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Wine glossary
C
Cane
A branch of a vine.
Canopy
The green foliage of a grapevine is called the canopy. The canopy can be trimmed or thinned to manage the amount of air and sun reaching the fruit, improving fruit quality, increasing yield and controlling disease.
Cap
Grape solids like pits, skins, and stems that rise to the top of a tank during fermentation; what gives red wines color, tannins and weight.
Cap Classique
A South African producers association that focuses on the promotion of traditional method sparkling wines that are bottle fermented and aged «en tirage.»
Capsule
The metal or plastic protective coating that surrounds the top of the cork and the bottle. Before pulling out the cork, at least the top portion should be removed to expose the cork and the lip of the bottle.
Cantina
Italian wine term for winery (cellar).
Carbonic Maceration
A winemaking method where uncrushed grapes are placed in a sealed vat and topped with carbon dioxide. Wines created without oxygen have low tannin and color with juicy fruit flavors and bold yeast aromas. This practice is common with entry-level Beaujolais wines.
Carboy
Sometimes referred to as a «demijohn,» a carboy is a nonreactive vessel, usually glass or plastic, used to ferment alcoholic beverages. Due to their relatively small size (typically ranging from 20 to 60 liters) and portability, they are most popularly used in home winemaking, but are also employed by commercial winemakers for experimental lots or test batches.
Casa
Spanish for house. In wine terms, synonymous with «bodega.»
Cascina
A winery farmhouse.
Case
A case of wine in the United States typically contains 9 liters or 12 standard 750ml bottles of wine. The size of wineries is most frequently measured in the number of cases produced annually.
Casein
A dairy-based protein used in the fining process. Casein is particularly effective at clarifying cloudy or off-colored white wines.
Cask Number
A term sometimes used to designate special wines, as in Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cask 23, but often applied to ordinary wines to identify a separate lot or brand. Synonymous with bin number.
Castello
Italian word for castle (aka Château).
Cava
Spanish for ‘cellar,’ but also a Spanish sparkling wine made in the traditional Champagne style from Xarello, Macabeo, and Parellada grapes.
Cave
French term for wine cellar.
Cedar
Cedar is a common scent found in Bordeaux wines from the Medoc appellations. It smells of cedar wood, or an old cedar chest.
Cellar
The room in a winery where wine is made or stored. Can also refer to a personal wine collection in a residence.
Cellared By
Means the wine was not produced at the winery where it was bottled. It usually indicates that the wine was purchased from another source.
Cepage
French term for grape varieties planted in vineyards.
Chablis
A town and wine region east of Paris known for steely, minerally Chardonnay.
Chai
French term for barrel cellar.
Champagne
A denominated region northeast of Paris in which Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes are made into sparkling wine.
Chaptalization
The process of adding sugar to fermenting grapes in order to increase alcohol.
Charmat
A less expensive, mass-production method for producing bulk quantities of sparkling wine. The second fermentation takes place in a pressurized tank, rather than in a bottle, decreasing lees contact and producing larger, coarser bubbles. The wine is filtered under pressure and bottled. Also known as the bulk process or tank method. Wines made this way cannot be labeled méthode Champenoise.
Chateau
French for ‘castle;’ an estate with its own vineyards.
Chateaux
Plural for chateau.
Chef de Cave
French term for cellarmaster or head winemaker.
Chewy
Chewy wines are dense or meaty, with a lot of texture, concentration and tannins.
Chianti
A scenic, hilly section of Tuscany known for fruity red wines made mostly from Sangiovese grapes.
Cigar Box
Descriptive term for common odors found in older Bordeaux wine.
Citric acid
One of the three predominate acids in wine.
Claret
An English name for red Bordeaux.
Clarification and Fining
A process after fermentation where proteins and dead yeast cells are removed. To clarify, either a protein, such as casein (from milk) and egg whites or a vegan clay-based agent like bentonite or kaolin clay are added to wine. These fining agents bind to suspended particles and cause them to drop out of the wine.
Clarity
Referring to the amount of suspended particulate matter in a wine, clarity is described in terms of the wine’s reflective quality; brilliant, clear, dull or hazy. A pronounced haziness may signify spoilage, while brilliant, clear or dull wines are generally sound.
Classified Growth
Included in Bordeaux’s 1855 Classification, which ranked châteaus from first-growth to fifth-growth. The original classification was set by the prices that the wines fetched and was intended to be synonymous with quality.
Clay
Type of soil most often found in Pomerol and Saint Emilion that is perfect for Merlot.
