Gourmet’s International’s wine glossary from Helmuth Köcher, the expert par excellence

Did you know?

- that the long tasting of the flavour and aroma substances that can be either elegant, aromatic, powerful, intensive, and/or have to be long lasting, play an important part in the selection procedure for the MIWF;
- that at the committee tasting for the MIWF wines are consistently put forward that show fleeting acidity due to acetaldehyde which turns to vinegar bacteria through oxidation of the ethyl alcohol;
- that in Italy there are over 1000 autochthon grape varieties, that means that the vine grows in the area where it originated and there are 350 recognised varieties;
- that the most widely grown autochthon grape variety in Italy is the Sangiovese with 12% of total production followed by the Cattarato Bianco Siciliano, Trebbiano Toscano, Montepulciano and Barbera;
- that Abouriou Noir is an autochtone red wine vine from the Côtes-du-Marmadais in France;
- that the DNA of the Georgian Rkatsiteli autochthone grape, which is still grown in Georgia today, is related to the world’s oldest grape seed (7000 years old);
- that there are over 20.000 autochthone grape varieties in the world;
- that the term astringent refers to a high content of polyphenols such as tannin and tanning agents that cause a drying of the oral mucosa and a contraction of the mouth;
- that the fermentation of the wine has to be stopped to obtain the natural sugars in the production of semi-dry, slightly sweet or sweet wines;
- that you should clean each glass with either wine or water before each tasting to eliminate eventual foreign aromas.

- that all tastings for the selection of the wines for the Meran International WineFestival are blind tastings. That means that very little or no information about the vintage or where the wine comes from is known.
- that the oldest vine of the world, where the picking of the grapes and the cutting of the vine a ritual is, belong to the Modra Kavčina or Žametna črnina (Blauer Kölner) grape variety.
- that a wine can have a balmy note, whereby here the typical resinous, slightly bitter smell and taste is to be classed as noble. It includes the palett of oak, eucalyptus, honey, pine, myrrh, sandalwood, fir, juniper berry, frankinsense, or cedar.
- that the use of barrique barrels with a volume of 225 litres, gives the wine its aroma through the extra aromas in the barrel.
- that in many Italian wines the delicate taste and smell of bitter almonds is known as amarognolo (amaro = bitter) and is desired. The incorrect addition of prussiate of potash in the wrong quantity can cause the wine to have a strong taste and smell of bitter almonds. A delicate palate is very useful here.

- that Cassis (French for blacurrant) is a typical taste in Cabernet Sauvignon,young Blaufränkisch wines and Sauvignon blanc;
- that charmat describes the production of sparkling wine, where the second fermentaion takes place in a pressure tank, also called pressure tank procedure;
- that chaptalisation means improvement and is named after the Frenchman Chaptal and is where sugar is added to increase the amount of alcohol. In the middle of the 19th century Ludwig Gall, a German, replaced this word with „improvement“.
- that Cagnulari is an autochthon grape from Sardinia, mainly from the province of Sassari, and produces the DOC wine Alghero Cagnulari;
- that Cuvée comes from „cuve“ (French for fermenting vessel) and today is used as a synonym for blending, marriage or mélange, meaning the fermentation of various grapes in a fermenting vessel to make wine or sparkling wine or the blending of different grapes or grapes from different regions. The wine made is called a Cuvée - in France, Assemblage. By the Champagne production method, the first, high quality must is called Cuvée but also various other bottlings are also called Cuvées. Take Care: in French, Cuvée is also used for each separately bottled wine from one vineyard.
- that Chips are used today instead of the expensive Barrique barrels. Several oak chips are added to the wine in the metal tanks in order to give the wine the typical Barrique flavour. These chips are more commonly used in the USA and Australia than in Europe. The actual EU law states that chips can also be used in Europe. There is very little difference in taste between “real Barrique“ wine and chips wine. It seems that the chips won’t completely take over from the Barrique barrels as chip wine does not keep as long as barrel wine.

