• Shuffle
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Alphabetize
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Front First
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Both Sides
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
  • Read
    Toggle On
    Toggle Off
Reading...
Front

Card Range To Study

through

image

Play button

image

Play button

image

Progress

1/20

Click to flip

Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;

Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;

H to show hint;

A reads text to speech;

20 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
The Muscat grape
Muscat grapes are used to make a variety of fortified wines, in various parts of the world. In Portugal and Spain, where the grape and the wines produced from it are known as Moscatel or Muscatel. Moscatels made in these countries are typically sweet and fortified. Among these wines is Moscatel de Setubal a sweet fortified wine from the Setúbal Peninsula in Portugal. Moscatel de Favaios is a Moscatel from the Douro Region. A Moscatel Madeira wine has also been produced on the island of Madeira, although Moscatel has become increasingly rare there over the last century.
In Spain, sweet fortified Moscatels are produced in a number of regions, notably Malaga and Jerez, and are sometimes made using the solera system. A variety of muscat is one of the varietals used in the production of sherry and according to Spanish law, it is one of only three grapes varietals allowed for this purpose.
France also produces a number of sweet fortified vins doux naturels from muscat grapes, such as Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, Muscat de Rivesaltes, Muscat de Frontignan, Muscat de Lunel, Muscat de Mireval, and Muscat de St-Jean Minervois.
In Australia, sweet fortified muscat wines are produced in the Rutherglen region, with older wines made according to the solera system.[3]Muscat Blanc Petits Grains grapes are left to ripen and even shrivel well beyond normal maturity before being harvested.
Influence of climate on Port production
Drier and warmer conditions produce the best port-destined grapes. For example, in the lower corgo of Portugal, is cooloer and wetter than the more inland higher corgo region. The best ports are made in the higher corgo Even further ease is the douro superioe region wich is arid and even warmer. However, the topography and lack of easy transportation has menat that this region has been underdeveloped.
10 year old Malmsey
Malmsey is the English rendering of ‘malvasia’…a noble grape used to make madeira. The result is a sweet wine (3.5-6.5 Baume) but with enough acidity to provide a refreshing balance. 10-yr old malmsey is a blend of malvasia wines with the youngest being 10 years old. It is aged in cask typically without being subject to the estufa process…aging at elevated temperatures. Even at 10 years this can be considered a ‘young’ malmsey as the variety can keep for a very long period of time.
Gonzalez Byass
the largest producer of sherry, still run by the family that founded the house. In 1855, Robert Blake Byass became a shareholder in the Gonzalez family business, but it was not until 1870, when his sons and the sons of the founder entered the firm that it became González Byass & Co.
The company owns 550 ha/1,300 acres of vineyards, and controls a further 450 ha owned by independent farmers. In the mid 1990s, the company began releasing expensive vintage-dated dry sherries, renewing a Jerez practice from the days before the solera system was adopted. Tio Pepe is its best known brand.
Estufagem
A heating process using estufas (Portuguese word meaning 'hothouse' or 'stove',) also applied to the tanks used to heat wine on the island of madeira, thereby accelerating its development and maturation. Estufas simulate the effects of the long tropical sea voyages in the 18th and 19th centuries when madeira (and setúbal) was, at first accidentally and then deliberately, stowed in the hold of a ship to age prematurely as a result of the temperature changes involved in a round trip, or torna viagem, across the tropics.
Muscat
there are at least four principal varieties of Muscat, muscat hamburg and muscat of alexandria are raised as both wine grapes and table grapes muscat blanc à petits grains is the oldest and finest, producing wines of the greatest intensity, while muscat ottonel, paler in every way, is a relative parvenu.
Muscat grapes were probably the first to be distinguished and identified and have grown around the Mediterranean for many, many centuries. With such strongly perfumed grapes (thanks to a particularly high concentration of monoterpenes), Muscat wines, carrying many different labels including Moscato (in Italy) and Moscatel (in Iberia), can vary from the refreshingly low-alcohol, sweet and frothy asti spumante, through Muscat d'alsace and other bone-dry Muscats made for example in Roussillon, to sweet wines with alcohol levels between 15 and 20 per cent, usually by mutage (as in the vins doux naturels of southern France and Greece). Since a high proportion of the world's Muscat is dark-berried, and since a wide variety of wood-ageing techniques are used, such wines can vary in colour from palest gold (as in some of the more determinedly modern Muscats de frontignan) to deepest brown (as in some of Australia's liqueur muscats).Most Muscat vines need relatively hot climate
Douro Vineyard Classification
7. Douro vineyard classification
Vineyards in the Douro are graded according to a complicated points system and classified into six different categories rated A to F. Twelve different physical factors including site, aspect, exposure, and gradient are taken into consideration, each of which is allocated a numerical score. In theory, a vineyard could score a maximum of 2,031 points but a property with more than 1,200 points is awarded an A grade. A vineyard with less than 200 points is given an F grade. On this basis, the annual beneficio authorization (the total amount of port that may be made that year) is distributed to individual farmers. This is calculated annually by the port industry's regulating authority, the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto (Douro Port Wine Institute, or IVDP).