Clean
Fresh on the palate and free of any off-taste.
Climat
French term for a vineyard site defined by its micro-climate and various other aspects of terroir. The term is most commonly associated with Burgundy.
Climate
The long-term weather pattern—including temperature, precipitation and hours of sunshine—in a specific region. In contrast, weather is associated with a specific event, such as a hailstorm.
Clonal Selection
Vineyard management term for a technique by which dead or under-performing vines are replaced with new vines grown from a single superior vine, or mother vine.
Clone
A genetic copy of a cultivar of wine grapevine. For example, there are more than 1,000 registered clones of the Pinot cultivar.
Clos
Pronounced ‘Cloh,’ this French word once applied only to vineyards surrounded by walls.
Closed
Term describing underdeveloped and young wines whose flavors are not exhibiting well.
Cloudiness
Lack of clarity to the eye. Fine for old wines with sediment, but it can be a warning signal of protein instability, yeast spoilage or re-fermentation in the bottle in younger wines. Cloudiness may also represent a deliberate choice by the winemaker not to filter a wine.
Cloying
Wines that are cloying are too sweet, without ample acidity, making them flabby.
Cluster
A bunch of grapes.
CNDP
Abbreviation for Chateauneuf du Pape. Also written as CDP.
Coarse
Wines that are course are rough in texture and rustic by nature.
Col Fondo
Sparkling wine production method for traditional Prosecco, in which the spent yeast cells, or lees, left over from the secondary fermentation are not disgorged.
Cold Maceration
The process before alcoholic fermentation where the temperature of the fermenting must remains low to help obtain the highest degree of extraction for additional color and aromas as well as raw materials.
Cold Stabilization
A clarification technique that can prevent the formation of crystals in wine bottles. Prior to bottling, the wine’s temperature is lowered to approximately 30° F for two weeks, causing the tartrates and other solids to precipitate out of solution. The wine is then easily racked off (separated from) the solids.
Colheita
Portuguese term for «vintage.»
Colli
Italian term for hills. (e.g. Colli Orientali – «eastern hills»).
Color
A key determinant of a wine’s age and quality; white wines grow darker in color as they age while red wines turn brownish orange.
Commune
French term for small village that is usually a part of an appellation.
Complex
A wine exhibiting numerous odors, nuances, and flavors.
Composite cork
Also known as an agglomerated cork. A wine bottle stopper made of particles or granules of natural cork pressed together and bound by an FDA–approved glue.
Concentrated
Concentrated is the opposite of light. Concentrated wines display a wealth of fruit, richness and depth of flavor, as well as raw materials.
Concentrator
Machine that removes excess water from grapes to help concentrate the wine.
Cooked
A wine that suffered heat damage during storage.
Cooper
Barrel maker. A barrel maker works in a cooperage.
Cooperage
The facility where wine barrels are made.
Cooperative
A winery owned jointly by multiple grape growers.
Coravin
An appliance that allows wine to be removed from an unopened bottle of wine via a hollow needle.
Cordon-trained
Refers to a method of vine training. Cordon-trained vines are supported by a trellising system; typically one or two cordons, or branches, are trained horizontally out of the main trunk.
Cork taint
Undesirable aromas and flavors in wine often associated with wet cardboard or moldy basements.
Corkage Fee
The fee charged by restaurants when guests bring their own bottle of wine rather than ordering from the wine list.
Corked
A wine with musty, mushroomy aromas and flavors resulting from a cork tainted by TCA (trichloroanisol).
Cosecha
Spanish term for «vintage.»
Cote
French term for slope.
Côteaux
A French label term for wines from slopes or non-contiguous hillside vineyards.
Coulure
French term for a problem takes during flowering that causes flowers to drop off the cluster. When this takes place, the grape cluster reduces its yields and the berries develop unevenly in size and maturity.
Courtier
Broker in Bordeaux that acts as the intermediary between the chateau and the negociants.
Creamy
When has the rich texture of cream.
Crianza
A Spanish term for a red wine that has been aged in oak barrels for at least one year.
Crisp
Similar to bright. Fruit that is crisp is usually high in acidity.
Cru
A French term for ranking a wineis inherent quality, i.e. cru bourgeois, cru classe, premier cru, and grand cru.
Cru classé
A top-ranking vineyard designated in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855.
Crush
The English term for harvest.
Cuvée
Is a French wine term that derives from cuve, meaning vat or tank. Wine makers use the term cuvée with several different meanings, more or less based on the concept of a tank of wine put to some purpose.
Cuvier
French term for where the vinification of the wine takes place.