Winemaking Flashcards
(108 cards)
1
Q
Define Vins Clairs
A
Vins Clairs and neutral base wines used for producing Champagne.
2
Q
What is Remontage?
A
Remontage is the French term for pumping over.
3
Q
Define Rebêche.
A
Rebêche is the juice from the third pressing of Champagne grapes. It is used for still wine, spirits, or vinegar.
4
Q
What is the system to calculate sugar concentration in Germany and Switzerland
A
The system to calculate sugar concentration in Germany and Switzerland is the Oechsle system. Oechsle = (density of grape must-1) x 1000.
5
Q
What is the system for measuring sugar content in wine in France?
A
France uses the Baumé unit of measurement for sugar. It is the potential alcohol level in milliliters per 100 milliliters of wine.
6
Q
What is Mistelle?
A
Mistelle is a wine made by fortifying a wine before, or slightly after, it begins to ferment.
7
Q
What does débourbage mean?
A
Débourbage is the French term for juice settling after pressing.
8
Q
What is Délestage?
A
Délestage is the French term for rack and return.
9
Q
What is the system for measuring grape sugar concentration used in the United States?
A
Sugar concentration is measured in degrees Brix using a refractometer (or hydrometer).
10
Q
How do you determine the potential alcohol level of a wine by using a grape’s Brix value?
A
The conversion factor is 5/9. Multiply the Brix value by .55. A wine with a Brix of 24° will yield a wine with a max of 13.3% ABV if fermented dry.
11
Q
How do you calculate the potential abv of a wine using a Baumé value?
A
A Baumé value is equal to the potential abv of the wine, eg. a grape juice with 12° Baumé will produce a wine with a max of 12% alcohol if fermented dry.
12
Q
How does potential alcohol content of a wine correlate with the Oechsle value?
A
Oechsle ABV
89 12%
110.4 15.4%
114.9 16%
13
Q
What is must?
A
Grape juice to be fermented.
14
Q
What is enrichment?
A
Adding grape juice of concentrated grape sugar (RGCM).
15
Q
What is chaptalization?
A
Adding sugar to grape must before fermentation.
16
Q
What does catalyzed mean?
A
Brought about.
17
Q
What is an enzyme?
A
An organic substance capable of causing a chemical change.
18
Q
What percentage of grape sugars usually are fully converted into ethanol?
A
90%. The rest are broken down into other products like acids, other alcohols, etc.
19
Q
What is the most common yeast used in winemaking?
A
Different strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
20
Q
What is the optimal temperature range for fermenting white wine?
A
50°-60°F
21
Q
What temperature is too high for fermentation to continue?
A
100°F
22
Q
What are the pre-fermentation steps in white wine making (in order)?
A
Sorting
Crushing/Destemming
Pressing
Must Adjustments
Juice Settling
23
Q
What are the possible post-fermentation steps in white wine making?
A
Malolactic Fermentation
Lees Contact
Clarification
Aging
Blending
Cold Stabilization
Bottling
24
Q
What are some common methods of clarification?
A
Racking
Fining
Filtering
Centrifuge
25
What temperature is used in cold stabilization, and how long does it typically last?
Around 25°F
1-3 Weeks
26
What are the pre-fermentation steps for red wine making?
Sorting
Crushing
Destemming
Must Adjustments
Cold Soak
27
At what temperature is red wine fermented?
For light styles (eg Pinot Noir), from 60°F - 70°F
For heavier styles (eg Cabernet Sauvignon) from 85°F - 95°F
28
What does a warmer fermentation temperature do?
Leads to an increased extraction of phenolics, creating a good foundation for robust, age-worthy reds.
29
What are the post-fermentation steps for red wine making?
Extended Maceration
Malolactic Fermentation
Pressing
Clarification
Oak Aging
Blending
Bottling
Bottle Aging
30
When is clarification done in red wine production?
After pressing.
31
What is micro-oxygenation?
An inexpensive alternative method to attempt to simulate the effects of barrel aging. A tiny amount of oxygen is bubbled into the wine.
32
What is the saignée method?
A method of rosé production where red grapes are crushed and vatted for between 2-20 hours. A certain amount of the juice is run (or bled) off to make rosé. The remaining stays with the skins and is made into red wine.
33
What is pigéage?
The French term for punching down.
34
What does vin gris on a label mean?
In France, it means that it is a rosé produced using the direct press method. Outside of France, it is not regulated and may mean a rosé produced using other methods as well.
