Glossary
Wine terminology explained:
- Acidity
- The amount of acid in a wine
- Acetification
- Wine turning to vinegar
- Aerobic fermentation
- Fermentation in the presence of air (primary fermentation)
- Aging
- The process of maturing wine
- Air lock
- A valve filled with water that lets CO2 out, but no air inside
- Alcohol
- Ethanol or ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH), the liquid produced from sugar by fermentation that can make you drunk
- Anearobic fermentation
- Fermentation in the absence of air (secondary fermentation)
- Blending
- Mixing finished wines to get a better balanced wine
- Body
- The fullness of a wine
- Bouquet
- Smell of a wine
- Bungs
- See Stoppers
- Campden tablets
- Tablets that contain sulphite in a handy form
- Cap
- A floating layer of solids that forms on a fermenting must during primary fermentation
- Carbon dioxide
- The gas produced by the fermentation process (CO2)
- Carboy
- A large fermentation bottle
- Cask
- A white oak barrel
- Concentrate
- Concentrated juice of fruit, usually grapes
- Country wines
- Wines made from ingredients other than grapes
- Demi-john
- A 1 gallon (about 4 litres) fermentation bottle
- Deposit
- See Sediments
- Dregs
- See Sediments
- Dry wine
- A wine with all the sugars fermented out
- Enzyme
- Proteins that change or break down unwanted ingredients, also see Pectic enzyme
- Ethyl alcohol
- See Alcohol
- Fermentation
- The conversion of sugar to carbon dioxide
- Fermentation trap
- See Airlock
- Fermentor
- Container in which the fermentation process takes place
- Fining
- Process to make cloudy wine clear
- Flogger
- Simple wooden corking device
- Fortification
- Raising the alcohol content (per volume) of a wine by adding a liquor with higher alcohol content
- Fruit fly
- Small fly found around rotting fruit. One fly into your wine, and your wine will turn into vinegar
- Haze
- Suspension of small solid particles in wine
- Hydrometer
- A device used to measure the SG of a wine or must
- Hydrometer jar
- A cilinder of glass or plastic to place the hydrometer into
- Inoculate
- To sterilize a must
- Juice fermentation
- A fermentation on the presses juice of the fruit, in a secondary fermentor
- Lees
- See Sediment
- Macerate
- To soak ingredients for extraction of soluble components
- Mash
- See Must
- Maturing wine
- To let wine age, so that flavour and aroma improve.
- Metabisulphite
- Undissolved sulphite
- Must
- Unfermented wine
- Nutrient
- Food for yeast
- Oxidation
- Reaction with the oxygen in the air, causes wine to go bad
- Pectic enzyme
- To break down the pectin in fruit
- Pectin
- A substance that makes jams jel
- P.P.M.
- Particles per million, the same as milligrams per liter (mg/l)
- Primary fermentor
- An open container used for the first stage of fermentation, also see Pulp fermentation
- Proof
- A scale used for alcohol content
- Pulp fermentation
- A primary fermentation on the fruit pulp to extract colours and flavours
- Racking
- Siphoning wine into another container and leaving the sediments behind
- Rose
- Pink colored wine
- Sacrometer
- See Hydrometer
- Secondary fermentor
- A closed container used for the latter stage of fermentation
- Sediment
- Small particles that settle on the bottom of the fermentation container
- Specific gravity
- The weight per volume of a liquid (SG), related to sugar content
- Spirits
- Distilled alcohol
- Stable wine
- A wine without the risk of refermentation, that has fermented out
- Stopper
- A rubber plug or cap used to attach an airlock to a bottle and to plug bottles
- Stuck fermentation
- Premature stop of fermentation, before enough sugar has been converted
- Strength
- Alcohol content of a wine
- Sulphite
- A substance used for sterilisation of wine, must and equipment
- Sulphiting
- To sterilize with sulphite
- Suspension
- Small pieces that don't settle and float though wine, making it hazy
- Topping up
- Filling the secondary fermentor to the top, to prevent oxidation
- Trap
- See Air lock
- Ullage
- The air space in a fermentor between the wine surface and the stopper
- Vinegar fly
- See Fruit fly
- Yeast
- The one-celled micro-organism that turnes sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide
