WSET Flashcards
(67 cards)
Levels of alcohol?
Below 11% LOW
11-13.9% MEDIUM
14% HIGH
Levels of alcohol fortified wine?
15-16.4% LOW
16.5-18.4% MEDIUM
18.5 and above HIGH
What does high acid do to body?
Makes wines feel lighter
Where does complexity come from?
Primary flavors/aromas alone or a combo with secondary and tertiary
2 components that make wine taste harder?
Sweetness and Umami
2 components that make wine taste softer?
Salt and acid
What does sweetness in food do to wine?
Increases perception of bitterness, astringency, acidity, warming effect of alcohol
Decreases perception of body, sweetness, fruitiness
What does acidity in food do to wine?
Increases perception of body, sweetness, fruitiness
Decreases perception of acidity in wine
What does salt in food do to wine?
Increases perception of body
Decreases perception of astringency, bitterness, acidity
Can enhance fruit character
What does umami in food do to a wine?
Emphasizes astringency and bitterness of tannins
What is a cutting?
A section of a vine shoot that is planted and then grows as a new plant.
Used in commercial nurseries that sell vines to growers
What is layering?
Takes place in the vineyard
A cane is bent down and a section of it is buried in the ground.
The cane tip points upwards and out of the ground
The buried section takes root and once these roots are established, the cane linking the new growth to the original plant is cut
What is a grape variety?
A group of individual plants that can all trace their lineage back through a series of cuttings and/or layering’s to a a single plant
What is clonal selection?
Vines with positive mutations are selected for further propagation by cutting or layering so that the positive characteristics of these vines can be carried forward in new plantings.
What is a clone?
Each individual vine or group of vines that shows a particular set of unique characteristics
What is cross-fertilization?
-Pollen from male part of flower of one vine is transferred to the female part of the flower of another vine and fertilization occurs
-Pollinated flower develops into a grape with seeds
-If seed is planted and it grows it will be a new variety, because its genetic material will be different from its parents
What is a tendril?
-Used to grip a supporting structure
-Once tendril senses it has touched a structure(trellis wire) it will wind itself tightly around the wire to keep shoot upright
What is a bud?
-Form between leaf and shoot and can be described as an embryonic shoot
-They mature inside their casing and by end of year each bud contains in miniature all the structures that will become the shoot, leaves, flowers, tendrils the following year
What are the leaves?
-Plants engine
-Responsible for photosynthesis
-Plants use sunlight to convert water and CO2 into glucose and oxygen
What are flowers/berries?
-Flowers are vines reproductive organs and when grouped in bunches called inflorescences
-Each flower that is successfully pollinated will become a berry, so the inflorescences will become the bunch of grapes that will be harvested at the end of growing season.
What is one year old wood?
-Shoots turn woody in winter
-Following spring they become one year old wood
-Vines normally only produce fruit on shoots that grow from buds that developed the previous year.
-Vine is pruned, one year old wood will be called cane or spur depending on how many buds it is left with
Cane-Long=8-20 buds
Spur-Short=2-3 buds
What is permanent wood?
-Wood that is more than 1 year old
-Amount of permanent wood is restricted by pruning .
-It’s made up of the trunk and where present arms of the vine
What are the roots?
-They absorb water/nutrients from the soil, anchor vine, store carbs to allow vine to survive winter
What is a crossing?
- A new variety produced from 2 parents of the same species
Ex” Cab Sauv= Cab F + Sauv B
