Acetic acid is formed when common airborne bacteria interact with alcohol present in fermented solutions like wine. The taste level is dependent on the wine; heavy tannin wines can tolerate higher levels. Too much though and the wine is acetified and tastes like vinegar.
Acidity: The word acid comes from the Latin word "acidu" meaning sour. Acidity refers to the quality of tartness or sharpness when tasting. Balanced acidity brings a desirable crispness to white wines. Acids in wine are natural tenderizes of food because they break down connective tissue and cell walls.
Agustia: Inability to taste.
Anosmia: Inability to smell.
Aroma: In a general sense refers to distinctive odor characteristics of individual wines or food. Aroma is sometimes referred to as bouquet. In wines it is the scent the grape acquires during fermentation and maturation.
Aromatic: Translates as any plants, herbs and spices that impart a lively fragrance and flavour to food and drink. For example the strongly scented smell of grape/fruit in Muscat or Gewurztraminer is aromatic.
Astringency: Astringent - severe or austere. A tactile experience in the mouth caused by a high level of tannin in the wine. Tannins are extracted from the grape skins and seeds during fermentation. Astringent often causes a puckering feeling in the mouth and affects taste.
Austere: A bit severe, but may develop with age.
Baked: Carmel-like odor. Loosely applied to table wines from hotter climates with a dried raisiny character.
Balance: Refers to harmony in taste when all the characteristics flow together and no one aspect of the wine is predominant.
Barrique: Barrel of usually 225 liters.
Big: Means good. Usually refers to wine with lots of body and high extract content. Often used to describe Cabernet. Big affects the taste. Describes wine with a healthy compliment of wine constituents such as alcohol, tannins, and extracts.
Bite: Suggests a strong measure of acidity-common to wines with solid tannins or youthful wines.
Bitter: A wine fault. An unpleasant after taste left on the palate. Bitter does not refer to acidity in red wines.
Body: Refers to the consistency and substance of the wine. Lesser-bodied wines have lower alcohol content than full bodied.
Bottle Aged: Wine can be stored for a long time giving the wine a more mellow and mature character. White table wines tend to loose their fruit flavour and become more complex with long storage.
Bouquet: Refers to the complex fragrance that evolves in a wine through barrel or bottle aging. Bouquet is the sum fragrance of the wine.
Bright: Alludes to brilliance of colour and clarity of wine. Bright wine has no suspended matter visible to the eye.
Brix: A measurement of sugar content in grapes must or wine.
Brut: A French term describing the driest classification of Champagne. Brut Champagnes are even drier than those labeled "extra dry."
Butyric Acid: In wine, this will give you a smell like spoiled Camembert cheese, sour. It occurs when malolactic acid fermentation produces the wrong compounds.
Chaptalization: Adding sugar to grape must to create more alcohol during fermentation.
Character: Describes a potable with distinctive, stylistic features. Character affects the smell and taste of wine.
Clean: Does not imply high quality but refers to a wine that is free of any bad odours or tastes.
Cloudy: A wine can appear hazy or cloudy due to suspended matter.
Cloying: Usually refers to a wine that is sickenly sweet, lacking in acid and without balance.
Complexity: The existence of numerous components evident in the nose and taste of a wine, may indicate quality of grapes proper processing and wood ageing.
Cooperage: Wine storage unites like barrels casks, vats.
Corked: Wine is not drinkable and it has nothing to do with cork particles floating in your wine glass. Corked wine has a distinctive off-flavour caused by a musty or mouldy cork. Squeeze the cork to see if it's dry, which may mean the wine is oxidized. May be caused by improper storage of the bottle.
Crisp: Firm, but not mouth -puckering acidy - adds a note of refreshment to the wine.
Crust: Refers to the sediment seen clinging to the inside of a bottle of old wine. It is harmless and more common in red wines but can be found in old whites as well. Sometimes referred to as "crystals".
Fat: Full-bodied - good glycerin, extract, alcohol.
Filter-Pad: When filtering materials are in prolonged contact with wine they may impart a chalky, astringent taste to the wine. The wine smells like chemicals or of wet cardboard.
Finish: The final impression of a wine's flavour and texture that remains on the palette after swallowing. Wines can be described as having a Short, Medium or Long Finish.
Flabby: Lack of structure, low acid, and short finish.
Flat: Dull without life. Like carbonated drinks that go flat, sparkling wine loses its gas and low acid wine can lose its freshness. Affects the taste and look of the wine.
Flowery: The aroma found in certain wines that reminds one of blossoms and flowers.
Forward: Advanced maturity in respect to the age of the wine.
Fruity: Wines are often described as peachy, apricot like, berry on the nose etc. Fruity wines have a pleasurable aroma and taste when they are young.
Geranium: Can refer to a taste like that of red wine mixed with a piece of split geranium stalk. It smells flowery like and it may occur with the addition of sorbic acid to stabilize the wine (used incorrectly) before the malolactic fermentation has completed.
Green: Taste resembles having one shredded blade of green grass mixed in with the wine. The taste is tart and comes about from using immature grapes.
