In tasting room, restaurant, or wine shop conversations you might hear the term Noble Grapes, but what are they referring to? This is a two-part answer. Depending on context, they may be referring to either The Six Noble Grapes or referring to The Five Noble Grapes of Bordeaux. It can be…
Noble Grapes
Decant
Wine Term: Decant Variations: Open, Oxygenate, Aerate, Breathe, Breathing What it really means: Allowing the wine to interact with oxygen after the cork is removed. While there are all sorts of currently, highly marketed devices and fancy (expensive) vessels that double as art pieces, a good old glass…
Corked
Wine Term: Corked Variations: Cork taint, Tainted, TCA, Systemic TCA, Trichloroanisole What it really means: The wine has an off-putting musty, mushroomy fragrance and taste. This is not in regards to Pinot Noirs, where the mushroom fragrance and taste is very welcoming. And this is not in reference…
Varietal
Wine Term: Varietal Variations: Single varietal, Varietal wine What it really means: The wine is made from* and labeled as a single grape variety. A varietal wine is labeled as a single grape wine. Examples would be wines labeled as: Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot,…
Customer Take Over Version: Linear
Customer David C. writes: “What is meant by ‘linear?’” At the end of January we wrote about ‘Angular’ wines – not to be mistaken for ‘Linear’ wines, see below: Wine Term: Linear Variations: Straightforward, commonplace What it really means: the wine does nothing to play outside of the…
Filtered vs. Unfiltered
There are 2 types of finished wines. Wine Term(s): Filtered and Unfiltered No one or the other is better, they are a stylistic choice by the winemakers in modern times. Historically speaking, wines always had to be filtered to remove potentially harmful bacteria, but due to modern winemaking…
Customer Take Over Version: Terroir
Our customer Gene W. writes: “Cam – A surprising absence from your list is the thoroughly overworked and equally misunderstood: terroir. As we know soil has a role in every wine, but it is far from the driving force in any wine’s outcome. I take great pleasure in…
Lees
Wine Term: Lees Another departure from our general format for these Wine: Simplified posts. Sorry, we’ve given enough wine speak insight to get you some free pours at the tasting room or make some new friends with the staff (which generally also results in free pours). Now we’re…
Field Blend
Wine Term: Field Blend We’ll go about this one in a different manner than usual as ‘Field Blend’ is very specific. To call it a red or white blend doesn’t do the wine justice, so there aren’t really any different terms associated with it that describe it so…