164 articles
Maceration (wine)
Maceration (wine), or skin contact, is the soaking of grape skins, seeds, and stems in juice or wine to extract color, tannins, and aroma; central to red wine, key to rosé and orange wine, with variants like cold soak and carbonic maceration.
Madeira wine
Madeira wine (vinho da Madeira) is a Portuguese fortified wine, 17-22% vol., from Madeira island, aged with heat (estufagem or canteiro), in dry Sercial to sweet Malvasia styles, famously long-lived.
Malbec
Malbec (Côt, Auxerrois) is a black wine grape from South-West France, the grape of Cahors' "black wine" and, since the 19th century, Argentina's flagship variety, with 46,890 Argentine hectares and most world plantings.
Malolactic fermentation
Malolactic fermentation (MLF, malolactic conversion) is a bacterial winemaking process in which Oenococcus oeni converts L-malic acid to softer lactic acid and CO2, raising pH, adding diacetyl, and improving stability.
Malvasia
Malvasia (Malvoisie, Malvazija): not a single grape but a large Mediterranean family of mostly white Vitis vinifera varieties named after Monemvasia, making dry, sparkling, and sweet wines across Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal.
Marsala wine
Marsala wine: Sicilian fortified wine from Marsala in western Sicily, begun by John Woodhouse in 1773 and made a DOC in 1969; styles run from Fine to Vergine Stravecchio, dry to sweet, in the 15 to 18 percent EU band.
Mateus (wine)
Mateus (Mateus Rosé) is a Portuguese medium-sweet, slightly sparkling rosé created in 1942 by Fernando van Zeller Guedes of Sogrape, named for the Palace of Mateus, sold in a WWI-flask-shaped bottle, and at its 1978 peak over 40% of Portugal's table wine exports.
Merlot
Merlot, black Vitis vinifera wine grape from southwest France; Cabernet Franc × Magdeleine Noire des Charentes; majority grape of Bordeaux (60% of appellation area), early ripening, base of Pomerol's Pétrus.
Montepulciano (grape)
Montepulciano is a central Italian red wine grape, main variety of Abruzzo's Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOC and Marche's Rosso Conero; unrelated to Sangiovese despite the shared name with Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is an Abruzzo DOC red wine, recognized 1968, made from at least 85% Montepulciano grapes, distinct from Tuscany's Sangiovese-based Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
Moscato d'Asti
Moscato d'Asti DOCG is a sweet, semi-sparkling (frizzante) white wine from Asti, Alessandria and Cuneo provinces in Piedmont, Italy, made from Moscato Bianco; fermentation is stopped near 5% alcohol, distinguishing it from fully sparkling Asti Spumante.
Mourvèdre
Mourvèdre, also called Monastrell (Spain) and Mataro (Australia/US), is a late-ripening Spanish red wine grape; Spain plants 48,116 ha, and in France it stars in Bandol and GSM blends.
Mulled wine
Mulled wine, also called spiced wine or Glühwein, is red wine gently heated with sugar, citrus, and spices such as cinnamon and cloves, served warm as a European winter and Christmas market drink since Roman times.
Must
Must (moût, mosto, Most) is the unfermented or freshly fermenting mixture of grape juice, skins, seeds, and pulp used as winemaking's raw material, defined by OIV and national law, typically 70-80% water with glucose and fructose at 75-150 g/l each.
Napa Valley AVA
Napa Valley AVA, established January 27, 1981, is California's first American Viticultural Area and the second in the United States, containing 17 nested sub-AVAs including Howell Mountain, Oakville, and Crystal Springs of Napa Valley (2024).
Nebbiolo
Nebbiolo, also called Spanna, Chiavennasca, or Prunent, is Piedmont's late-ripening red wine grape behind Barolo and Barbaresco, first attested in 1266, with Valtellina requiring at least 90%.
Noble rot
Noble rot is the beneficial form of Botrytis cinerea on ripe grapes; damp nights and dry days shrivel berries, concentrating sugar to make Tokaji Aszú, Sauternes, and Trockenbeerenauslese sweet wines.
Oak (wine)
Oak (wine): use of oak barrels, chips, or staves to age or ferment wine, adding vanilla, spice, and smoky aromas via toasting and microoxygenation; barriques hold 225 L, contrasting with inert stainless steel.
Oenology
Oenology (enology) is the science of winemaking, paired with viticulture. Covers grape domestication origins, alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, OIV analytical standards, UC Davis research milestones, and modern AI benchmarking.
Orange wine
Orange wine, also called skin-contact white or amber wine (Georgian qvevri style), is white wine fermented on its skins for days to months, giving amber color, tannin, and texture like a light red; defined by OIV as white wine with at least one month maceration.
Oz Clarke
Oz Clarke, British wine critic, broadcaster and writer based in London; former RSC actor-singer who became the BBC Food and Drink wine expert in 1984 and the most-recognised UK wine critic (Wine Intelligence 2015, 18.2%).
Pedro Ximénez
Pedro Ximénez (PX) is a white Spanish grape variety and the intensely sweet sun-dried-grape dessert wine named after it, centered on Montilla-Moriles (over 90% of production), with minimum 15% alcohol and at least 272 g/l sugar.
Petit Verdot
Petit Verdot, also called lambrusquet, is a black-skinned French Bordeaux red wine grape from the Pyrenees. Late-ripening and low-vigor, it adds color, tannin, and spice to blends; 1.3% of Bordeaux red plantings, also grown in Napa, Argentina, and Australia.
Pinot gris
Pinot gris, also called Pinot Grigio, Grauburgunder or Ruländer, is a grey mutation of Pinot noir from Burgundy. Early picking gives crisp Italian Grigio; riper harvest gives rich Alsatian Gris, with ramato skin-contact wines in Friuli.
Pinot noir
Pinot noir (Spätburgunder, Pinot nero) is the black-berried Burgundian Vitis vinifera grape behind red Burgundy: thin-skinned, early-ripening (about 1,150 degree days), disease-prone, with 36,727 ha in France (2018) and 11,519 ha in Germany (2023).
Port wine
Port wine (vinho do Porto) is a Portuguese fortified wine from the Douro Demarcated Region, made by adding aguardente to stop fermentation, 18-22% alcohol; world's oldest demarcated wine region, styles include Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, LBV, Colheita.
Prosecco
Prosecco, also Glera-based Italian sparkling wine, is made by tank (Charmat) fermentation in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia; Prosecco DOC topped 667 million bottles in 2025, with Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG as its historic heart.
Red wine
Red wine: wine fermented on dark grape skins, colored by anthocyanins (about 500 mg/L in young wines) and structured by tannins; earliest evidence from Georgia ca. 6000 BC; WHO states no safe alcohol level.
Retsina
Retsina (ρετσίνα) is a traditional Greek white or rosé wine made by adding Aleppo pine resin during fermentation; legally produced only in Greece, protected as a TSG, with Savatiano as its main grape and Attica its center.
Rhône wine
Rhône wine comes from the Rhône Valley of southeastern France, split into a Syrah-based continental north (about 5% of output) and a Grenache-blend Mediterranean south (95%), under a tiered appellation hierarchy.