Ice Wine
1. An intensely sweet wine made from grapes that have frozen on the vine.
2. A rich, flavorful dessert wine made from grapes frozen on the vine and then pressed them before they thaw. Because much of the water in the grapes is frozen, the resulting juice is concentrated, rich in flavor and high in sugar and acid. The resulting wines are extraordinarily sweet, yet balanced by high acidity.

IGT
Indicazione Geografica Tipica. A category of wines created in Italy by Wine law 164 in 1992 to approximate the French Vin de Pays and German landwein.

Inoculate
To sterilize a must

Intense
1. A term that describes wines that express themselves strongly, either aromas and flavors, or of the wine’s overall impression.
2. Used to describe wines that express their character powerfully.

Isinglass
A transparent and pure form of gelatin fining agent obtained from the air bladder of certain fish, especially the sturgeon. It is considered by some to be superior to other forms of gelatin, although this is merely an opinion.

Jerez
Short for Jerez de la Frontera, the center of Spain’s sherry region.

Jug Wine
Term used primarily in California to describe the most basic sort of generic table wine, an American counterpart to vin ordinaire in Europe.

Kerosene
A descriptor used to describe a chemical smell found in wine, most often applied to wines of the Riesling grape that have some age to them.

Lean
A term implying a thin, light-bodied, watery wine.

Length
The sustained impression of a wine across the tongue.

Lactic Acid
1. An organic acid produced in wine during malolactic fermentation, where strong malic acid is converted to softer lactic acid. Lactic acid is also found in milk.
2. An acid formed in trace amounts during yeast fermentation and in larger quantities during malolactic fermentation, in which bacteria converts malic acid into lactic acid and carbon dioxide. See malolactic fermentation.

labrusca, Vitis
A species of grape that is native to North America. Labrusca grapes have a strong flavor that is often described, somewhat unhelpfully, as “grapey.”

Late-Harvest
Grapes picked at high sugar levels. Or grapes whose sugar level at the time of harvest is due to Botrytis cinerea.

Lees
1. Any residue that settles out of wine after fermentation, made of grape solids or dead yeast cells.
2. The grape solids and spent yeast cells that fall to the bottom of a white wine after fermentation.
3. The sediment residue of wine fermentation, comprised mostly of spent yeast cells and grape particulate matter.
4. The layer of sediment that occurs on the bottom of a vessel during a fermentation.
5. The deposits which gather at the bottom of the carboy during winemaking (also known as trub).

Legs
1. Drops that inch up the inside surface of a glass above the wine and slowly run back down.
2. The viscous droplets that form and ease down the sides of the glass when the wine is swirled.

Length
1. A term describing the sustained sensory impression across the tongue of fine wines.
2. The amount of time the sensations of taste and aroma persist after swallowing. The longer the better.

Light
A term used to describe the body or color of a wine. A light wine is usually easy to drink and not high in alcohol. Muscadet is a light white wine. Beaujolais is an example of a light red wine.

Liquor
While I don’t particularly like this term, associating it as I do with Scotch and other distilled spirits, it does, in fact, also properly refer to the unfermented or imcompletely fermented, sugar-bearing liquid from which wine is made. It is also the liquid portion of a must. When the alcohol in the liquor reaches 8 or 9%, it can more accurately be referred to as wine.

Litmus Paper
A small strip of treated paper used in winemaking for checking the acid level of a juice. Also called pH Strips.

Luscious
Soft, sweet, fat, fruity, and ripe. All these qualities in balance.

Maceration
1. The process of soaking the skins of red grapes in their juice to dissolve the skin’s color, tannin and other substances into the juice.
2. To soak ingredients for extraction of soluble components
3. The process of soaking the skins of red grapes in their juice to extract color , tannins and other substances into the wine; can occur pre or post fermentation

Macroclimate
Average, overall weather conditions in a winegrowing region, such as Napa Valley, California, or Champagne, France.

Malbec
A red grape varietal known as L’Etranger in France, where it is generally used as a blending grape. In Argentina and California, it is sometimes made as a varietal wine. Malbec grapes are very large for wine grapes, and are delicious as table grapes.

Malic acid
1. The organic acid found in apples, grapes and wine. Malic acid is converted to lactic acid during malolactic fermentation.
2. A naturally occurring acid found in apples, cherries, grapes grown in less sunny regions, and certain other fruit. It is the presence of malic acid, along with Bacillus gracile, which sometimes produces malo-lactic fermentation.

Malolactic fermentation
1. A bacterial fermentation that converts harsh malic acid into softer lactic acid and carbon dioxide. Performed on all red wines to increase stability, and performed on some white wines to increase complexity and add the buttery component diacetyl.
2. A natural, secondary fermentation, optional in the winemaking process, which softens the total acidity of the wine through the conversion of malic into lactic acid.
3. MLF for short, this is a bacterial fermentation which can occur after yeast fermentation winds down or finishes. The bacterium Bacillus gracile converts malic acid into lactic acid and carbon dioxide. Lactic acid is much less harsh than malic and thereby softens and smooths the wine, but the wine also is endowed with a cleaner, fresher taste. In addition, diacetyl (or biacetyl) is produced as a byproduct, which resembles the smell of heated butter and adds complexity to wine. MLF is a positive event in some cases and has a downside in others–the fruitiness of wines undergoing MLF is diminished and sometimes off-odors can result. To ensure MLF, the wine should not be heavily sulfited and it should be inoculated with an MLF culture.

Manzanilla
A very light, refreshing sherry from San Lucar de Barrameda in Spain, named for its apple-like characteristic.

Marriage
In wine, the integration of the components of blended grapes or wines or of additions to wine, such as dosage or sulfur dioxide, to form a more pleasing combination.