Permits are then distributed to farmers detailing the amount of grape must that they may fortify to make port. The amount varies according to the year but, typically, A and B grade properties may make 550 to 600 l of port per thousand vines, while F grade properties are rarely allowed to make port at all. The surplus is usually made into unfortified wine with its own denomination (see Douro) but most of this sells for a much lower price than port.
VDN
is sometimes used as an abbreviation for vin doux naturel. a wine that is naturally sweet but is a term used to describe a French wine speciality that might well be considered unnaturally sweet. Nature's sweetest wines contain so much grape sugar that the yeasts eventually give up the fermentation process of converting sugar into alcohol, leaving a residue of natural sugars in a stable wine of normal alcoholic strength (see sweet wine-making). Vins doux naturels, on the other hand, are made by mutage, by artificially arresting the conversion of grape sugar to alcohol by adding spirit before fermentation is complete, thereby incapacitating yeasts with alcohol and making a particularly strong, sweet half-wine in which grape flavours dominate wine flavours. They are normally made of the grape varieties Muscat and Grenache, and should have an alcoholic strength of between 15 and 18 per cent and a potential alcohol of at least 21.5 per cent. They therefore fall within the official EU category vin de liqueur.
Flor
benevolent film-forming yeasts which are able to form a film of yeast cells which floats on the surface of a wine. Flor yeasts are typified by those native to the jerez region of southern Spain which produce Fino and Manzanilla sherry.
Flor yeasts are all capable of fermenting sugar in an anaerobic phase of their metabolism. In Jerez they are the active sugar-fermenting yeast. When all fermentable sugar has been consumed, these yeasts have the capacity to switch to another metabolic phase in which they use alcohol and oxygen from the atmosphere to produce a waxy or fatty coating on the cells' exterior which permits them to float on the wine's surface. The flor yeasts begin to form as small white curds on the surface of the wine, typically in the spring after fermentation as the ambient temperature begins to rise. These increase in size until the surface is completely covered by a thin white film which gradually thickens and browns. They also produce acetaldehyde and other products which characterize the aroma of film or flor sherries.
Commandaria
a dark dessert wine speciality of cyprus with a honeyed, raisiny flavour and alcohol content usually around 15 per cent, produced from partially raisined grapes.

In 1993, Commandaria became the first Cypriot wine to be granted full, legal protection covering both its geographical origin and production techniques. Commandaria must be produced within a strictly defined region from the Mavro (red) and Xynisteri (white) grape varieties, trained in the traditional low bush form. White grapes bring increased subtlety to Commandaria.

