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Nebbiolo - a vitis vinfera species of grape.

Nebuchadnezzar - Largest bottle used in Champagne and Burgundy, equivalent to 20 standard bottles (15 litres, 3.96 US gal., 3.3 UK gal.). See also half-bottle, magnum, Jéroboam, Rehoboam, Methuselah, Salmanazar and Balthazar.

négociant - French - Meaning "merchant", in the wine trade refers to wine merchants who buy wine from various sources and blend and bottle it to sell under their own label. They play a key role in Burgundy where some négociants, such as Louis Latour and Bouchard Père et Fils, have earned reputations for consistent quality in a region at times fraught with inconsistency.

négociant-éleveur - French - An expansion of the involvement of négociants, this term refers to those who oversee all aspects of the wine-making process from harvest and fermentation through to bottling. See élevage.

Niagara - An American hybrid wine grape grown in the eastern and mid-western U.S. Makes a fruity white wine with a strong 'grapey' flavor. Also a popular table grape

noble rot - A name given to the desireable form of the grape mold Botrytis cinerea that enhances many late-harvest wines.

Norton - An American hybrid wine grape grown in the southeast U.S. (especially Virginia). Makes a quality red wine with 'coffee' and 'spice-like' flavors.

nose - The smell of a wine. A wine term (used frequently in Britain) synonymous with aroma (i.e. you might say "the nose of this wine reminds me of cherries"). Nose is also used as a verb. To nose a wine is to smell it.

nouveau - French - Meaning "new", this refers to a particular style of red wine that is fresh, youthful and fruity and designed to be ready to drink within weeks of harvest. Nouveau wines will rarely improve with age, but will instead lose much of their appeal if kept too long. A festive atmosphere surrounds the annual release of France's Beaujolais Nouveau, the most famous wine of this type, on the third Thursday of November and there are races to bring bottles of the new wine to places around the world. Similar wine is made in the U.S. under the same name, and also in Italy, where it is called vino novello.