Articles
Processes, methods, history: the encyclopedia's articles.
- GuideConcept cardAOC, PDO, PGI: what each label actually requires
PDO and PGI are two definitions in EU law, not two rungs of a ladder; in France, a PDO wine may still call itself AOC.
- ProcessConcept cardBarrel and vessel ageing
After fermentation, the vessel matters: oak gives aromas; it also lets oxygen through, less so the more the barrel has been used.
- ProcessConcept cardCarbonic maceration
Whole bunches kept under carbon dioxide begin to ferment inside the intact berry. In Beaujolais, it is mostly practised in its semi-carbonic form.
- ProcessConcept cardMalolactic fermentation
A bacterium turns the wine's malic acid into softer lactic acid: the wine grows rounder and more stable.
- HistoryConcept cardPhylloxera and the replanting of France's vineyards
An insect from America ravaged France's vineyards in the second half of the nineteenth century; it was rebuilt by grafting European vines onto American roots.
- MethodConcept cardRaisining and noble rot
For a sweet wine, water can be taken out of the grape before fermentation: by letting it dry, or through a fungus, Botrytis cinerea.
- ProcessConcept cardRed winemaking
The juice of black grapes ferments with their skins: this maceration gives a red wine its colour, its tannins and its frame.
- ProcessConcept cardRosé winemaking
A wine whose extraction is stopped in time: a few hours on the skins at most, then a fermentation run largely like a white's.
- MethodConcept cardThe traditional method
A still wine turns sparkling through a second fermentation inside its own bottle: the method behind Champagne and the crémants.
- GuideConcept cardVarieties of interest for adaptation purposes
Varieties an appellation's specification admits alongside its grapes, only under a signed agreement.
- GuideConcept cardVins doux naturels
Spirit added mid-fermentation stops the yeasts, so part of the grape's sugar stays in the wine. This is mutage.
- ProcessConcept cardWhite winemaking
The grapes are pressed before fermentation: the juice, parted from the skins, ferments cool, and the style turns on malolactic and the lees.