Glossary Terms

A teinturier grape is one with dark flesh (and hence dark juice) as well as dark skins. Most grapes (red or white) have clear juice and it’s the anthocyanins in the skins that give the red wine its colour. Examples of teinturier grapes include Saperavi, Alicante Bouschet, and Colorino. Teinturier is the French word for dyer (as in, someone who dyes fabric).

(known as Tinta Roriz in Portugal) Spain’s most widely planted red grape variety (and second most planted, after the white grape Airén). It produces tannic wines with a range of spicy, savoury flavours alongside red fruit such as strawberry. In Rioja traditionally it was given extended oak ageing and in Portugal it is a key grape variety in the production of Port. Outside the Iberian peninsula it is found in small quantities in France and the Americas and is seeing increasing popularity in Australia.

Tinta Barroca is a Portuguese black grape variety that is used in the production of Port. It is vigorous, high-yielding and readily builds up sugar levels. It is mainly grown in Portugal’s Douro Valley, where it is the third most widely planted grape, but it is also grown in small quantities in both South Africa and Australia.

A Portuguese grape from northern Portugal, its name actually means ‘red dog’ (reasons unknown!). It is one of Port’s five most important grape varieties but it is also used in still wines in both the Douro and the Dão. It has great aging potential but is not widely planted as Touriga Nacional due to low yields. There is a small amount grown in Australia where it is mostly used for fortified wine production.

Also known as Touriga Francesa. A black grape grown in Portugal (Portugal’s fifth most planted grape) and an important part of the Port blend.

Touriga Nacional is a Portuguese black grape variety that is used in both Port and still wines. It is considered a high quality grape which produces deeply coloured, tannic wines. It is enjoying a resurgence in popularity in Portugal but is also grown in Spain (Priorat), Australia and California in the US.

The transfer method is a way of producing sparkling wine which makes use of bottle fermentation for its secondary fermentation (like méthode traditionelle) but rather than disgorging and then topping up individual bottles, the wine is disgorged (along with sediment) into a pressurised tank. The dosage is then added (if required) and then the wine is filtered (under pressure) before being bottled. The wines produced in this method are generally regarded as being less complex than those produced by the traditional method, but are more complex than wines produced by the Charmat method, as the wine has undergone its secondary fermentation in contact with lees in a small container. The transfer method’s great advantage is that it is less labour intensive (and usually less time intensive) than traditional method production.

Vino da Tavola (En: table wine) was a labelling term used to indicate that a wine did not meet any of the requirements for DOCG, DOC or IGT. In 2011 it was changed to just Vino (and sometimes Vino d’Italia, used to indicate the wine is from Italy). Wines labelled Vino aren’t subject to the same rules and regulations as wines in the higher categories, allowing winemakers a lot of freedom, both in terms of winemaking creativity but also in terms of the economics of wine production.

Vitis Vinifera (Latin) is the botanical name for the common grape vine, native to many parts of Europe as well as south-western Asia, Iran and Morocco. It is the species of grape vine that is most highly regarded for grapes for wine production.

In winemaking, there are two measures that are referred to commonly as yield.

The first is the quantity of grapes produced per vineyard area – so typically tonnes or kilograms per hectare.

The second is the volume of wine produced per vineyard area (more common in Europe) – so typically hectolitres per hectare.

There is not a direct relationship between the two (that is, you cannot say a yield of x kilograms per hectare translates to y hectolitres of wine per hectare) as the volume of wine produced is dependent on many things, not least the grape variety.

Lower yields are typically associated with higher quality wines and attract higher prices.