V
varietal - Varietal wine is sold by the name of its principal grape variety as opposed to a geographic, or other, designation. The practice of so naming wines is typical in North America and is spreading. Traditional European winemaking nations are quite resistant to this trend, however. French wine law goes so far as to forbid AOC wines from naming grape varieties on their labels.
VdM - Abbreviation of Vino da Mesa.
VDQS - Abbreviation of Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure.
VdT - Abbreviation of Vino da Tavola.
vegan wine - Wine that is made without the addition or use of any animal derived substances such as isinglass and gelatin which are sometimes used as fining agents.
vegetal - A distinctive flavor or aroma of vegetation or vegetables, rather than fruit, characteristic of wines made from some grape varieties. Cabernet sauvignon, for example, can produce wines with a pronounced aroma of bell peppers.
vendange - French - Harvest or vintage.
vendange tardive - French - Late harvest.
vendemmia - Italian - Vintage.
véraison - French - A stage in the ripening process of grapes. (Called veraison in English from the French word.) It is the relatively short period during which the firm, green berries begin to soften and change colour.
Verdelho - Grape variety used in, and subsequently a type of, madeira.
vermouth - A fortified wine flavored with various herbs. Originally made for medicinal purposes, the name comes from the German word Wermut, meaning "wormwood", an early but discontinued flavouring ingredient. Today vermouth is made in two principal styles: a drier white version and a sweeter red. While it is made in many countries, the most familiar brands are from Italy and France. Like port, sherry and madeira, vermouth is fortified to about 17% alcohol, but unlike those wines it never strives for greatness. It achieved its popularity largely as a cocktail ingredient -- it is essential in classic cocktails like the martini and the Manhattan -- and its producers aim only for a consistent style. As such, the production of vermouth goes a long way toward absorbing the glut of simple table wine produced in France and Italy.
vertical tasting - A type of structured winetasting usually involving a number of vintages of a single wine. See also blind tasting and horizontal tasting.
Vidal - A French-American hybrid grape. Also known as Vidal Blanc.
vigna - Italian - Vineyard.
vigneron - French - Vine grower or vineyard labourer.
vignoble - French - Vineyard or winegrowing.
Vignoles - A French/American hybrid grape.
vin - French - Wine.
vina - Spanish - Vineyard.
vin biologique - French - Organic wine. France is a world leader in this area.
vin de cépage - French - French varietal wine.
vin de garde - French - Wine with great potential to improve with age and therefore suitable for cellaring.
vin de glace - French - Ice wine.
Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieur (VDQS) - French - Meaning "delimited wine of superior quality", this is an official classification of French wine regions below the level of Appelation d'Origine Contrôlée, but above Vin de Pays. It is administered by the powerful Institut National des Appellations d'Origine, intended to recognize the quality of certain smaller wine producing areas. While wines bearing this designation comprise only about 1% of annual wine production in France, guidelines for qualification are strict and many VDQS areas have eventually graduated to full AOC status.
vin de liqueur - French - A fortified wine which has had its fermentation completely averted by the addition of alcohol, usually in the form of brandy or marc, to the unfermented grape juice. The resulting wine is sweet due to the high amounts of residual sugar and, without benefit of the complexity of flavour that would have come from fermentation, is often dominated by the added spirit. Examples are Pineau des Charentes and Macvin de Jura.
vindemia - Spanish - Vintage.
vin de paille - French - Meaning "straw wine", this name refers not to the colour of the wine but to the traditional method of production involving drying the grapes either on straw mats or hanging from rafters before crushing and fermentation. These opulent sweet wines come from Alsace and the Jura primarily, as well as the Rhône, and are made in miniscule amounts by a few dedicated wine makers.
Vin de Pays - French - Meaning "country wine", this is an official category of French wines above the level of vin de table comprising about one quarter of the wine produced in France. Wines bearing this designation should be of higher quality than vin de table wines, and should demonstrate a certain amount of regional character.
vin de presse - French - Press wine.
vin de table - French - Table wine. Also called vin ordinaire, the basic and largely unregulated class of French wine comprising about one quarter of all wine produced in France. Labels of these wines do not bear information regarding grape variety or geographic origin more specific than the name of the country.
vin doux naturel - French - Meaning "naturally sweet wine", this is a type of fortified wine originating in Roussillon and made in a number of regions in southern France. Production is similar to that of port, but the wines are not as strong -- usually about 15% alcohol. It is made in a number of styles ranging from golden white to deep red and tawny.
