sparkling wines that undergo a secondary fermentation in bottle.
Marketing technique originating in France's Champagne district based on the premise that by continually telling people there is a dire shortage of your wine, they will pay whatever you charge for it.
Nose
The smell of a wine.
Slang term for aroma employed by average working sniffs.
Nouveau
Fresh red wines released soon after harvest for early consumption.
French New Wave actress who got her start as Andy Warhol's wine steward.
Oaky
Wines with predominant flavor of the oak barrels they were aged in.
Wines that are acceptable, but not great.
Oxidation
Overexposure to air, causing spoilage or premature aging.
Primitive wine production technique in India and Nepal in which wine grapes are trod by oxen preparatory to fermentation.
pH
The acid profile of a wine.
Short for pre-hype; the true character of a wine before the marketing weenies get a hold of it.
Phenolic
Chemical compound in grape skins functioning as wine preservative.
Individual with a tragic addiction to phenols.
Phylloxera
Root louse which attacks grapevines.
Roman goddess of diseased grapevines; met wine god Bacchus through an Etruscan dating service.
Pomace
Residue of skins, pulp and seeds remaining after grapes are pressed.
The likelihood of greatness, as in, "That wine shows great pomace."
Private Reserve/Proprietor's Reserve
Usually a designation of a limited-production wine of special quality.
A term used to sell vintages the winemaker thought he would have to drink all by himself.
Puckery
Drying flavor sensation caused by excessive grape or wood tannins.
Where all the puckers in a winery are stored.
Solera
System for maintaining a stock of multi-vintage, uniformly blended wines.
Aging, but still beautiful wife of Spanish winemaker Fino Amontillado.
Structure
The composition and impression of a wine's constituent elements.
Concept developed by French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss to explain how French wines can be thin and expensive at the same time.
Tannin
Acid in grape skins, seeds and stems bolstering wine structure and longevity.
Favorite activity of successfull winery owners during the winter off-season; usually occurs in Hawaii or Carribean.
Tart
Character of a wine high in acidity.
Promiscuous little wine that can be had by anyone for a price.
Vitis Vinifera
Species of grapevines to which all major varieties belong.
Cousin of Vitis Labrusca and reputed kingpin of all branches of the grapevine syndicate.
Warning Label
Clever device employed by US government to induce fear and guilt in the populace.
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