Quinta do Tedo - Porto Facts

Port Tasting & Winemaking Terminology

Acidity: The acidity in a wine (principally tartaric, malic, citric and lactic) provides liveliness, longevity and balance: too much leaves a sour or sharp taste on the palate, while too little results in a flabby, shapeless wine. If tannin is the spine of a wine, then acidity is its nervous system. Generally speaking, the sweeter a wine is, the more acidity it needs for balance.
Acidification: The addition of acid (usually tartaric or citric) during fermentation, a step that is frequently necessary in hot climates where grapes tend to overripen and become deficient in acidity, thereby losing freshness.
Aftertaste: The flavors that linger in your mouth after you swallow (or spit) a wine. If there is a single reliable indicator of wine quality, it is the length of the aftertaste (see "finish").
Aroma: The primary smell of a young, unevolved wine, consisting of the odors of the grape juice itself, of the fermentation process, and, if relevant, of the oak barrels in which the wine was made or aged.
Astringent: Having mouthpuckering tannins; such a wine may merely need time (in some cases as much as a decade or more) to soften.
Austere: Tough, dry and unforthcoming, often due to an unyielding tannic structure or high apparent acidity, or simply to the extreme youth of a wine.
Balance: The way in which a wine's key components, including fruitiness, sweetness, acidity, tannin, and alcoholic strength, co-exist. A well-balanced wine displays a harmony of components, with no single element dominating.
Baumé: The density scale used to determine the degree of sweetness of musts and sweet wines.
Benefício: The Portuguese expression used to describe the adding of grape brandy to fermenting wine.
Body: The weight of a wine on the palate, determined by its alcoholic strength and level of extract. Wines are typically described as ranging from light to full in body.
Bouquet: The set of aromas that characterize a wine and that develop especially during fermentation and ageing.
Bright: Vibrant and fresh, generally the result of lively fruit flavors and sound acidity.
Carbonic maceration: A fermentation technique designed to extract fruit rather than tannins from the grapes; the most famous example of wine generally made via carbonic maceration is Beaujolais. Grapes go into the fermentation vat unbroken, and some or most of the fermentation takes place within the uncrushed berries. The minimal contact between the fermenting juice and the grape skins brings much lower tannin levels and emphasizes the fruity character of the grape; they are virtually always meant for early consumption. Many regions have adopted this technique to make wine for immediate drinking (e.g., Cask/Barrel: Most of the world's greatest wines, especially reds, are at least partially aged in barrels, usually made from oak. A barrique is the standard Bordeaux barrel, holding 225 liters, or the equivalent of about 300 bottles of wine. But casks may be as large as 100 hectoliters (i.e., 10,000 liters) or more. Barrels are a key element in the levage [maturing, or raising] of a wine, in creating a wine capable of further development in bottle. The right barrel used cleverly can go a long way toward adding early sex appeal to a wine by sweetening and framing its aromas and flavors. The wrong barrel, or a barrel used poorly, can also dominate a wine and dry out its fruit.
Chaptalization: The addition of sugar during fermentation to increase a wine's alcoholic strength.
Closed: Not aromatically forthcoming, most likely due to recent bottling or to the particular stage of the wine's development. "Dumb" is a synonym.
Corky, corked: Contaminated by a tainted cork (technically a mold known as 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole), which gives the wine a musty, wet cardboard smell and can compromise its fruit component and dry out its aftertaste. Bad corks are a major problem, as they can ruin otherwise sound bottles. By most accounts three to ten bottles out of 100 are affected, to varying degrees, by bad corks.
Crisp: Refreshingly firm, thanks to sound acidity.
Crushing: Action of smashing the grapes to release their juice.
Dense: A textural descriptor for a tactile, mouthfilling wine that conveys an impression of thickness and weight.
Destemming: Removing the stems from the grapes.
Draw off: To drain the juice from the tanks in which the wine is made, leaving the pomace behind.
Earthy: Often used as a negative descriptor for a rustic wine that's not entirely clean, but can also be a component of complexity deriving from the wine's distinctive soil character.
Expressive: Displaying its aromas and flavors. Similar to "open"; the opposite of "closed" or "dumb."
Extract: Essentially, the minerals and other trace elements in a wine. Sugar-free dry extract is everything in a wine except water, sugar, acids and alcohol. High extract often gives wine a dusty, tactile impression in the mouth, frequently serving to buffer, or mitigate, high alcohol or strong acidity.
Fat: Rich to the point of unctuous, with modest balancing acidity.
Fermentation: The conversion of grape juice into wine through the action of yeasts present in the juice, which through their enzymes transform the grapes' sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. This alcoholic fermentation is also known as primary fermentation. (See "malolactic fermentation.")
Filtration: A method of clarifying and stabilizing wine to give it a pleasingly lucid color and to remove yeasts, bacteria or other solid matter that might otherwise cause the wine to spoil after it has been bottled. Excessive filtration, like excessive fining, can strip a wine of aroma, body, texture and length.