The vintage usually takes place in mid September. After picking, the grapes are dried in the sun for at least one week. At the end of this period the sugar content of the juice must lie within the range of 390 g/l to 450 g/l.

fermentation, which must take place within the Commandaria region, stops naturally long before all the sugar is converted into alcohol, leaving a wine with considerable residual sweetness and a minimum alcoholic strength of 10 per cent. At this stage the wine is normally moved to one of the large wineries in Limassol to mature (rather as port is shipped down the Douro to Vila Nova de Gaia).

Once fermentation has been completed, the alcohol content of the wine may be increased by the addition of pure grape spirit (95 per cent alcohol) or wine distillate (at least 70 per cent alcohol), but the wine's actual alcohol must not exceed 20 per cent, while its total potential alcohol must be at least 22.5 per cent. Commandaria must be matured in oak casks for at least two years. In practice it is usually matured, in underground cellars, for considerably longer than this. Some producers use a three-tier solera system. A small quantity of vintage Commandaria is also produced.
Palo Cortado
a traditional and fully natural style of sherry based on a fluke of nature. This is a wine that was originally pre-selected to become a fino or, later, an Amontillado, i.e. a wine of greater finesse than those pre-selected to become olorosos, which are aged in oxidative fashion from the start. Yet some examples of these more delicate wines never develop the protective veil of flor yeast they need to become an Amontillado and end up ageing in oloroso fashion. As a result, such wines have an intermediate style—the elegance of the Amontillado with the power and body of the Oloroso. This is the rarest category of sherry, yet some of the greatest dry sherries are Palos Cortados
Symingtons
dominant family of port wine shippers whose group of port companies includes W. & J. Graham, Warre, Dow's Port (Silva & Cosens), Quarles Harris, Quinta do Vesuvio, and Smith Woodhouse. Founder of the family firm was Andrew James Symington, The group was instrumental in reviving interest in single-quinta ports in the late 1980s
The Symingtons have since acquired a controlling interest in the Madeira Wine Company, an important producer of island-bottled madeira. The Symingtons have eventually become firm believers in Douro table wines. Their flagship wine Chryseia is made jointly with Bruno Prats, past owner of Ch Cos d'Estournel of St-Estèphe. Red Douro single estate wines are made at Quinta de Roriz and sold under this name. There is also a standard quality Altano brand as well as an Altano Reserve.
Montilla-Moriles
southern Spanish denominated wine zone producing both fortified and unfortified wines in the style of Sherry, usually known simply as Montilla. For many years wine from the country around the towns of Montilla and Moriles found its way into Sherry soleras. The practice largely ceased in 1945 when the area was awarded a separate DO, although wines made from the Pedro Ximénez grape, some of them very fine, are still legally exported to Jerez and neighbouring Málaga for blending. Since it became a region in its own right, Montilla has had to contend with a popular image as an inferior, cheap alternative to Sherry.

The soils in the centre of the region associated with lower yields and better wines resemble the chalky albariza of Jerez, although most of Montilla-Moriles is sandy and parched. The climate is relatively harsh with summer temperatures rising to 45 °C/113 °F and short, cold winters. The Pedro Ximénez vine, which accounts for over 70 per cent of production, seems to thrive in the hot conditions, yielding extremely sweet grapes. The wines therefore achieve alcoholic strengths between 14 and 16 per cent without fortification. Other grape varieties include the Lairén (Airén) and Muscat of Alexandria, which tend to produce lighter wines for blending. The Palomino vine, which is the basis for most sherry, has not been successful in Montilla.

Wine-making practices in Montilla parallel those for Sherry. Pale, dry Fino and Amontillado style wines are made from free-run juice, while heavier styles similar to Oloroso are made from the subsequent pressings. (The terms Fino, Amontillado, and Oloroso are permitted on Montilla labels within Spain but may not be used in other European Union countries, where they are restricted to Sherry. Pale Dry, Medium Dry, Pale Cream, and Cream are the styles most commonly found on labels outside Spain.)