35
What are the most common varieties of grapes used for making Eiswein (Ice Wine)?
Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Chenin Blanc, and for reds, Cabernet Franc.
36
What is the maximum amount of sulfur dioxide that can be added to still be certified organic in the US?
Less than 100 parts per million in the finished wine.
37
How much sulfur is allowed for a wine to be labeled as organic in Europe?
30-50% less added sulfur than nonorganic wines.
38
What is an orange wine?
Juice from white grapes spends a significant amount of time in contact with the grape skins to extract tannin and color. Could be for days or weeks, even months.
39
What are the steps (in order) for the production of sparkling wine using the traditional method?
Base wine production
Blending
Fining/racking/cold stabilization
Second fermentation
Lees Aging
Riddling and Disgorging
Dosage
Bottle Aging
40
What is a tête de cuvée?
A brand's very best wine, also known as a Prestige.
41
What is assemblage?
The French term for the blending stage in traditional method sparkling wine production. Also refers to blending in Bordeaux.
42
What is a Réserve in traditional method sparkling wine production?
A still wine from earlier vintages, used in blending.
43
What is liqueur de tirage?
A mixture of yeast and sugar added to the cuvée to begin the second fermentation process during traditional method sparkling wine production.
44
How much does the ABV for a wine increase following the second fermentation in traditional method sparkling wine production?
1-1.5%
45
Is the second fermentation for a traditional method sparkling wine slower or faster than the first?
Slower
46
What is autolysis
The process by which yeast cells die and begin to decompose, creating nutty, toasty flavors.
47
What is liqueur d'expédition?
A small amount of wine added to traditional method sparkling wine after disgorgement.
48
What is a muselet?
The French term for the wire cage on a sparkling wine cork.
49
What is a Pupitre?
The French term for riddling rack.
50
What is the Asti method?
It is a method of sparkling wine production where there is a single, incomplete fermentation, resulting in a low-pressure, low-alcohol wine.
51
What is the normal pressure in a bottle of ancestral method sparking wine?
Low - 1-3 atm.
52
What is the normal pressure in a sparkling wine produced using the Asti Method?
Low - around 2.5 atm.
May be bottled with a normal cork.
53
What is the difference in the timing of fortification between a sweet style and dry style fortified wine?
The sweet style fortified wine is fortified slightly before or during fermentation, the dry style is fortified after fermentation.
54
What is mutage?
It is the process of adding alcohol to a wine shortly before or while it is fermenting to stop the fermentaion.
55
When making sweet style fortified wines, when will the fermentation typically be stopped?
Usually when the remaining sugar level reaches the 8-12% range.
56
What spirit is almost always used to fortify sweet style fortified wines?
A grape-based spirit (brandy), strength and composition varies by region.
57
What amount of brandy must be added to stop the fermentation?
Enough to raise the alcohol level high enough to kill the yeast, normally to 18-20%.
58
What type of grapes are preferred for the dry style fortified wines?
Relatively neutral grapes, since the flavor comes from the process rather than the grapes.
59
In the solera system, what is the term for the barrels used to age the wine?
Butts
60
What is the term used for the group of butts holding the oldest wine in the solera system?
Solera
61
What is the name for the groups of butts holding wine in the solera system?
Criaderas (nurseries)
62
What is a bodega?
A winery in Spain.
63
What is the term for the yearly process of bottling wine from the solera system?
Running the scales.
64
What is the maximum amount removed from a criadera annually?
40%
65
What is fractional blending?
The term applied to the process for the solera system where no barrel is ever completely emptied, ensuring that the average age continues to grow.
66
What wines (with their country) use the solera system?
Sherry (Spain)
Montilla-Moriles (Spain)
Madeira (Portugal)
Mavrodaphne of Patras (Greece)
Rutherglen (Australia)
67
Are all sherries dry?
No. They may be sweetened prior to bottling.
68
What is a Vin Doux Naturel?
A lightly fortified sweet wine produced throughout the South of France.
69
What are some examples of Vin Doux Naturels?
Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise
Muscat de Rivesaltes
Banyuls
Maury
70
What is the term used in Spain for a fortified wine made by fortifying the must before fermentation begins?
Mistela
71
What is the term used in Spain for a fortified wine made by fortifying the must during after a small of amount of fermentation has occurred?
Vino de Licor
72
What are some examples of Mistelles?
Pineau de Charentes AOC
Floc de Gascogne AOC
73
What is a vin de liqueur?
