The homebrew winemaking Glossary

A list of questionable usefullness of winemaking terms you may be baffled by


  • Acid : Stuff that makes wine taste sharp. Also contributes to the boquet (q.v.) and brilliance. Can have too much or too little.
  • Airlocks : Those bizarre plastic (or sometimes glass) things that go in the top of demi-johns and let gas go out but stop stuff getting in. They bubble a lot and tend to keep you awake at night.
  • Alcohol : The whole point. The part of wine that makes you drunk. Why am I telling you this? You know all about alcohol.
  • Aperitif : Any wine drunk before eating, ostensibly to induce appetite, but in fact as an excuse to start drinking early.
  • Aroma : Smell (next question).
  • Blending : The art and science of mixing wines and/or spirits together.
  • Body : Hmmm... Sort of the amount of umph a wine has. The flavour (or perhaps character) per unit volume.
  • Boquet : See aroma.
  • Bottle : Handy glass device for keeping the wine in one place, and for stopping it from getting on the carpet. Also the act of placing newly made wine into such a device.
  • Brewing The turning of sugar into alcohol. Generally reserved as a term for refering to beer.
  • Campden Tablets : Miraculous tablets that one simply has to add to wine. Apparently they prevent the growth of micro organisms (or something).
  • Carbon Dioxide : Gas farted by yeast in its efforts at producing alcohol.
  • Cellar : Any collection of one or more (preferably vintage (qv)) bottles of wine.
  • Champagne : Any lightish, whitish wine that is sparkling.
  • Cider : Fizzy, alcoholic drink made from apples, using only the sugar contained therein. (As distinct from apple wine, where additional sugar is added, and different rituals employed)
  • Clearing : The art and science of making wine not murky using assorted tricks, rituals and paraphenalia.
  • Corks : Those things that stop the wine falling out of the bottles. Available in plastic and original cork flavour. The art of forcing corks into bottles in the first place is known as corking and involves a mysterious device known as a corking machine, also known (in more pretentious circles) as a flogger.
  • Curacoa : Buggered if I know. It's blue though.
  • Currants See sultanas..
  • Decanting : The act and art of pouring wine from one vessel into another. Often accompanied by much posturing and pretentiousness. A candle is sometimes also employed.
  • Demi-John : A large glass jar of around a gallon's capacity. What exactly a `john' is, no-one knows. A semi-demi-john is called a "winchester" (obviously).
  • Dessert Wine : Any especially sweet wine. Generally used as an excuse to keep drinking after the meal is over. See also aperitif.
  • Distilling : The science of making wine stronger than it has any right to be. Easy in theory, difficult in practise. Consider also that it is (a) illegal, and (b) quite likely to cause you serious un-health.
  • Dry : Not sweet, in the same way that "cold" means "not hot".. (qv sugar))
  • Enzyme : Ask a biochemist about it.
  • Fermentation : The act of the sugar turning into alcohol. Also the art of persuading it to do so.
  • Filtering : The act of forcing wine through a filter with the intention of seperating it from its gunk.
  • Finings : Anything added to a wine after fermentation has ceased with the intention of causing the crap therein to sink to the bottom of the demi-john (qv), thus facilitating racking and clearing.
  • Flogger : A contraption for forcing corks (against their will) into wine bottles.
  • Food Colouring : Can be employed to make your wine a more interesting colour. The look on someones face when a deep blue liquid emerges from a bottle harmlessly marked 'apple' is something worth remembering.
  • Fortification : The act of chucking in things like brandy and vodka. Motives for doing this are generally questionable, but can be justified with experienced bluffing, e.g by calling it blending.
  • Gin : The best drink in the world according to the gospel of Alec. Can be made badly with a kit (qv)
  • Glasses Glasses: Useful devices for transporting wine from the bottle to the mouth.
  • Grain : Barley, rye, wheat etc that is added to must to increase body. Will often make the resulting wine kick like brandy.
  • Heater : Gadget for warming demi-johns, thus keeping the yeast happy. A similar-looking device can be bought in Ann Summers. Also avalible in boring tray form.
  • Hydrometer : A cunning device for measuring the specific gravity of stuff.
  • Kits : Essentially a tin of concentrated juice and a list of instructions. A good way to start out. Also, `high alcohol' kits are available for making such things as gin, whiskey and blue curacao.
  • Label : A piece of paper stuck to a bottle with pritt-stick to facilitate the identification of the contents.
  • Law The thing that says its a really bad idea to distill stuff, and that makes alcohol really expensive to buy.
  • Lees : More commonly refered to as gunk. Found at the bottom of demi-johns. Dealt with by racking.
  • Mead : Essentially honey wine.
  • Must : The initial mixture of ingredients you have chucked in a bucket and mushed.
  • Nutrient : A cocktail of chemicals that one adds to the mixture to put the yeast in a happy mood.
  • Oxidation : The interaction between wine and air. Sometimes desirable, sometimes not, depending on your inclination.
  • Pectin Stuff found in various berry-type things that causes hazey effects in wine. As this is dreadfully un-aesthetic, one adds pectolytic enzyme to rid oneself of it.
  • Pretentiousness : The only ingredient that is more important than yeast or sugar.
  • Punch The `drink' you get served at parties which is a mix of all the things that people brought. With skill and blending one can create a concoction that is quite palatable.
  • Racking : Siphoning the cleared wine from out of one demi-john into another.
  • Raisins See sultanas.
  • Recipe : A suggestion for something to ferment. Largely reduntant except when suffering imagination deficiency. Always remember Rule 1.
  • Sherry Any wine that is pretty strong and very oxidised. Wines bottled with plastics corks (qv) tend to turn into sherry after some time for reasons that are still under debate.
  • Siphoning : The art of getting wine to flow through a plastic tube from one place to another.
  • Sparkling : Fizzy.
  • Specific gravity : Kind of like the density of liquid compared to water. Measured with a hydrometer (qv)
  • Strength : A measure of how little wine is required to get one drunk.
  • Stuck : A polite word used to describe wine that has decided not to ferment.
  • Sugar : The white granular substance that gets eaten by yeast to produce alcohol. Also used (by heathens) to sweeten coffee.
  • Sultanas : Dried grapes. Used to add body (q.v) to a wine in which there isn't any. Raisins are similar, but turn the wine orange (wierd), not sure where currants stand.
  • Sweeteners (artificial) : Substance that isn't sugar that is added to wine to make it taste sweeter. Usually done on opening a bottle and discovering the contents to be undrinkably dry.
  • Tannin : Adds dryness and astringency. Dead handy if you know what astringency means.
  • Titration : Posh way of measuring acidity.
  • Ullage : Archaic term meaning the air at the top of a demi-john. Only in this glossary `cos Tom likes the word.
  • Whiskey : The Water of Life. The best drink in the world as preached by Tom.
  • Wine flies : Also known as Vinegar flies. Irritating little creatures that drown in your airlocks (qv). If they get into the wine, rummour has it they will transform it into vinegar.
  • Vermouth : The second best drink in the world. Can be made very well with a kit (qv).
  • Vinegar : Any indescribably bad wine.
  • Vintage : The time when the wine was made. In the real world, this is the year... In our world it is the month. Also: any wine bottled more than two months ago is described as "vintage".
  • Yeast : A plant that motivates religious behaviour. Numerous rituals are performed to promote its happiness and well-being. It eats sugar and creates alcohol. It is thus the centre of attention of all your efforts.