Fining: A method of clarifying wine by adding a coagulant (such as egg whites) to the top of the wine and allowing it to settle to the bottom, carrying suspended particles with it. In general, a fining agent is allowed to fall through the wine, while in filtration, the wine is passed (and sometimes pumped) through a filter.
Finish: The final taste left by a wine after you spit or swallow it. Wines made with dilute or underripe fruit tend to have very short finishes while those that are highly concentrated or strong in extract can linger for 30 seconds or more.
Firm: Describes a wine neither soft nor harsh in reference to tannins in a red wine and acidity in a white.
Flabby: Lacking acidity and therefore lacking shape; basically the opposite of "firm."
Fleshy: Having good body and conveying a glyceral palate impression, usually the result of elevated alcohol and/or high extract.
Fortified wine: The product of a process involving the addition of spirits, usually brandy, to wine as it ferments. The sudden infusion of alcohol arrests fermentation of the wine and increases its alcohol content, usually to between 15 and 20%. The point during fermentation at which the wine is fortified has an effect on the wine's character and determines its sweetness -- the earlier the spirits are added, the less of the wine's sugar is fermented resulting in a sweeter wine. Vins de liqueurs are fortified before fermentation, port and madeira during fermentation, and sherry after fermentation. The final sweetness can be increased by means of blending with sweeter wine or adding grape concentrate or other sweeteners.
Fruity: Aromas and flavors that come directly from the grape, rather than from the winemaking process or from the barrels in which the wine was aged.
Generous: A well-constituted wine possessing good texture and a pliant quality; usually a sign of thoroughly ripe fruit.
Green: Too acidic, raw, vegetal or herbal; a wine can taste "green" due to underripe grapes or stems, but such an impression may simply mean the wine needs time to develop.
Grip: Jargon used to describe an emphatically firm, tactile finish.
Hard: A wine that's too tannic or acidic for its underlying fruit. This may also be a characteristic of an unevolved wine that needs more time in bottle.
High-toned: Lively and aromatically expressive, due to a level of volatile acidity that is just short of excessive.
Hot: Noticeably alcoholic on the nose or palate. This characteristic is more acceptable in fortified wines like port and sherry than in table wines like cabernet and chardonnay.
Jammy: Slightly cooked flavors of jam rather than fresh fruit; often a characteristic of red wines from hot climates but may also be the result of overripe fruit.
Juicy: An impression of freshness (i.e., like fruit juice) due to lively acidity.
Lagar: The traditional open, low-sided rectangular stone vessel in which grapes are crushed by means of barefoot treading, associated mainly with Port and Madeira. See Treading.
Late Bottled Vintage: A Vintage Porto that ages in oak for several more years than regular Vintage Porto before it is bottled. Also referred to as L.B.V.
Layered: A descriptor for a rich, tactile wine with an almost three-dimensional texture.
Lean: Lacking flesh and body. Not necessarily negative, as some types of wines are lean by nature.
Lees: Solid residue (mostly dead yeast cells and grape pulp, pips and skins) that remains in a barrel or tank after the wine has been drawn off. Many white wines and some reds are kept on their lees for a period of time to protect them from oxidation, enrich their texture and add complexity. Wines protected by their lees can often be made with less addition of the preservative and antioxidant sulfur dioxide, but careful technique is essential to ensure that off aromas don't develop.
Lot: The wine that is obtained by blending two or more wines.
Maceration: The prolonged contact of the must with the solid grape matter with a view to extracting the compounds that are responsible for giving it its color and aromas.
Malolactic fermentation: A secondary fermentation in which the more tart malic acid in a wine is converted by lactic bacteria into softer lactic acid and carbon dioxide. Malolactic fermentation, which generally follows the alcoholic fermentation, is nearly always carried out in red wines. Some producers of white wines encourage malolactic fermentation, while others, especially those in hot regions that produce grapes naturally low in acidity, avoid it in order to maximize freshness.
Middle palate: Literally, that part of the tasting experience between the "entry" of a wine onto the palate and its aftertaste. The impact of a wine in the mouth.
Mouth feel: The physical impression of a wine in the mouth; its texture.
Must: Grape juice not yet fermented or in the process of being fermented into wine.
Nose: The aroma or bouquet of a wine determined though one's olfactory senses.
Oaky: Smelling or tasting of the oak barrels or casks in which the wine was vinified and/or aged. Oak notes can include such elements as vanilla, spices (clove, cinnamon) cedar, smoke, toast, bourbon and roasted coffee, among others. Vanillin scents typically come from the oak itself, while roasted or toasty characteristics often derive from the way the barrel has been dried.
Open: Expressive and easy to taste; the opposite of "closed."
Oxidized: Possessing a tired or stale aroma or taste due to excessive exposure to air. An oxidized white wine may have a darker than normal or even brown color.
Palacio: In Portugal this term is used to signify a wine that comes from a single estate.
Pliant: A wine with a supple, giving texture.
Plump: Similar to fat: rich and generally very ripe, with low acidity, usually rich in alcohol and glycerine.
