GlossaryGlossary of wine terms.
ABKMPAAlbariñoThe Galician name for a white grape variety indigenous to the Northwestern corner of the Iberian peninsula. Also known as Alvarinho in Portugal and sometimes called Albarín Blanco in Spain or Cainho Branco in Portugal. It is thought by some to be a clone of Alsatian Riesling, and by others as a close relative to the French variety Petit Manseng.
Wine labeled Albariño from the Spanish D.O. Rias Baixas must be 100% Albariño, though it is sometimes blended with other grapes. Albariños from Rias Baixas have gained much deserved noteriety since the D.O. was declared in 1986 for their bright character, youthful exuberence and pear and pit-fruit dominated bouquets and are considered by some to be among the finest white wines of Spain. It is also the dominant grape in the Portuguese DOC Vinho Verde, just South over the Spanish-Portuguese border from Rias Baixas, where the young and often lightly fizzy Vinho Verde wines are produced. It has also recently been planted in Australia. Appellation Controllée[French] Appellation (name) Controllée (examined, verified, or controlled) doesn't mean 'controlled appellation' as it is often (partially) translated; it means verified trade name. Appellations d'Origine Controllées (AOCS) are collective trade marks and products using them are confirmed by government inspectors 1) to be grown within the area from which they claim to originate, and 2) to be produced according to the rules for that area (i.e. yield limits and designated picking dates were observed, and the wine was made according to the prescribed practices.
AOC wines are submitted to a taste test as well as a chemical analysis before they're allowed to go to market. Unfortunately only a bare minimum standard is applied to a wine's flavors as long as it meets all other requirements. BBatonnage, batonné(French) the act of stirring the sediment at the bottom of a barrel to put that sediment back into suspension in the ageing wine. (The word comes from the French word baton: or stick, though a stainless steel rod with a small paddle at its end is usually used these days.) Since the sediment has stronger flavors than the juice itself, and since those flavors can be more easily absorbed by the juice when the sediment is in suspension, batonnage adds strength, complexity, and character. It is especially useful in the production of white wines.
Note that this is an oxydative process, and is only used in wines intended to absorb some oxygen during their ageing. Wines made by reductive methods, i.e. cold fermented wines kept for a short time in sealed cuves and bottled young to preserve their freshness and directness, gain their very different charms by other means. TopKKimmeridgeanFrom Wikipedia: In geology, Kimeridgian or Kimmeridgean is the name of the basal division of the Upper Oolites in the Jurassic system. The name is derived from the hamlet of Kimeridge or Kimmeridge near the coast of Dorsetshire, England. It appears to have been first suggested by T. Webster in 1812; in 1818, in the form Kimmeridge Clay, it was used by Buckland. From the Dorsetshire coast, where it is splendidly exposed in the fine cliffs from St Alban's Head to Gad Cliff, it follows the line of Jurassic outcrop through Wiltshire, where there is a broad expanse between Westbury and Devizes, as far as Yorkshire, there it appears in the vale of Pickering and on the coast in Filey Bay. It generally occupied broad valleys, of which the vale of Aylesbury may be taken as typical. Good exposures occur at Seend, Calne, Swindon, Wootton Bassett, Faringdon, Abingdon, Culham, Shotover Hill, Brill, Ely and Market Rasen. Traces of the formation are found as far north as the east ccast of Cromarty and Sutherland at Eathie and Helmsdale. MMalolactic fermentationBacterial transformation of malic acid into lactic.
Grapes contain more than a half dozen different types of acid: tartaric, ascorbic, suscinic, and etc. The sharpest acid found in wine (the Germans call it apple acid) is Malic.
Red wines, and the fatter kinds of whites, are unpleasantly sharp when they carry a significant Malic acid component. But for as long as wines have been made, they have undergone a bacterial transformation called Malolactic Fermentation with the return of warm weather in the spring following their initial, alcoholic, fermentation. The net result is that the sharp Malic acid is transformed into the soft Lactic (milk) acid.
Nowadays Malolactic Fermentation (or ML) is often encouraged by innoculating a wine with ML bacterium and by (sometimes ONLY by) raising its temperature to a level at which that bacterium becomes active.
Wines which undergo ML in barrel tend to be changed more by it than those that undergo it in an inert container such as stainless steel or enamel coated cement.
Traditional Burgundian (and other) wine makers insist a wine gains complexity if its ML takes place after, instead of concurrent with, its alcoholic fermentation. MariscosA Spanish culinary word referring to edible sea invertebrates including crustaceans, mollusks, and echinoderms (starfish, urchins, etc.). A typical New England Plato des Mariscos might be a half lobster tossed with clams, mussels, and scallops. A more eclectic version might include periwinkles and barnacles among the many possibilities. TopPPremier Cru[French] Premier (first) Cru (block of land with homogeneous conditions) is best translated as First Rank. It is used in different ways in different parts of France.
In Bordeaux Premier Cru is the designation for the handful of châteaux at the top of the prestige hierarchy. In other words, in Bordeaux the term applies to the winery, not the land.
In Burgundy Premier Cru is the 2nd highest designation (out of four) for vineyards. In ascending order Burgundian wines are designated according to the track records NOT of their producers, but of their vineyards:
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