Wine glossary

ABV

Alcohol by volume — the share of a wine that is alcohol; most table wines run about 11–15%.

Acidity

The tart, mouth-watering freshness that keeps a wine lively and food-friendly.

Appellation

An officially recognised place a wine comes from (in the US, an AVA).

AVA

American Viticultural Area — a legally defined US grape-growing region set by the federal TTB. TTB — American Viticultural Area (AVA)

Blend

A wine built from more than one grape variety — the winemaker’s balancing act, where one grape’s acidity props up another’s fruit.

Body

How light or full a wine feels on the palate — skim milk versus cream.

Brix

A measure of sugar in the grapes, used to judge ripeness and predict alcohol.

Cider

Fermented apple — or pear — juice rather than grape juice, poured at plenty of Southern wineries alongside the wine.

Dry / Off-dry / Sweet

The tasting-sheet scale from no perceptible sugar, through a hint of it, to frankly sweet — where one word gives way to the next is the producer’s judgement, so trust the pour rather than the word.

Estate

On this site, a place that both grows its grapes and makes its wine on the one property — vineyard and cellar under a single name — which describes the visit, not the label.

Estate Bottled

A tightly regulated US label phrase — quite separate from our Estate type — requiring the wine to carry a viticultural-area appellation, the bottling winery to sit inside that area, all the grapes to have been grown on land the winery owns or controls there, and the whole crush-to-bottle run to have happened without the wine ever leaving the premises. 27 CFR § 4.26 — Estate bottled

Fermentation

The core reaction: yeast turns grape sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Fining

Clarifying a wine by adding an agent that binds to and removes haze or harsh particles.

Flight

A short row of small pours tasted side by side — three to six glasses, the standard tasting-room format.

Fortified

A wine with added grape spirit, raising the alcohol to about 15–20% (Port, Sherry).

Governor’s Cup

Virginia’s official state wine competition, judged blind since 1982 — a wine needs 90 points or better to take gold, the twelve best form the Governor’s Cup Case, and one of those is named Cup winner. Virginia Wineries Association — Governor’s Cup

Harvest Hosts

A paid membership programme that lets self-contained RV travellers stay overnight at member wineries and farms — we flag only the wineries that publicly say they take part. Harvest Hosts — How it works

Hybrid

A grape bred by crossing European vinifera with native American species for hardiness.

Late harvest

Grapes left hanging past the normal picking date so their sugar concentrates — the usual route to a sweet dessert wine.

Lees

The spent yeast left after fermentation; ageing “on the lees” adds texture and a bready note.

Maceration

Soaking juice on the skins and seeds to draw out colour, tannin and flavour.

Malolactic (MLF)

A bacterial step that softens sharp malic acid into rounder lactic acid.

Mead

Wine made from fermented honey rather than grapes, one of the oldest drinks people make — federal labelling rules file it as an agricultural wine and call it “honey wine”. 27 CFR § 4.21 — Standards of identity

Cidery

A producer whose speciality is hard cider — fermented apple juice rather than grape juice. Cideries appear here because most states, North Carolina among them, license them under the same winery permit and list them on the same official roster as their wineries.

Meadery

A producer whose speciality is mead — honey, not grapes — and one of two Types on our filter that are not about vines at all (see Cidery).

Muscadine

The thick-skinned native Southern grape (Vitis rotundifolia) that shrugs off the heat, humidity and Pierce’s disease that flatten European vines — the signature grape of the Southeast. UF/IFAS — The Muscadine Grape

Must

Freshly crushed grapes — juice, skins, seeds and pulp — at the start of fermentation.

Norton

A dark, firm red grape traced to early-nineteenth-century Virginia and long classified as Vitis aestivalis — its exact parentage is still argued — that ripens happily in Southern humidity and makes a robust dry red. Missouri Botanical Garden — Vitis aestivalis ‘Norton’

NV (non-vintage)

A wine blended from more than one year’s harvest, so no single year goes on the label — routine for sparkling wines and house blends. 27 CFR § 4.27 — Vintage wine

Oak

Barrels (or alternatives) that add vanilla and spice, a little tannin, and slow oxygen.

Reserve

In the US, essentially marketing language — no federal wine-labelling rule defines it, so it promises whatever the producer means by it. 27 CFR part 4 — no “reserve” standard

Residual sugar (RS)

The grape sugar left unfermented in the finished wine — the number, usually in grams per litre, behind whether a wine tastes dry or sweet.

Rosé

Pink wine from brief skin contact with dark grapes — a few hours, not days.

Saignée

“Bleeding off” some pink juice from a red fermentation to make a rosé.

Sparkling

Wine with bubbles that came from a second fermentation inside a sealed tank or bottle — federal rules reserve the word for exactly that, and call wine fizzed with added gas “carbonated” instead. 27 CFR § 4.21 — Standards of identity

Tannin

The drying, grippy feel from skins, seeds, stems and oak — the backbone of most reds.

Terroir

The full natural setting of a vineyard — soil, climate, elevation, aspect — that shapes a wine.

Traditional method

Sparkling wine fermented a second time in the very bottle you buy, then aged on the lees — the labour-intensive route, the one Champagne uses.

TTB

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the US Treasury agency that approves wine labels and establishes AVAs. 27 CFR § 4.10 — Meaning of terms

Varietal

A wine named after and made mostly from a single grape variety.

Veraison

The turning point when grapes soften, change colour and start storing sugar.

Vineyard

On this site, a place whose name leans on the land — the rows, the trellises, the slope — where the growing is front and centre even when wine is made and poured there too.

Vintage

The year the grapes were harvested.

Vitis rotundifolia

The muscadine — a native Southern species tolerant of heat, humidity and Pierce’s disease.

Vitis vinifera

The European wine-grape species behind most famous grapes.

Wine club

A winery’s subscription — a few bottles shipped or collected each quarter, often with a discount and members-only pours.

Wine trail

An organised, usually regional tourism route that wineries opt into — membership, not geography — so roughly half the wineries here sit on no trail at all.

Winery

On this site, a place where grapes become wine — crush, press, barrels, bottling line — whether the fruit is home-grown, bought in, or both.

Missing a word you ran into? Tell us and we will add it.