This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Wine glossary
R
Racking
The process of moving wine from barrel to barrel, while leaving sediment behind.
Racy
Racy wines offer higher levels of acidity. Similar to nervous or nervy.
Raisiny
Similar to pruney, but with raisin flavors as opposed to prunes. Raisin characteristics develop in over ripe fruit.
Ratings
Ratings are numbers given to wines to show how a taster ranks them against other wines in a similar peer group.
Raw
Young and undeveloped. A good descriptor of barrel samples of red wine. Raw wines are often tannic and high in alcohol or acidity.
Recently Disgorged
Indicates that the lees have been removed from a sparkling wine just prior to release. After sparkling wine has undergone the second fermentation in the bottle, the wine can remain on the lees for many years to develop additional complexity and richness.
Recioto
Extremely concentrated Italian wine made from grapes that have been dried or raisined in special drying rooms for a few months after harvest before being crushed. The wine can be dry or slightly sweet.
Recolte
French term for Harvest. Can also be used as a word for Vintage.
Recork
Removal and replacement of the original cork, due to age. In France, corks can be marked “Rebouchée.”
Reduced
Commonly used to describe a wine that has not been exposed to air and has developed stinky aromas due to reductive chemical reactions (as opposed to oxidation). Reduced notes in a wine generally result from the presence of volatile sulfur compounds, or mercaptans; these notes include rotten eggs, rubber, struck matches, sewage and even skunk. These off aromas may dissipate after exposure to air through decanting or swirling the wine in the glass.
Reductive
Refers to winemaking practices that reduce a wine’s exposure to oxygen, such as the use of stainless steel tanks and inert gases to minimize contact with air. This is done to maximize a wine’s fresh fruit flavors. However, in some cases it can result in «reduced» aromas, considered a flaw.
Refractometer
A handheld instrument that gauges grapes’ ripeness by measuring the ratio of sugar and other solids in the grape juice. Used extensively during harvest by grapegrowers.
Rehoboam
Oversized bottle equivalent to 4.5 liters or six regular bottles.
Remontage
French term for pump-over.
Remuage
See Riddling.
Reserva
A Spanish term for a red wine that has spent at least three years in barrels and bottles before release.
Reserve
A largely American term indicating a wine of higher quality; it has no legal meaning.
Residual Sugar
Residual Sugar or RS is the unfermented sugar that remains in a finished wine.
Resveratrol
Polyphenol found in grape skins and wine as well as in other foods such as peanuts, blueberries and cranberries. It is believed to be the source of wine’s health benefits; studies have linked resveratrol with improved heart health and endurance as well as reduced risk of age-related degeneration, Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, blindness, cancer, obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Retronasal Passages
The retronasal passages are the airways that connect the nose and the mouth. Also home to a dime-sized patch of nerve endings called the olfactory epithelium. As we inhale through our nose or mouth, this little patch captures airborne aromas and flavors as they pass by, helping us identify thousands of unique aromas.
Reverse osmosis
In wine, a technique by which alcohol levels are reduced. It’s typically employed by winemakers who wish to achieve the flavor of ripe grapes without the increased percentage of alcohol that results from fruit with higher levels of sugar. The reverse osmosis process involves passing wine through a filter that separates water and ethanol from tannins and other elements responsible for pigment, flavor and aroma. The water and alcohol solution is then distilled to separate the two, with some of the alcohol being removed, and the remaining solution is added back to the other elements previously separated out.
Rhône
A river in southwest France surrounded by villages producing wines mostly from Syrah; the name of the wine-producing valley in France.
Rich
Wines that are rich display ample texture, body and flavor, along with a long finish.
Riddling
The process of rotating Champagne bottles in order to shift sediment toward the cork.
Right Bank
The Right Bank is the home to Bordeaux wines from Pomerol, St. Emilion and other wines in that area.
Rim
Where the wine meets the edge of the glass, useful in describing color variation in a wine.
Ripasso
Italian term for a process in which dried grapes or leftover grapeskins (pomace) are added to a fermented wine for a period of maceration to increase its intensity, flavor, alcohol and color. This method is used to make some wines from Valpolicella, using the leftovers from the area’s Recioto or Amarone wines, made from raisinated grapes dried on mats in the appassimento process.
Ripe
A ripe wine is one that is produced wine is ripe when its grapes have reached the optimum level of maturity.
Riserva
An Italian wine term that’s typically used to describe a wine that’s been aged for longer than the standard denomination. Aging varies from region to region.
Robust
Describes a wine that is full-bodied, intense and vigorous; can be a bit overblown.
Rootstock
Disease-resistant native American grapevine grown specifically to provide a root system on which to graft Vitis vinifera varieties. Most of the world takes these measures to prevent attacks of phylloxera.
Rosado
Spanish term for Rosé.
Rosato
Italian term for Rosé.
Rosé
French for «pink» and used to describe a category of refreshing wines that are pink in color but are made from red grapes.
Roto-Fermentor
A programmable, mechanized fermenting tank that rotates on an axis to mix the cap and grape must during fermentation to facilitate extraction of color, tannins and flavor.
Rough
The tactile “coarse” sensation one experiences with very astringent wines.
Round
Round wines feel opulent in your mouth. This trait can come from low acid wines and wines produced from fruit when the tannins were allowed to fully ripen.
Rustic
Generally speaking, rustic wines are rough textured, old school wines that are often austere and stern. However, rustic can be more of a simple, country wine with character as well. The term can take on slightly different meanings, depending on the appellation.