Maturation
1. The aging period at the winery during which the wine evolves to a state of readiness for bottling. Also the ongoing development of fine wines during a period of bottle aging.
2. The process by which a wine reaches a point of readiness for bottling; can continue in the bottle.

Mature
A wine that has reached its optimum point during aging, and exhibits a pleasing combination of aromas, flavors and bouquet.

Mead
1. Wine made from honey.
2. A wine, common in medieval Europe, made by fermenting honey and water. Recently mead has enjoyed new popularity. Wine makers now make flavored mead.
3. A fermented beverage made from honey, water, acid, yeast nutrients, and yeast. Tannin may also be added, but the only flavor is derived from the honey itself. Different honeys, meaning honeys made from different nectar sources (flowers), yield different flavors. Thus, a clover mead is made with honey produced primarily from the nectar of clover flowers, while a heather mead is made with honey produced primarily from the nectar of heather flowers. There are three kinds of “true” mead:
Dry Mead contain no flavoring other than honey and is made using about 2-1/2 pounds of honey per U.S. gallon of mead.
Sack Mead contains no flavoring other than honey but is sweeter than most other meads and is made using about 4 pounds of honey per U.S. gallon of mead.
Small Mead contains no flavoring other than honey but is made using only about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 pounds of honey per U.S. gallon of mead and is fermented using an ale yeast. A small mead is closer to ale than to wine, while both dry and sack meads are closer to wine.
Additionally, there are other beverages made with honey that are generally referred to as meads but indeed have their own names. Just a few of these (there are scores of them) are:
Balche is a Mayan mead made with Balche bark
Bochet is a sack mead that has been burned or charred
Bracket is mead and ale combined
Braggot is mead made with honey and malt
Capsicumel is mead made with honey and chile peppers
Clarre is another term for Pyment and is a mead (actually, a Melomel) made with honey and grapes or grape juice
Cyser is a sack mead (actually, a Melomel) made with honey and apples (or apple juice) and is closely related to hard cider. Another name for this kind of mead is Cyster.
Cyster is another name for Cyser
Hippocras is a spiced pyment
Hydromel is a French drink of watered-down or diluted mead
Meddeglyn is a Welsh spiced mead
Melomel is a mead made with honey and fruit. Another name for this type of mead is Mulsum
Metheglin is a sack mead made with honey and herbs and/or spices. Also spelled Metheglyn
Metheglyn is another spelling of Metheglin
Morat is a sack mead (actually, a Melomel) made with honey and mulberries
Mulsum is another name for Melomel
Myddyglyn is an alternate spelling for Meddeglyn, or vice versa
Omphacomel is a mead made with honey and verjuice (the juice of unripened or immature grapes)
Oxymel is mead mixed or blended with vinegar
Perry is a sack mead (actually, a Melomel) made with honey and pears
Pyment is a mead (actually, a Melomel) made with honey and grapes or grape juice. Another name for this type of mead is Clarre
Rhodamel is a mead (actually, a Metheglin) made with honey and rose petals
Rhodomel is an alternate spelling for Rhodamel
T’ej is a mead made with honey and hops
Traditional is mead made with honey, water, acid, yeast nutrients, and yeast only
Varietal is a Traditional mead made with a pure variety of honey, such as Clover, Fireweed or Heather
Weirdomel is mead to the max, or some such thing (credit Dick Dunn with the name)

Medium-dry
A term to indicate slight sweetness in wines that are not quite dry.

Medium sweet
A term to indicate the perceived level of sweetness in wines that are not fully sweet.

Merlot
1. Fine red wine grape widely planted in Bordeaux and California. Often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon.
2. A species of vinifera used to make red wines. Merlot often tastes plumlike, and can even taste of chocolate.

Mesoclimate
The unique climate of a subsection of a wine region.

Metabisulphite
Undissolved sulphite
See Campden Tablets, Potassium Metabisulfite or Sodium Metabisulfite

Methode Champenoise
1. The bottle-fermentation method of making Champagne and other sparkling wines that are released for sale in the same bottle in which the secondary fermentation took place.
2. The traditional French Champagne winemaking method used for producing sparkling wine.
3. French term for the method used to make champagne, which is fermented in the bottle. French champagnes and many other sparkling wines are produced using this traditional French technique. The monk Dom PÈrignon is credited with inventing this method.

Methode Traditionelle
The equivalent of the traditional French Champagne process know as Methode Champenoise, but applied to the making of sparkling wines outside the Champagne region.

Microclimate
The climate in and around the grapevine’s canopy.

Minerally
1. Exhibiting aromas or flavors that suggest minerals.
2. Used to describe flavors and aromas that suggest minerals, such as flint, steel, chalk etc.

Moldy
Grapes, containers or corks that have developed mold transmit this “off” odor to the wine they contact.

Mousse
1. The foam of bubbles that forms on the top of a glass of Champagne or sparkling wine.
2. The ring of light foam at the top of a glass of sparkling wine.

Mulled Wine
Red wine that has been mixed with sugar, lemon, and spices, usually including cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Served hot.

Must
1. The juice and pulp produced by crushing or pressing grapes. Used until the end of fermentation, when it is then called wine.
2. Unfermented wine
3. Crushed grape mixture that contains juice and additives before the addition of yeast.
4. A term used in winemaking to describe the prepared juice right before and during fermentation.
5. The unfermented juice of grapes extracted by crushing or pressing; grape juice in the cask or vat before it is converted into wine.
6. The combination of basic ingredients, both solid and liquid, from which wine is made. The liquid content of must is called liquor or simply juice, while the solids, when pushed to the surface by rising carbon dioxide, is called the cap. When the alcohol content reaches 8 or 9%, the liquid component is more accurately referred to as wine.