Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Wine Making Terms

The wine making terminology is quite extensive. It encompasses references for the actual processes of making the wine as well as the distinct qualities of wine, such as appearance, taste and when good wine goes bad.


Wine Components


Wine contains acetic acids, ethyl alcohol, ethyl acetate, residual sugars from the grapes, tannins (which give wine the tart flavors), tartaric acid and yeast (which ferments the sugars into alcohol).








Wine Tastes


When producing different types of wines, winemakers focus on the aftertaste, body , and dryness of the wine to ensure that the wine tastes as it should. The aftertaste, or finish, is the lingering flavor of the wine after a sip, and the body of a wine refers to the impression of the weight of the wine on the palate. The dryness of wine is how perceptible sugar is to the palate.


Wine Appearance


Appearance terms regard the clarity of the wine, not its color. Some of these terms include brilliant, cloudy and hazy.


Bad Wine


Corked means the wine has gone bad, usually from a flawed cork from the maker. Oxidized wine has been exposed to air for too long and usually becomes brown in appearance and tastes like old apples.


Winemaking Processes








Winemakers perform a variety of tasks to perfect their wines, including clarification for cloudiness, cold stabilization to filter out solids, decanting, fermentation, fining for sediment in the wine, Méthode Champenoise to create champagne, and must, which extracts unfermented juice from grapes by crushing them.

Tags: dryness wine, from grapes