164 articles
Chambourcin
Chambourcin (Joannes Seyve 26-205) is a French-American hybrid red wine grape released in 1963, grown in France and the eastern US, with mildew resistance loci Rpv3/Ren but cold-tender buds and black rot susceptibility.
Champagne
Champagne: sparkling wine from the delimited Champagne AOC region of northeastern France, made by the bottle-fermented méthode traditionnelle from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Meunier; AOC since 1936, UNESCO-listed 2015, with 17 Grand Cru villages and a protected name.
Chardonnay
Chardonnay, white wine grape of Burgundy and Champagne, a natural Pinot × Gouais blanc cross per 1999 DNA analysis; fifth most planted wine grape worldwide, ~210,000 ha in 2017, known for malolactic buttery style and Chablis-to-oaked range.
Charles Shaw wine
Charles Shaw wine, or Two Buck Chuck, is Bronco Wine Company's budget varietal line sold only at Trader Joe's since 2002, launched at $1.99, reaching one billion bottles by 2016.
Château Cheval Blanc
Château Cheval Blanc, Saint-Émilion Bordeaux estate on the Pomerol border, famed for a Cabernet Franc-led red on gravel-clay soils; Premier Grand Cru Classé A from 1955 until its 2021 withdrawal, owned by Arnault and Frère since 1998.
Château d'Yquem
Château d'Yquem, Sauternes estate in Bordeaux, France; sole Premier Cru Supérieur of the 1855 classification; LVMH majority owner since 1999; sweet botrytised wine from Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc.
Château Lafite Rothschild
Château Lafite Rothschild is a Pauillac first growth Bordeaux estate, ranked Premier Grand Cru Classé in 1855 and owned by the Rothschild family since Baron James bought it in 1868; its 112-hectare vineyard produces the Grand Vin and second wine Carruades de Lafite.
Château Latour
Château Latour, Pauillac first growth in the 1855 Bordeaux Classification, a 96.5-hectare Pinault-owned estate near the Gironde; Cabernet-dominant Grand Vin, Les Forts de Latour, and Pauillac de Latour, released only when ready, not en primeur.
Château Margaux
Château Margaux is a wine estate in the Margaux appellation of the Médoc, France, whose red grand vin has held First Growth status since the 1855 Bordeaux Classification.
Chateau Montelena
Chateau Montelena, a Calistoga winery at the northern end of Napa Valley founded in 1882 by Alfred Tubbs and revived by Jim Barrett in 1972, won the 1976 Judgment of Paris with its 1973 Mike Grgich Chardonnay; known for Estate Cabernet Sauvignon and no-malolactic Chardonnay.
Château Mouton Rothschild
Château Mouton Rothschild is a First Growth wine estate at Pauillac in the Médoc, near Bordeaux, bought by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1853 as Château Brane-Mouton.
Château Pétrus
Pétrus (Château Pétrus) is a Pomerol, Bordeaux estate of about 11.5 hectares producing 100% Merlot on blue smectite clay; no château building, no classification, Moueix family 80% and Santo Domingo 20% since 2018, among the world's most expensive wines.
Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC
Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC, first French wine appellation (decree 15 May 1936), a 3,150-hectare southern Rhône appellation across five communes, producing Grenache-based reds (93%) and whites (7%) from 13 permitted grape varieties.
Chenin blanc
Chenin blanc, also called Pineau de la Loire or Steen, is a high-acid white wine grape from France's Loire Valley, first named by Rabelais in 1534, a savagnin descendant, now most planted in South Africa (16,192 ha in 2023).
Chianti
Chianti, Tuscan red wine DOCG based on Sangiovese; distinct from Chianti Classico DOCG, the historic 7-municipality zone with the Gallo Nero mark, 80-100% Sangiovese, and Annata, Riserva, and Gran Selezione tiers.
Classification of Saint-Émilion wine
The Saint-Émilion classification (classement des crus de Saint-Émilion) is Bordeaux's only regularly revised wine ranking, created by the INAO in 1955 and re-evaluated about every decade; the 2022 edition lists 85 estates, with Figeac and Pavie as the two Premiers Grands Crus Classés A.
Cork taint
Cork taint is a wine fault causing musty, wet-cardboard odors, mainly from 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), first identified in 1982. It affects an estimated 2-5% of bottled wines, costs over a billion dollars yearly, and is largely prevented by screw caps and technical corks.
Côtes du Rhône AOC
Côtes du Rhône AOC, the regional appellation of France's Rhône Valley recognized in 1937, covering 172 communes and 26,777 ha, producing mostly red blends from 27 permitted grape varieties.
Court of Master Sommeliers
Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS), sommelier examining body formed in 1977 after the 1969 London Master Sommelier exam; four sequential levels from Introductory to the invitation-only Master Sommelier Diploma held by 305 people, split into CMS Europe and CMS Americas.
Cristal (wine)
Cristal is Louis Roederer's flagship prestige cuvée Champagne, created in 1876 for Tsar Alexander II in a clear flat-bottomed crystal bottle; vintage-only, from 45 Grand Cru plots, first sold commercially in 1945.
Cru (wine)
Cru (French, "growth") is a wine term for a terroir, vineyard, or commune and its wine. Meanings differ by region: Burgundy ranks Climats, Champagne communes, Bordeaux châteaux (1855 classification).
Custom crush winemaking
Custom crush winemaking: a licensed bonded winery produces wine for clients who own the grapes or wine and market it under their own label, avoiding winery capital costs; distinct from alternating proprietorship.
Cuvée
Cuvée (from French cuve, vat) is a wine term meaning a batch of wine made in one vat, a blend or assemblage of wines, the first-pressed juice in Champagne, or a producer's prestige bottling; it has no single legal definition.
Denominazione di origine controllata
Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC), with DOCG and IGT, is Italy's wine designation-of-origin system created by DPR 930 in 1963; DOC and DOCG mark EU PDO wines under a disciplinare, DOCG adding batch tasting and a numbered state seal.
Dessert wine
Dessert wine, also called pudding wine, is a sweet wine served with or as dessert, made by late harvest, noble rot, freezing, drying, or fortification.
Dom Pérignon
Dom Pérignon is a prestige cuvée of champagne produced by Moët & Chandon in Épernay, France, named after Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Pérignon, with its first vintage from 1921.
Dom Pérignon (monk)
Dom Pierre Pérignon was a French Benedictine monk and procurator of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers. He improved viticulture and winemaking through systematic blending of grapes.
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC), Burgundy producer in Vosne-Romanée; co-owned by de Villaine and Leroy families; sole owner of La Romanée-Conti and La Tâche monopoles; biodynamic grand cru wines.
Federweisser
Federweißer (Federweisser, Federweisse) is German partly fermented grape must, a young cloudy wine drunk in autumn with Zwiebelkuchen; called Sturm in Austria and burčák in Czechia.
Fermentation in winemaking
Fermentation in winemaking: yeast (mainly Saccharomyces cerevisiae) converts grape glucose and fructose to ethanol and CO2, followed by optional malolactic fermentation; temperature control, inoculated versus spontaneous fermentation, and stuck-fermentation risks define the process.