Pale Dry Montilla matures under a film of flor, initially in cement or earthenware tinajas, then in a solera similar to those in Jerez. However, in the hot climate of Montilla-Moriles, far removed from the cooling winds of the Atlantic, the flor is usually less thick than in Jerez and the wines tend to have less finesse as a result (see Sherry). Heavier Oloroso styles are fortified and aged for longer in soleras, where they become dark and pungent. Around half the region's wines are not fortified, which puts them at an advantage in certain markets where duties are levied on alcoholic strength. These usually disappear into inexpensive commercial blends, many of which are heavily sweetened with concentrated must for export.
Port Grape Varities
More than 80 different grape varieties are authorized for the production of port. All old vineyards contain a mixture of grapes, often with as many as 20 or 30 different varieties intermingled in the same plot. But research conducted in the 1970s (mostly by Cockburn and Ramos Pinto), identified the best varieties and all new plantings since then have been more orderly. touriga nacional, tinta barroca, touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz (Spain's tempranillo), and tinto cão are the favoured five black-skinned varieties, although varieties such as sousão, tinta amarela, and mourisco find favour with certain growers. gouveio, malvasia Fina, and viosinho are generally considered among the best varieties for white port.
Oxidation
wine fault resulting from excessive exposure to oxygen Wines spoiled by oxidation are said to be oxidized.

Some wines, however, such as oloroso sherry, tawny port, and madeira, owe their character to deliberate exposure to oxygen. And those who make wines of all sorts are constantly experimenting with various aspects of controlled oxidation, often motivated by the role played by oxygen in ageing.
The term maderization is sometimes used interchangeably with oxidation, although it should theoretically also involve excessive exposure to heat.
Beneficio
the annual beneficio authorization (the total amount of port that may be made that year) is distributed to individual farmers on the basis of the Douro vineyard classification...The best vineyards get the biggest allocation.. This is calculated annually by the port industry's regulating authority, the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto (Douro Port Wine Institute, or IVDP).
Amontillado
Spanish word which originally described sherry in the style of montilla. Today it has two related meanings in the sherry-making process. The basic fino wines become amontillado (Spanish for 'like Montilla') when the flor yeast dies and the wine is exposed to oxygen. This happens automatically if a fino type of sherry is fortified to 16 per cent since the flor yeast cannot work in such an alcoholic environment. The wine turns amber and tastes richer and nuttier. A true Amontillado-style sherry is therefore an aged Fino. Cheaper Amontillados, the most common Amontillado encountered commercially, are created artificially by blending and are usually sweetened. They tend to be quintessentially medium.
Grenache
In Roussillon, Grenache Noir, Gris, and Blanc are valued not only for their dry wines but are the vital ingredient in such distinctive vins doux naturels as banyuls and maury. in Banyuls. Grenache Noir must dominate the blend, constituting at least 50 per cent of a Banyuls and 75 per cent of a Banyuls Grand almost invariably strong, sweet, red, and possibly rancio, having been aged in a variety of containers (cement, wood, glass) in a variety of conditions (hot, cold, humid or not).
Terracing in the Douro
Terraces are created when the hillside is re-formed into a series of horizontal steps between the rows. The world's most famous vineyard terraces are those of the port wine region of the douro valley in northern Portugal where there has been considerable experimentation with different designs. Terraces are expensive to create, and are therefore justified only for expensive wines. The valley sides are very steep but terraces hacked from the schist, often with little more than a shovel and crowbar support, give vines a metre or two of soil in which to establish a root system. The bedrock fractures vertically, however, and, once established, vines root deeply in search of water and nutrients.
Pale Cream Sherry
Pale Cream sherry, typically a blend of fino and sweet wine, is normally adjusted with rectified concentrated grape must and fresh Palomino must, vacuum concentrated, and the colour removed with activated charcoal. That gives it the pale color.A few bodegas sweeten their wines with fortified Moscatel but this tends to produce a rather obvious, aromatic, grapey style of sherry.