- that disgorging is used in the traditional bottle method of fermenting sparkling wines. After the end of the second fermentation, the bottles are stored horizontally for different lengths of time. The yeast has to be taken out of the bottles (for optical reasons) and first it is collected in the neck of the bottles. The classical method for this is shaking. The bottles are placed in a special shaking rack and every day they are turned a little bit from a vertical position till they are standing on their heads. The yeast is usually taken out of the neck of the bottle using the freezing method (Méthode à la glace) whereby the neck of the bottle is frozen, the bottle opened, and the frozen yeast taken out.
- that dosage ..That last ingredient added to the bottle regulates the sweetness:
Extra Brut: less than 6g/l;
Brut: less than 15g/l;
Extra Dry: 12-20 g/l;
Dry: 17-35 g/l;
Demi Sec: 33-50 g/l;
Doux: above 50 g/l. There are some sparkling wines without dosage.
- that noble rot is the most pleasant form of Botrytis-Befall (mould) in over ripe berries and produces the highly complex dessert wines in the world, especially in Burgenland in Austria and in Sauternes in France.
- that ice wine is a wine speciality in Austria and Germany. The grapes must be frozen and can only be picked when the temperature has been below minus 7 centigrade for more than 24 hours. From 2004 this can only happen in a natural way, which means that the grapes must stay on the vines. Artificial coldness such as cyro extraction and others are no longer allowed. In America, however, the grapes can be artificially frozen in storage.
- that filtration is the clarification of a wine.

- that fleeting acidity usually occurs in wine in a gas form, and it is usually vinegar acidity that you can smell and often has a negative effect on the first impression;
- that fermentation mistakes can have a negative influence on the quality of the wine. The prerequisite for a quality wine is a controlled fermentation during which sugar is turned into alcohol and various primary and secondary by-products such as ester and glycerine are formed. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to clarify the must in the correct way;
- that Gellewza is one of the most important local red grapes on Malta. It is supposed to be identical or related to the Italian Mammolo grape that is used in Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Chianti;
- that yeasts are micro organisms belonging to the yeast family. Yeast is used to change the sugar found in the must to alcohol and carbon dioxide. Wild yeasts are natural and can be found on the grape skins. Chemically produced yeasts are also used for fermentation. After fermentation the dead yeast sinks to the bottom;
- that hybrids cannot be used in the EU for quality wines. Hybrids are the result of the crossing of two different vines rather that two of the same variety;
- that Irxen is a middle European name for the side shoots of a vine. They are also known as Gezizer, Geizrebe, and Geiztraube and have grapes on them that stay green. The “Irxen Wine that is made from these grapes is very sour;
- that Imperial is a name used in Bordeaux for an extra large bottle which holds 6 litres, the equivalent of eight normal bottles. This sized champagne bottle, however, is called a “Methusalem“.

- that Inzolia is a white grape that is grown in Sicily. On the island of Elba the variety is called Ansonica. The nut bouquet is characteristic for this wine;
- that virgin wine is the name given to the first wine made from a new vine (at the earliest after 3 years);
- that Jeroboam is the name for an extra large champagne bottle that holds three litres, the equivalent of four normal bottles. Jeroboam was the first biblical name for extra large bottles. In Bordeaux this name is used for double magnums which causes some confusion as these bottle contain four and a half litres, the equivalent of six normal bottles. For champagne these are called large Rehoboam;
- that cold fermentation at a temperature between 10 und 15 °Celsius is especially done to slow down the fermentation. In this way the primary aromas in the wine are enhanced, which produces a fruity, young wine typical of today’s trend;
- that corks were already used by the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, and Greeks. They usually used stoppers made of terracotta to close their amphorae and then tied them on with rope and covered the whole lot with varnish, clay or sap. The Roman author Cato (234 – 149 B.C.) wrote that wine jugs had to be closed with cork and sap after fermentation. The Romans already knew this way to close bottles 2 hundred years before Christ, but was lost with the end of the Roman Empire. A wine is “corked” if it smells of cork;
- that the body of a wine refers to the approximately 500 substances that occur in the wine such as tannins, rest sugar, acid. Unfortunately the body of a wine is often confused with the alcohol content. A full bodied wine does not have to contain a lot of alcohol, but an extensive extract. In a good wine, the body is in proportion with acidity and tannins that give it its elegance during maturity;
- that the crystals that form on the bottom of the cork or on the bottom of the bottle are tartar. It is tasteless and does not mean that there is something wrong with the wine, just that the tartar has either not been chemically stabilised during fermentation, or not stabilised enough.