Pomace: The solid matter from the crushed grapes that is saturated with wine after the wine has been drawn off from the tanks in which it made or the dry matter that remains after the wet pomace has been pressed.
Powerful: High in alcohol, tannin and/or extract, often with assertive flavors.
Pumping over: The procedure that consists of pumping the fermenting must from the bottom of the tank and pouring it in at the top of the same tank so as to air the must and encourage the extraction of the compounds responsible for giving it its color and to make it more homogeneous.
Quinta: Quinta is both a residence and a production site, similar to an estate in France. There are approximately 2,000 of which nearly 60 are part of the trade.
Racking: Transferring the wine from one barrel or cask to another to separate it from its lees. Racking can be used to aerate a wine, and the process of leaving precipitated matter behind also helps to clarify the wine.
Ripe: Suggesting aromas and flavors of thoroughly mature grapes. Ripe wines generally display richer texture and a stronger impression of fruit than wines with technically similar levels of sweetness made from less mature grapes.
Ruby: A young, red Port of blended 2 to 4 year old wines. Strong, velvety and fruity, it speaks of black and red fruit. Ruby and Tawny make up the heart of the Douro's production.
Seamless: Harmonious and smooth; a wine with no rough edges.
Sediment: Solid matter deposited in a bottle during the course of the maturation process. While a wine with substantial sediment requires special handling (the bottle is generally stood upright and then decanted off its sediment), sediment is generally a sign that the wine was not excessively filtered prior to bottling.
Sharp: Unpleasantly bitter or hard-edged, in some instances due to a high level of acetic acid (vinegar).
Single Quinta: Wines from the grapes of one Quinta only, Single Quintas are renewing their ties with the land having been neglected for a long while by the trade, which favors the blending of Quinta wines from all over the Douro. Therefore only Vintages, LBV, tawnies of identified age and colheitas are produced.
Soft: Low in tannin and/or acidity.
Spine: The structural underpinning (provided by acidity and tannin), or backbone, of a wine. A wine with flesh but insufficient spine can come across as flabby or shapeless.
Spritz: The faint prickle on the tongue of carbon dioxide (petillance in French), generally found in young, light white wines.
Steely: An almost metallic taste often shown by wines high in acidity and/or made from mineral-rich soil, especially riesling.
Structure: The backbone of a wine, generally provided by acidity and/or tannins, which gives shape to its flesh and holds its various elements together.
Sulfur: The most common disinfectant for wine. Most winemakers today feel that it is nearly impossible to produce stable, fresh wine without careful use of sulfur products at one or more stages of vinification: just after the harvest to thwart fermentation by the wrong yeasts, in the cellar to prevent microbial spoilage and oxidation, and at the time of bottling to protect the wine against exposure to air. But as a general rule, the amount of sulfur used in the production of fine wine has never been lower than it is today.
Supple: Round and smooth, as opposed to noticeably tannic or acidic. As red wines age and their tannins begin to resolve, they typically become more supple in texture.
Sweet: A term applied not only to wines with significant residual sugar, such as fortified or dessert wines, but also to those with intense, thoroughly ripe fruit flavors, which can convey a sweet impression even though they may be technically dry.
Tannin: A bitter, mouthdrying substance found in the skins, stalks and pips of the grapes as well as in the wood barrels in which wines are aged. Tannin acts as a preservative and is thus an important component if a wine is to be aged over a long period. Tannins are frequently harsh in a young wine, but gradually mellow or dissipate as the wine ages in the bottle. Excessively tannic wines can lose their fruit or dry out before the tannins soften.
Tart: Same as acidic. Describes a wine that is high in acidity.
Thick: Dense in texture, usually due to low acidity and/or high extract.
Tough: A term generally used to describe an ungiving, distinctly dry red wine that is dominated by its tannins.
Treading: Crushing the grapes by foot.
Vegetal: Describes underripe fruit (such as asparagus or bell pepper). But a lightly vegetal, grassy, leafy or herbaceous aspect may be a characteristic of certain varieties, such as bell pepper in cabernet sauvignon or grassiness in sauvignon blanc. These aromas can add complexity in small doses but when too pronounced often due to insufficiently ripe grapes, can dominate a wine.
Vinous: Literally, "wine-like" in terms of liveliness and sound acidity, but this term is often used to describe the overall impression conveyed by a wine beyond its simple fruitiness, including subtle flavors that come from the soil that produced the grapes, as well as from the winemaking and aging process.
Vintage: This is a single year vintage Port, kept in casks for 2 years, then bottled. Powerful and complex, with a strong frame, and built upon formidable tannins, it ages at length, 20, 30, 40 years, sometimes longer. Vintage Port is one of the greatest wines of the world.
Volatile: Usually denotes a high level of acidity, alcohol and/or other flavor faults.
Yeast: The various microorganisms that cause fermentation. Wild yeasts are naturally present on grape skins, but special cultured yeasts are frequently used to ensure more predictable, controlled fermentations.