Wine Glossary
Refreshing drink made around a basic formula of red wine, water, sugar and lemon with numerous variants. If white wine is used, it is called zurracapote or zurra.
Wine with a smooth taste and texture owing to its adequate glycerine content.
In the development of fortified wines, a scale is a system of several "piernas", or stacks of casks piled one on top of the other. See Criaderas and Solera.
Solid particles deposited on the bottom of a receptacle containing wine due to decantation or settling once fermentation is completed. In wine tasting, the term refers to old organic material that gives off very disagreeable, putrid odours.
Yeasts used by some wineries to produce aromas artificially in certain young wines. They can be recognised during the wine-tasting process in aromas such as caramelised banana.
Wine with a residual sugar content of between 30 and 50 grams per litre.
Wine with a residual sugar content of between 15 and 30 grams per litre.
Wine with aromas or flavours that are fleeting or of low intensity.
Wine that is very smooth in its passage through the mouth.
Term that refers to a wine without defects or serious imbalances, but which is not at all powerful as regards aromas and taste sensations.
Wine that is pleasant to drink because it does not taste aggressive in the mouth. Smoothness is related to the correct proportion of polyphenols, glycerine content, acidity and residual sugars.
In agriculture, soil refers only to the upper part of the ground, the area where plant roots develop.
Spanish term (meaning “sunning”), referring to the practice of exposing grapes to the sun in order to concentrate their sugars. It is currently restricted to the areas of Montilla-Moriles and Málaga, for obtaining Pedro Ximénez wines.
When ageing generoso wines, this is the last phase in the system or scale from which the wine is extracted for its sale. The name solera is derived from the fact that traditionally the casks used in this phase are those closest to the floor (suelo in Spanish).
Substances contained in suspension in must or wine.
See Ahilado.
Wine that is not spoiled or defective and does not have any inadequate smells or tastes. The term is usually applied to the olfactory phase.
State of a sound, honest wine.
Term used to describe the aroma of a wine (direct or retronasally), generally aged for a long period in wood and bottle, in which hints of spices (cloves, pepper, nutmeg, etc.) can be identified.
Wine with high alcohol content. Liqueur. The term is derived from distillation, in which the essence (spirit) of the distilled product is sought, and is applied more to distilled products than to wines.
Term used to describe a wine that is rich in acidic components, mineral matter and tannins. Wine with character.
Wine displaying a transformation, which has provoked the loss of its original qualities.
Enological practices designed to maintain the qualities of the wine for as long as possible.
Wine that maintains its qualities and characteristics without negative changes.
Highly resistant to the effects of must or wine, this is widely used in Spain as the material for tanks or vats in which to make or store quality wines.
Synonyms: raspa, escobajo. A raspón (STALKY). Also used to describe the smells/tastes that result if the stalks have been left in the wine. See Herbáceo.
The wood-like structure to which the bunch of grapes is attached.
Operation carried out in the winery prior to bottling. Wines from a batch or harvest, produced or enriched in different containers, are blended in order to standardise their characteristics.
Wine displaying uniform characteristics from one vintage to another or from one batch to another.
Each one of the curved pieces of wood forming the sides of a cask.
A tone characteristic of certain young, pale white wines, reminiscent of the lustre of steel.
Wine with no traces of carbonation content.
Yellow or goldish tone in white wines.
Pale yellow tone of young white wines, less intense than straw.
Hue of some rosé wines. Also refers to the aromas found in some very young red wines.
Wine clarified naturally by the settling as sediment of any solid particles contained in suspension. In wine tasting, it is sometimes used as a synonym of fatigado.
Wine with marked characteristics of body and alcohol.
The backbone of a wine. A well-structured wine has body, good acid content and flavour, as well as being powerful and balanced. Good flavour structure means that the flavours are at the same time powerful and balanced.
Chemical substance which is found in many plastics, and which is responsible for the plastic smell given off by wines incorrectly stored in containers made with this material.
Provides a delicate sensation and one of quality, but not very pronounced.
A basic component of must or grape juice. The most abundant sugars found in grapes are glucose and laevulose or fructose. During fermentation they are transformed through the action of yeasts into ethyl alcohol, carbon dioxide and other substances characteristic of wines. When this transformation is almost complete, a small amount of unfermented sugars remain, which are called reducing sugars. In young wines, there is a relation between the presence of residual sugars and their aromatic intensity.
A chemical element with vigorous fungicidal (fungus-destroying) action. Its combustion produces sulphur dioxide (SO2), which is very important in enology. See Sulfuroso. Also used to describe the sharp, unpleasant smell which appears in wines with excess sulphur dioxide content, or those to which sulphur dioxide has been recently added.
Chemical compound, a combination of sulphur and oxygen, which is extremely important in oenology due to its complex and protective action: antiseptic, disinfectant, antioxidant, polisher, and colour extractor. In wine its use is authorised in very small proportions (200 mg/litre in dry white wines, 160 mg/litre in dry red wines, etc.). Sulphur is found in wine in two forms: inactive combined sulphur and free sulphur. The latter is the one that exerts the positive actions listed above. In wine-tasting, however, sulfuroso -or sulphurous- is the defect in aroma and taste which is hot and aggressive, sulphur-like, found in a wine as a consequence of incorrect or too recent application of this substance.
See Sulfuroso.
English word used to define a type of sweet oloroso.
Wine with a sugar content greater than 50 grams per litre. A basic taste which is detected on the front portion of the tongue.
Viscous wine which looks like syrup.