Grip: When good acids meet firm tannins, surrounded by good levels of alcohol.
Herbaceous: Natural wine odor reminiscent of herbs.
Hydrogen Sulphide (h2S): Smells like rotten eggs in wine. It occurs because yeast reduces the sulphur residue dust used to control powdery mildew on grapes to H2S or there is a nutrient deficiency in the grape juice.
Lees: Generally refers to the sediment/dregs of wine that occur naturally after fermentation, racking or fining of the wine.
Legs: Rivulets, which slide down the sides of the glass.
Length: The pleasantly long finish and aftertaste of the wine.
Light: Does not refer to the colour of wine but the lack of body. Light wines are still pleasant to drink.
Maderized: White wine that has been oxidized§ from heating or baking. (Improper storage.) The smell of the wine is cooked and it is brownish in colour. Its overall appearance is that of Madeira.
Mellow: Wine is soft and rich on the palate. Gentle, mature and smooth. Free from harshness.
Mercaptan: The smell of wine with this fault is rubbery or skunky. It is due to the H2S not being removed early enough during fermentation.
Metallic: Wine has a hard slightly bitter flavour like metal. Not to be confused with the taste of flinty wine.
Mouldy: Wine smells like a mouldy piece of clothe not wine. It comes about from using mouldy grapes or mould in the winery.
Must: Unfermented grape juice and/or mash.
Neutral: Wines are often used for blends with other wines as they lack a distinctive character of their own.
Nose: Your nose is used to assess the characteristics of the wine. "Nose" is a term used for wines with an extremely intense bouquet. Nose does not imply quality. To determine the nose you can try these simple nose tactics. Check the condition of the wine, is it clean or unclean in smell? Intensity, does it smell weak, medium or pronounced? Development, youthful with grape aromas, aged bouquet, tired and oxidized? Fruit character; what does it remind you of? Fruity, floral, vegetal, spicy, woods, smoky, chemical?
Oak: Superior wood for wine barrel construction - imparts a variety of substances to ageing wine, including a number of aromatics, the most important of which is "vanillin" often identified as the "oaky" odor.
Olfactory: The sense of smell.
Oxidized: Wine smells like stewed fruit or damp straw in low-acid wines and a burnt smell in high acid wines. In the extreme, oxidized wine may smell like vinegar or nail polish remover. It appears bright yellow or brownish in white wines. It happens when wine is overexposed to air when insufficient or no sulphur dioxide is present.
Phenols: Color pigments and tannins.
Precocious: Wine has experienced an overly rapid development. It is a derogatory description referring to premature development. Taste and smell is affected.
Pungent: Pungency in Latin is related to the word "point." Pungent wines can be sharp or strong in taste and smell. They are often aromatic and sometimes earthy in flavour.
Residual Sugar: Refers to wines that are not dry as some sugar remains.
Reduced: Refers to a fault in wine. The smell can be like visiting a swamp! It occurs because of the absence of oxygen.
Robust: Good structure and alcohol balance, mature and rounded.
Sec: From the French word meaning "dry." When describing non-bubbly wine, sec indicates that there is very little residual sugar. The wine is dry, not sweet. When referring to sparkling wine, the word sec means almost the opposite. Sec in sparkling wines indicates a relatively sweet wine. Demi-sec is even sweeter.
Soft: Wine is the description given to wines with a pleasant finish. Though they are often lower in acid they are not limp.
Sour: Describes wine that is too high in acid.
Spicy: The spice-like odor and taste of some grape varieties - e.g. Gewurztraminer.
Stemmy or Bitter: Wines have a smell of bitter green grape stems and seeds. This occurs from grapes being pressed too hard which in turn crushes the seeds.
Steely: A firm level of acid in a well-structured wine.
Sulphur Dioxide (SO2): Wines smells like water from a sulphur spring and if you should drink it because you missed the smell…you will experience an unpleasant prickly feeling in the throat and nose. This is caused by too much SO2 being used as a preservative. Often occurs in cheap white wine.
Tannin: Refers to organic compounds more often found in red wines then white. Tannins influence the flavour and taste on the palate. In red wines they convey a fullness of body, giving a zing like experience to the mouth. In sweet wines tannin helps balance the sugar. Red wines with high tannin require longer aging.
Tart: Too much acid without sufficient sugar or other components to balance it out, tartness may decrease with ageing.
Tartaric Acid: A major, organic wine acid, largely responsible for the crisp, acidic tastes in wine.
Terroir: Vineyard environment (climate, soil etc.).
Varietal: A single grape variety, a wine with a distinctive varietal aroma and taste.
Viniculture: The art of making wine.
Viticulture: The science of growing grapes.
Woody: Some people like the woody tastes in wine, oak aromas. Usually though a wine described as woody is not favourable. Woody wine smells like wet wood, pine chips. It occurs through overuse of oak in ageing.
Yeasty: Faulty wines have a pronounced yeast aroma smelling like a glass of champagne. It is caused from natural yeast taking over or excessive contact with lees.
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