Wine Terms

[ttthew]

Hello,
I have a few questions about wine terms.
What is an estate producer?
What does "bottled unfined" mean?
What, specifically, does organic mean?
Are there any REALLY important wine terms that I should familiarize myself with?
Thanks in advance, this site has been very helpful.
Matthew Haven

[barnesy]

These terms can have different meanings in different places, but here is the general meanings.

estate bottled- the grapes used in the wine are entirely from the winery making the wine.

unfined - means that it was bottled prior to being filtered. This means decanting may be necessary as there could be sediment in the wine.

Organic - that is a wild card. It depends on who is using it. In the more regulated wine areas, such as Oregon, it would mean no chemicals, such as pesticides, etc, in the growing process.

As far as other terms, buy Wine for Dummies. It will have the most important and widely used terms in it, including the different uses in different areas plus it will give you a good working knowledge of wine.

Barnesy

[hotwine]

Matt, an "estate producer" is a producer who has grown the grapes from which the wine was made, as opposed to producing his wine from purchased grapes that were grown elsewhere.

"Bottled unfined" means the wine was bottled without a clarifying process. "Fining" is a process of introducing an adherent substance such as beaten egg whites to the wine, to adhere to suspended particles, which then fall to the bottom of the container for removal prior to bottling.

"Organic" merely means the wine was produced from organically-grown grapes, without the use of unnatural fertilizers or pesticides.

There is quite a quite a lexicon of wine-related terms, so I recommend you obtain a good reference. I use the Larousse Encyclopedia of Wine, Robert Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide, and Alexis Lichine's Encyclopedia of Wines and Spirits. Amazon.com has the Larousse (perhaps also the latest Parker's), while the Lichine was purchased at a used book store.

[Innkeeper]

The aforementioned Mr Parker in Mr Hotwine's post is the person responsible for getting on the bandwagon that fining and filtering were bad for wine. There is no emperical data to substantiate this. Never-the-less many wineries have knuckled under to Parker's hokum, and stopped it; putting unfined and unfiltered on their labels.

[Thomas]

I have a winemaker friend who, when he reads a label that states, "unfined, unfiltered," he adds, "unfinished." Sums it up--to him.

Everything Hotwine said is about right, except that the definition of "organic" wines is, well, organic--a living, movable thing--not at all pinned down to a coherent concept that encompasses the vineyard and the winemaking. Organizations and producers are still fighting over it, both here and abroad.

If you are seriously interested, or even mildly interested, get a book or two about wine written for beginners; there is far too much to cover that we can do justice to on this board.