Sparking Wine Terms:
ABV/Alcohol: (Alcohol By Volume): The percentage of alcohol in a beverage.
Aging: The process of cellaring a wine by keeping it in a cool, dark place over time.
Aroma: The pleasant smell of wine.
Assemblage: Blending wines for complexity, balance, vintage variation, etc.
Asti: Sparking wines made with a single fermentation in a tank.
Autolytic Flavors: The bready and pastry flavors that dead yeast create in sparkling wines like Champagne and Cava.
Blanc de Blancs: Sparkling wine made from white grapes only.
Blanc de Noirs: Sparkling wine made from black grapes only.
Brut/Bruto/Herb: Dry sparkling wine (the most common style).
Brut Nature: Extremely dry, almost no residual sugar left in the sparkling wine.
Cava: Sparkling wine from Spain made in the “Traditional Method.”
Champagne: Sparkling wine from Champagne, France made in the “Traditional Method.”
Clarification: The process of making wine clear by removing solids, skins, and leftover yeast.
Crémant: Sparkling wines from France outside of the Champagne region.
Demi-Sec: Medium dry sparkling wine.
Disgorgement: The process of removing dead yeasts from the sparkling wine bottle.
Dosage: The amount of sugar added to sparkling wine in the final stage of production.
Doux/Dulce: Sweet sparkling wine.
Extra Brut/Extra Bruto/Extra Trocken: Extra dry sparkling wine.
Fractions: There are different phases of pressed grape juice. The beginning presses are purer juice and higher in acid. The juice is separated by fractions for later blending.
Freezing: The neck of the sparkling wine bottle is rapidly chilled in order to pop out the dead yeast.
Grand Cru: Champagne made in Grand Cru villages.
Lambrusco: Red sparkling wine from Italy, usually sweet.
Late disgorgement: Sparkling wines aged on their lees (dead yeast) and are disgorged (lees removal) right before sale.
Lees: Dead yeast that give bready, brioche, and toasty flavors to sparkling wine.
Lees Aging: Allowing the sparkling wine to mix with the dead yeast over a period of time.
Liqueur d’Expedition: A mixture of wine + sugar (dosage) to give the sparkling wine a final sweetness level.
Liquor de Tirage: A mixture of wine + sugar + nutrients for the 2nd fermentation of sparkling wines.
Moscato d’Asti: Low alcohol, sweet, sparkling wine from Italy made by the Asti Method.
Non-Vintage: Wines that are blended across vintages (the year in which the grapes are harvested).
Premier Cru: Champagne made in Premier Cru villages.
Prestige Cuvée: The finest Champagne wines of the highest quality.
Prosecco: Sparkling wine from Italy.
Pupitres: Contraptions that hold sparkling wine bottles to allow for riddling (gradually turning to make the dead yeast fall to the bottle neck).
Riddling: The process of gradually rotating sparkling wine bottles to allow the lees to fall to the neck in order to be disgorged.
Sec/Seco/Secco: Dry sparkling wine.
Sekt: German sparkling wine.
Sur Latte: Wines bottles that are stored horizontally.
Sur Pointe: Wine bottles that are stored vertically.
Tank Method: Sparkling wines that have a second fermentation in the tank.
Traditional Method: Sparkling wines that have a second fermentation in the bottle.
Transfer Method: Sparkling wines that have a second fermentation in the the bottle, but are transferred to a tank before final bottling.
Trocken: Dry sparkling wine.
Vintage: The year in which the grapes were harvested.
Whole Bunch Press: Grapes for sparkling wines are hand-picked and pressed by the bunch to keep them pure, in tact, and unbroken.
Cheers! Follow me for more wine education and tips!