It is defined by the EU to include all fortified wines, previously had meant Mistelles.
74
What is the term for the fermentation of wines using flor?
Biological Aging
75
What is amelioration in winemaking?
Chemical intervention in winemaking to compensate for nature's deficiencies. Includes enrichment, chaptalization, acidification, deacidification, among other chemical adjustments.
76
What is Arrope?
A syrup used for sweetening wine in Spain, especially Sherry and Malaga, made by boiling down unfermented grape juice (grape concentrate).
77
What is Autovinification?
Used for Port, a method to extract maximum color from red grapes. It is a self-perpetuating pumping over that replaced the use of Lagares. Originally used in Algeria where it was called the Ducellier system.
78
How many liters/gallons does a Barrique hold?
225 liters/59 gallons
79
What is a Bonbonne?
A large glass jar, also known as a demijohn, typically holding 25 Liters/6.6 gallons, used as a neutral container to store wine, Vin Doux Naturel, or brandy, often after a period of wood ageing.
80
What is Collage?
The French term for fining.
81
What is Coupage?
The French and EU term for blending. Somewhat pejorative term - assemblage is generally used for higher quality wines.
82
What is an Almacenista?
The Spanish term for a Sherry stockholder who sells wine to shippers. Most have begun bottling their wines under their own labels in the last few decades.
83
What is Doble Pasta?
A dark, full blended Spanish wine with a deep, black color and very high levels of tannin. Traditionally used for blending, but are being superseded by grape concentrate.
84
What is a Ducellier?
A fermentation vat designed to extract, without electricity, maximum color and tannins. Designed for use in Algeria, now more commonly used to make Port. See Autovinification.
85
What is Égrappage?
The French term for destemming. Literal meaning debunching.
86
What is Élevage?
A French term that translates literally to "breeding" or "raising". In wineries it refers to the actions taken by winemakers between fermentation and bottling.
87
What is the Extract (or Total Dry Extract)?
The sum of the non-volatile solids of a wine, including sugars, non-volatile acids, minerals, phenolics, glycerol, glycols, etc.
88
What is Macération Pelliculaire?
The French term for the pre-fermentation maceration of white grapes, known as skin contact in English.
89
What is Nevers?
A town in France known for its French Oak.
90
What is pétillant naturel?
Lightly sparkling wine that is the result of a single fermentation that starts in a tank or other vessel, is interrupted by chilling, and finishes fermenting in the bottle.
91
What is récolte?
The French word for harvest.
92
What is a récoltant?
A grower, as in récoltant-manipulant (Grower Champagne).
93
What is reduction?
The chemical process of removing oxygen, the opposite of oxygenation.
94
What is Reductive Winemaking?
The use of various techniques to minimized the effects of oxygen in winemaking.
95
What is Remuage?
The French term for the riddling process.
96
What is reverse osmosis?
A manipulation using cross-flow filtration to either reduce alcohol or concentrate juices.
97
What is Ripasso?
The technique of re-fermenting young wine on the unpressed skins of Amarone and/or Recioto wines after these dried-grape wines have finished their fermentation.
98
What is a Rotling?
A German wine made from a mix of red and white grapes or must, including Schillerwein from Württemberg, Badisch Rotgold from Baden, and Schielerwein from Sachsen.
99
What is Saignée?
French term meaning bled, a technique where a Rose wine is made using the free-run juice from just crushed dark grapes after a short, pre-fermentation maceration.
100
What is Silica Gel used for in winemaking?
Silica Gel (silicon dioxide) is used as a fining agent.
101
What is Sorbic acid?
A wine-making additive and preservative that inhibits the growth of yeast and other fungi.
102
What is Soutirage?
The French term for racking, moving wine from one container to another for aeration or clarification.
103
What is sparging?
Stripping wine of a gas by the action of another gas. An example is removing oxygen by purging with fine bubbles of an inert gas, usually nitrogen.
104
What is a submerged cap?
A way of keeping the cap wet to facilitate extraction. A perforated screen is positioned just under the surface to keep the cap submerged.
105
What is topping up?
The refilling of any sort of wooden container to replace wine lost through evaporation.
106
What is Tronçais?
A type of French Oak named after a forest near Nevers.
107
What are Second Wines?
Wines made from batches of wine or parcels of vines considered not good enough for the principal product.
108
Who was Emile Peynaud?
A French oenologist whose work had a profound impact on winemaking. Helped make wines cleaner tasting and more consistent. Wrote books and making and tasting wines.