vin gris - French - Literally "grey wine", this is a style that is paler pink than rosé.
vinho - Portuguese - Wine.
vinho de mesa - Portuguese - Table wine.
vinho regional - Portuguese - Abbreviating to VR, this is the lowest official classification of Portuguese wine, equivalent to France's vin de pays.
viniculture - The science of growing grapes.
vinifera - Vitis vinifera.
vinification - The process and methodology of making wine.
vin jaune - French - Meaning "yellow wine", this is an unusual wine from the Jura in eastern France. It is not fortified but is made using methods similar to those used to produce the fino style of sherry, including a special yeast, locally called voile (meaning "veil"), which is similar to flor. Despite the film of yeast a certain amount of oxidation occurs, adding to its sherry-like character. The wine is aged in wooden casks for a minimum of six years and three months during which it is not topped up, then is bottled in unique 620ml (21 fl. oz.) bottles, called clavelins. The golden yellow wine has a rich nutty flavour and can age in bottle for many decades.
vin mousseux - French - Sparkling wine.
vin nouveau - French - See nouveau.
vino - Italian and Spanish - Wine.
Vino da Tavola (VdT) - Italian - Meaning "table wine", an official category under the DOC, designed to encompass the bulk of basic wine produced in Italy, but in actuality including many of the finest Italian wines. Certain producers have elected to make wines that are of very high quality but are made with unconventional grape varieties or nontraditional winemaking methods and thus do not qualify for DOC status. See super-Tuscans.
Vino de Mesa - Spanish - Table wine.
vino liquoroso - Italian - Fortified wine.
vino novello - Italian - The Italian equivalent of the French vin nouveau.
vin ordinaire - French - Essentially the same as vin de table. Meaning "ordinary" or everyday wine. In France as well as other parts of Europe, wine is a staple, consumed at nearly every lunch and dinner. Wine made for this purpose is simple and unpretentious. It is not necessarily bad, but it never aspires to the greatness or ageing ability of some quality wines, which are prized and generally reserved for special occasions. Sometimes used in a pejorative sense.
vin primeur - French - Now mostly synonymous with vin nouveau, but originally was a distinct wine released one month later than nouveau.
vin santo - Italian - A dessert wine originally from Italy's Tuscany region. Meaning "holy wine", it is made in the same fashion as the French vin de paille, from grapes dried on straw mats or hung from rafters. It is made from Trebbiano and Malvasia and is barrel-aged for anywhere from three to ten years. The wine ranges from deep gold to amber in colour and from very sweet to very dry.
vintage - 1. The harvest of grapes and making of a wine. 2. The year a wine's grapes were harvested. 3. The wine of a given year. A vintage wine will invariably be labelled with the year of its vintage. By European Union rules, if a wine is to be called vintage at least 85% of it must come from grapes harvested in that year. In the U.S., 95% is the requirement. A non-vintage wine is one that is blended from wines of different years.
vintage port - A style of port.
vintner - A wine merchant.
Vintners Quality Alliance - A Canadian wine industry organization attempting a self-regulated system of geographic origin and quality classification. Begun in 1988, the VQA originally covered only wines from British Columbia, but inclusion of Ontario is expected in 1999 and all of Canada in the near future.
Viognier - The classic (though rare) white grape of the northern Rhone Valley of France where it makes the expensive wine known as Condrieu. In the early 1990s, more than thirty top California producers began making viognier to much acclaim. The wine has an opulent, lush body and dramatic honeysuckle, white melon and jasmine flavors.
vita vinum est - Latin - "Wine is life".
viticulture - The science and process of growing grapes.
Vitis vinifera - Latin - The botanical name for the species of vine best suited for winemaking. Originating in Europe, the species covers thousands of different varieties including most of the best known wine grapes like Cabernet sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay and it produces nearly all of the world's wine. While good, interesting wines can be made from other species of grape -- North America's Vitis labrusca for one -- they are often characterized by strong flavours that some find unpleasant.
volatile - A tasting term for wine with the sharp vinegary taste that comes from spoilage or imbalance due to excessive volatile acidity.
volatile acidity - The concentration of a class of acids that are found in all wine, primarily acetic and carbonic acids. A certain amount of acidity is vital to a wine's balance. Excessive amounts of acetic acid can result when a wine has been subjected to oxidation. Such wines can be described as volatile.
vörös - Hungarian - Red.
VQA - Abbreviation of Vintners Quality Alliance.
VR - Abbreviation of vinho regional.
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