164 articles
Acids in wine
Acids in wine: organic acids, chiefly tartaric and malic from grapes plus lactic, acetic, citric, and succinic, that govern pH, titratable acidity, taste, stability, and malolactic fermentation management.
Aging of wine
Aging of wine covers post-bottling redox chemistry of phenolics, oxygen ingress through closures (0.05-89 mg/year OTR), storage temperature effects, and emerging underwater and accelerated aging techniques.
Albariño
Albariño, called Alvarinho in Portugal's Vinho Verde, is a white wine grape from northwest Iberia, centered on Rías Baixas, Spain; dry, high-acid, saline wines pair with seafood, with over 6,500 ha planted in Spain.
Amarone
Amarone, or Amarone della Valpolicella, is a dry, full-bodied red wine from Valpolicella near Verona, Italy, made from partially dried grapes fermented almost to dryness.
American Viticultural Area
American Viticultural Area (AVA): a TTB-designated delimited US grape-growing region under 27 CFR part 9, first established as Augusta, Missouri in 1980; 280 AVAs exist, requiring 85% local grapes for labeling, regulating geography only.
Amontillado
Amontillado, an aged dry sherry style from the Jerez-Xérès-Sherry and Montilla-Moriles PDOs, matures first under flor yeast and then oxidatively; 16–22% alcohol, nutty, amber, under 4 g/L sugar.
Ampelography
Ampelography, from Greek ampelos and graphein, is the identification and classification of grapevine varieties by leaf, shoot, and bunch morphology, standardized by OIV descriptors and extended since the 1990s by DNA markers.
Appellation
An appellation is a legally defined, protected geographical name on wine labels, requiring grapes from a delimited area made under set production rules, beginning with France's 1935 AOC system.
Appellation d'origine contrôlée
Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) is the French national appellation system, created in 1935, binding products like wine, cheese, and cognac to a delimited terroir and cahier des charges; it is the national equivalent of the European AOP.
Armand de Brignac
Armand de Brignac, nicknamed Ace of Spades, is a prestige Champagne brand launched in 2006 by the Cattier family and promoted by Jay-Z, co-owned 50/50 with Moët Hennessy since 2021, producing about 100,000 bottles yearly in Chigny-les-Roses.
Australian wine
Australian wine is produced across 65 regions by some 2,156 wineries, ranking Australia fifth in global production, led by Shiraz and Chardonnay and exported chiefly to China.
Barbera
Barbera is a dark-skinned red wine grape from Piedmont, Italy, distinct from Nebbiolo and Dolcetto; known for bright acidity, low tannins, deep color, appellations Barbera d'Asti, d'Alba, and Nizza DOCG, and plantings in California.
Barolo
Barolo: Piedmont's flagship DOCG red wine, made only from Nebbiolo in 11 Langhe communes near Alba; aged at least 38 months, famed as "the king of wines" and distinct from Barbaresco.
Barossa Valley
Barossa Valley: wine region (GI) north-east of Adelaide, South Australia, part of the Barossa zone with Eden Valley; famed for full-bodied Shiraz from vines dating to 1843, Old Vine Charter, and 53,593-tonne 2025 crush.
Beaujolais
Beaujolais, also known as Beaujolais wine, is a French wine region and appellation north of Lyon, producing wines almost entirely from the gamay grape, including the young Beaujolais Nouveau.
Beaujolais nouveau
Beaujolais nouveau, a French vin primeur from Gamay under the Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages appellations, released worldwide the third Thursday of November since a 1985 decree; made by semi-carbonic maceration and promoted globally by Georges Duboeuf.
Biodynamic wine
Biodynamic wine is wine from grapes farmed by Rudolf Steiner's 1924 biodynamic system, certified mainly by Demeter (founded 1932), covering about 1% of world vineyards, with stricter cellar rules than organic wine and contested scientific evidence.
Blue Nun
Blue Nun is a German wine brand created in 1921 by H. Sichel Söhne of Mainz, the best-known Liebfraumilch, peaking in the 1980s with 24 million bottles yearly, now owned by Langguth and sold as Authentic White and other wines.
Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855
The 1855 Bordeaux classification (Grands Crus Classés en 1855) ranks 61 Médoc red estates in five growths plus Haut-Brion, and 27 Sauternes-Barsac sweet whites in three tiers, by broker price records for Napoleon III's 1855 Paris Exposition; only Cantemerle (1855) and Mouton Rothschild (1973) changed.
Brunello di Montalcino
Brunello di Montalcino is a DOCG red wine from Montalcino, Tuscany, made 100% from the local Sangiovese clone called Brunello; first DOCG in 1980, aged at least two years in oak, released after five years.
Buckfast Tonic Wine
Buckfast Tonic Wine, or Buckie, is a 15% ABV caffeinated fortified wine-based drink made by Benedictine monks at Buckfast Abbey, Devon, since 1897 and distributed by J. Chandler & Co, famous in Scotland.
Burgundy
Burgundy (Bourgogne) is a historical region of east-central France, a former duchy and former administrative region, and a celebrated wine region whose Climats vineyards are UNESCO World Heritage listed.
Burgundy wine
Burgundy wine: wines of Bourgogne, France, from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay across 84 appellations and 1,247 UNESCO-listed Climats on 30,052 hectares, shaped by monks, Valois dukes, and a cool climate with ever-earlier harvests.
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is a thin-skinned, early-ripening red wine grape from the Basque country, parent of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, covering 9% of Bordeaux's red vines and dominating Loire appellations like Chinon.
California wine
California wine is wine made from grapes grown in California, which produces about 80 percent of United States wine, led by regions such as Napa Valley and Sonoma County.
Campden tablet
Campden tablet: pre-measured potassium or sodium metabisulfite pill releasing sulfur dioxide, developed at Chipping Campden, England, for WWII fruit preservation; used in home winemaking, cider, mead, and brewing water dechlorination.
Carmel Winery
Carmel Winery (יקבי כרמל), also Carmel Mizrahi, is Israel's largest winery, founded by Baron Edmond de Rothschild with cellars at Rishon LeZion (1890) and Zichron Ya'akov (1892), producing about 15 million bottles a year.
Carménère
Carménère, a Bordeaux red wine grape thought extinct after 19th-century phylloxera, rediscovered in Chile in 1994 by ampelographer Jean-Michel Boursiquot at Viña Carmen; Chile is now the world's largest producer.
Cava (Spanish wine)
Cava is a Spanish sparkling wine made by the traditional method, first bottled in 1872 and produced mainly in Catalonia from the grapes Macabeo, Xarel·lo, and Parellada.
Chablis (AOC)
Chablis (AOC), Chablis wine: northern Burgundy appellation for still white wine made only from Chardonnay on Kimmeridgian soils, with four tiers (Petit Chablis to Grand Cru), 47 label climats, and 60% exports.