Fortified

A wine, such as Sherry or Port, that has had its alcohol content increased by the addition of distilled grape spirits (brandy). Most fortified wines contain 16 to 20 percent alcohol by volume.

(Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil; winespectator.com)

Rootstock

Rootstock is the part of the grapevine that is planted directly into the soil. Rootstocks from different varieties will be more or less suitable to a certain type of soil, and have different tolerances to disease and climatic stress.

A vine does not need to grow from its own roots. In fact, most vines do not grow from their own roots but instead are grafted onto select rootstocks known for their disease resistance. Such was the case when a phylloxera epidemic swept through Europe (and eventually around the world) in the latter half of the 19th century and destroyed millions of acres of vines. (Phylloxera is an aphid that attacks a vine’s roots and slowly destroys it.)

It was discovered that native American vines, such as those belonging to the species Vitis labrusca and Vitis riparia, tolerate the insect without adverse consequences. The remedy to the epidemic was to replant each vineyard with the American rootstocks, then graft Vitis vinifera vines on top. Vinifera originated in Europe and includes all of the well-known wine grapes.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil)

Nonvintage

Most wine drinkers, whether casual or serious, know what vintage is. But how about nonvintage?

It pretty much means what you’d expect: there is no single vintage for the grapes used in the wine. When applied to Champagne, as it most commonly is, a more correct term would be multivintage. This type of Champagne is made by blending the wines of several complementary years’ harvests. The majority of Champagnes are nonvintage, while most table wines today carry a vintage.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil)

Late Harvest

A term for a wine made with grapes picked late in the year and at higher sugar levels (or Brix) than normal. After fermentation, the wine is left with residual sugar making it taste sweeter. Most such wines are dessert-style wines.

(Perfect Pairings, by Evan Goldstein, and winespectator.com)

Typicity

A quality that a wine possesses if it’s typical of its region and reflects the characteristics of the grape variety from which it’s made. However, determining if a wine demonstrates typicity is pretty subjective in itself.

It has nothing to do with how good the wine tastes. A wine can be quite pleasing and delicious yet show no typicity.

Interestingly, in certain old world countries, an evaluation of typicity, even though it’s subjective, is required by law in order for a wine to obtain appellation status.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil)

It started with a song – Beethoven’s Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 3 in A major Op. 69: II. Sherzo, to be precise – played by Jacqueline du Pré. I am only slightly obsessed with this cello sonata and one night, as I listened to it as loud as possible while daydreaming about things I love, this thought popped into my head: what wine does this song pair with? A huge, brooding, Napa cab? An Australian shiraz? An old, complex Left Bank Bordeaux?

From there, I jumped to other art forms paired with other wines, and just like that, an idea was born. A wine tasting pairing wine and art. It took a bit of convincing to get my Winettes – the all-female wine tasting group that Swirl Girl Dry and I founded a few years ago – to agree to make the leap and dedicate January’s tasting to art and wine. Each girl was to find a piece of art that spoke to her and pair it with a wine, then explain why. For those of us who grew up attending galleries or art history classes, this special tasting was a chance to flex our creative muscles. For others, it was a real stretch.

One of my friends emailed me all day, asking what artists I thought she’d like. I was lost with this question – art is so personal and visceral and there’s never any sense to why we like or don’t like something (a lot like our tastes in wine). I encouraged them to surf the major art galleries online or visit the Norton Museum of Art. Eventually, they all found a piece they loved and then visited the wine stores, delighting the staff with questions about what best paired with a certain color palette or mood.

Our tasting included fabulous selection of wines that ranged from Old World to New, Champagne to big reds and as usual, a great spread of food. We pulled out all the stops for this night. Read the full story

Residual sugar

The natural grape sugar that remains in wine because it has not been converted into alcohol during fermentation.

Although a wine may be quite dry, winemakers often leave a tiny amount of sugar (pretty much undetectable as “sweet” to the tongue) in the wine to make it seem rounder and more appealing (sweetness has a slight “fat” feeling to it.)

With wines such as riesling, which can have varying and detectable levels of sweetness (Spätlese, Kabinett, etc.), the winemakers have left a greater amount of sugar in the wine.

Residual sugar should not be confused with the sugar used in chaptalization.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil)

Anthocyanins

Let’s take one from our favorite class: chemistry.

Anthocyanins are the pigments found in red grape skins that give red wine its color. They are responsible for the red, purple and blue colors of many fruits, vegetables, cereal grains and flowers.

And because you are regular readers of the Swirl Girls’ blog (you are, aren’t you?), then you’ll know from previous stories that red wines get their color from the skin of the grape and not the pulp.

From Oregon State University studies:
“Today, interest in anthocyanin pigments has intensified because of their possible health benefits as dietary antioxidants. There is considerable anecdotal and epidemiological evidence that dietary anthocyanin pigments and polyphenolics may have preventive and therapeutic roles in a number of human diseases. Through the much publicized ‘French paradox’, the public has become aware that certain populations of red-wine drinkers in France and Italy have much lower rates of coronary heart disease than their North American and Northern European counterparts. It is widely accepted that red wine phenolics contribute at least partly to this beneficial effect.”

Need we convince you more to keep up your habits of wine appreciation?

(winespectator.com and oregonstate.edu)

Château vs. Domaine

A château is a building where wine is made and around which vineyards are planted. The names of most Bordeaux estates are preceded by château; for example, a couple of prestigious châteaux are Château Mouton-Rothschild and Château Pétrus. However, the word is used infrequently elsewhere in France and never in Burgundy.

Which brings us to domaine. A domaine is a wine-producing estate and many wineries throughout France use the word in their names, especially estates in Burgundy. One of the most famous Burgundian estates is Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil)

Cold Stabilization

Cold stabilization is a technique that clarifies the wine and prevents the formation of crystals in the wine bottle. Before bottling, the wine is chilled to about 30 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks, which causes the tartrate crystals and other solids to precipitate out. The wine is then easily separated from the solids.

Unstabilized wines sometimes become hazy or form small crystals, which are tasteless, odorless and harmless, but look a little unnerving.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil; and winespectator.com )