Saignée

A French term meaning “to bleed.” Saignée refers to the process of bleeding or pulling juice from a tank of red must that is just beginning fermentation. The goal is two-fold. First, the lightly-colored juice that is bled out of the tank can be used to make rosé. Second, the must remaining in the tank then has a higher proportion of grape skins to juice, and the resulting wine will be richer and more concentrated.

(winespectator.com)

Dumb

Yes, it’s an adjective that can be applied to wine, too.

It describes a wine that temporarily has little taste. It can be a wine, usually white, that is served so cold the flavors can’t be discerned. Or it can be a wine, usually red, in a stage of development when it tastes neither young and full of fruit, nor mature. In this state, the wine is undeveloped and seems dull and ungenerous.

Why some wines go through dumb phases and others do not, is not completely understood.

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

Skin contact

It’s something you might experience if you drink a lot of wine with your sweetheart…

…but in contemporary winemaking, it refers to the process of letting crushed white grapes sit with the skins and juice together, rather than separating them immediately. This helps add flavor and aroma to the final wine. White wine may have anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days of skin contact.

Of course, all red wines experience skin contact, too, since in red wine fermentation the juice and skins of the grape are in contact.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil)

Green Harvest

It’s not necessarily harvesting grapes using “green” practices, but it is the trimming of unripe grapes from the vine to decrease crop yields, and thereby improving the concentration of the remaining bunches.

(winespectator.com)

Tastevin

A shallow, silver tasting cup used by a sommelier, that usually hangs from a chain and is worn around the neck like a necklace. The cups were created by Burgundian winemakers hundreds of years ago, and were designed with dimples in order to reflect the candlelight in dark cellars and allow the winemaker to assess the color and clarity of the wine.

(Photo: amazon.com)

The tastevin (pronounced “tahs-teh-vehn”) has very little practical purpose anymore, but it remains in use as a traditional “badge” for the sommelier.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil; wine-lovers-page.com)

Acidification

The process of adding acid to grape must before fermentation to boost a naturally low level of acidity, and, thereby, balance a wine’s soft components (sugar, alcohol and fruit).

It is legal in some areas, including Bordeaux, Burgundy, Australia and California, to correct deficient acidity in this manner. However, it is illegal in Bordeaux and Burgundy to both chaptalize (add sugar to) and acidify a wine.

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

Fining

A process by which wine is purified of small solids and particulates by adding a fining agent. The agent, which can include gelatin, isinglass (a fish by-product), egg whites, bentonite (clay) and casein (a milk product), chemically binds with the particulates and can then be removed from the wine.

The main purpose of fining is to clarify the wine, but it also provides some stabilizing effects by eliminating any active yeasts.

(Perfect Pairings, Evan Goldstein)

Meritage

A designation for California wines that are a blend of the grape varieties used in Bordeaux. Meritage (pronounced like “heritage”) is a U.S. trademarked designation adopted in 1988 by the Meritage Association.

A red Meritage might consist of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc; and a white Meritage would be a blend of sauvignon blanc and sémillon. Some of these wines are given fancy proprietary names (and carry high price tags), such as Opus One, Rubicon and Insiginia. Producers can choose not to use the term Meritage to describe their wine even if it qualifies as one.

(Bonus trivia to impress your friends: The word was selected from more than 6,000 entries in an international contest. Meritage combines “merit,” reflecting the quality of the grapes, with “heritage,” which recognizes the centuries-old tradition of blending, long considered to be the highest form of the winemaker’s art.)

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil; meritagewine.org)

Cold Fermentation

A type of fermentation that takes place in a container that can be cooled, usually a stainless steel tank. Cool fermentation is slower and more gentle than one that takes place at warmer temperatures, which helps preserve the wine’s fresh fruit aromas and flavors. It’s commonly used with many light- and medium-bodied white wines.

(The Wine Bible, Karen MacNeil)

Racking

The practice of moving wine from one barrel, or container, to another for aeration or clarification, leaving sediment or lees behind.

(winespectator.com)