Champagne Fairy
Wine terminology dictionary
Use this trilingual Champagne Fairy dictionary to understand vineyard, cellar, tasting, label, and wine-service language. Every entry uses a stable English term ID so links remain consistent in English, Hebrew, and Russian.
Entries show the preferred English term, an approved translation, useful aliases, and a concise explanation. Regulatory terms can vary by country; the relevant context is stated where needed.
Wine sweetness terminology and tables
Residual sugar is measured sugar remaining in wine; dosage is an addition made to sparkling wine after disgorgement; perceived sweetness also depends on acidity, alcohol, temperature and texture.
Still-wine sweetness
Still-wine categories use residual sugar and, for dry and medium-dry wines, may also account for total acidity expressed as tartaric acid.
| Term | Sugar or meaning |
|---|---|
| Dry | S ≤ 4 or (S ≤ 9 and S − A ≤ 2) |
| Medium dry | not dry and (S ≤ 12 or (S ≤ 18 and S − A ≤ 10)) |
| Medium sweet | above the applicable medium-dry limit and S ≤ 45 |
| Sweet | S ≥ 45 |
In the formulas: S, glucose plus fructose in g/L; A, total acidity expressed as tartaric acid in g/L. At exactly 45 g/L the legal definitions overlap; only one eligible term is used on the label.
Sparkling wine and Champagne
These terms describe total sugar in the finished sparkling wine. Brut Nature also requires that no sugar be added after the secondary fermentation.
| Term | Sugar or meaning |
|---|---|
| Brut Nature / Pas Dosé / Dosage Zéro | <3 g/L and no sugar added after secondary fermentation |
| Extra Brut | 0–6 g/L |
| Brut | <12 g/L |
| Extra Dry / Extra Sec | 12–17 g/L |
| Dry / Sec | 17–32 g/L |
| Medium Dry / Demi-Sec | 32–50 g/L |
| Sweet / Doux | >50 g/L |
Adjacent bands intentionally overlap under the legal definitions; only one term may appear. Extra Dry is sweeter than Brut.
German label vocabulary
German label terms do not all describe the same thing. Trocken and halbtrocken concern finished-wine sweetness; Prädikat terms chiefly describe grape ripeness and production category.
| Term | Sugar or meaning |
|---|---|
| Trocken | Still wine: same analytical limits as EU Dry |
| Halbtrocken | Still wine: same analytical limits as EU Medium dry |
| Lieblich | Above the applicable halbtrocken limit and <= 45 g/L |
| Süß | >= 45 g/L |
| Feinherb | No single statutory residual-sugar band; producer/style term |
| Prädikat terms | Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese classify grape ripeness/production, not guaranteed finished-wine sweetness |
Terry Theise sensory scale
This scale describes perceived balance between sweetness and acidity. It is a sensory guide, not a legal residual-sugar classification.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| -2 | Austere; for lovers of austere wines. |
| -1 | Sugar is discernibly absent, but the wine is balanced. |
| 0 | No discernible sweetness. |
| +1 | Barely discernible sweetness. |
| +2 | Discernible but unobtrusive sweetness. |
| +3 | Sweetness is important in itself. |
| +4 | Bona-fide dessert wine. |
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Viticulture and vineyards
Altitude / elevation
Vineyard height. Preserve metres and do not confuse it with slope.
#Aspect / exposure
The compass direction a slope faces. Prefer the viticultural term מפנה over a literal translation of exposure.
#Autochthonous variety
A grape variety with a long local association. Avoid implying a scientifically proven place of origin unless the source supports it.
#Centenarian vines
Use only when the source states or substantiates an age of about 100 years or more.
#Chablis pruning
A named Champagne pruning/training system, not simply pruning performed in Chablis.
#Clonal selection
Propagation from one selected vine clone. Included to explain the contrast with massal selection.
#Clos
Historically a walled vineyard. A modern vineyard name may retain Clos even when the wall is incomplete.
#Contrada
A historical geographic district or subzone on Etna, not necessarily one vineyard and not automatically a formal cru.
#Ecological methods
Vague producer language; it does not establish organic or biodynamic certification.
#Field blend
Different grape varieties planted together in one vineyard. It does not by itself prove that they were co-fermented.
#Forgotten / historic variety
A formerly important or now rarely planted variety. This is descriptive producer language, not a formal category.
#Full maturity
Ripeness at harvest. Preserve high maturity as a stronger claim than merely ripe.
#Grafted vines
A fruiting variety joined to a different root system.
#Grape crossing
A variety bred from two parent varieties. Do not automatically call it a hybrid, which can imply an interspecific cross.
#Green manure
A cover crop grown and incorporated into the soil as organic matter.
#Hand harvest
Grapes harvested manually.
#Herbotherapy treatments
Plant-based vineyard preparations; retain the practical explanation rather than a medical implication.
#Heroic viticulture
Viticulture on exceptionally steep, high-altitude, terraced, or otherwise difficult sites where vineyard work is unusually demanding. Treat it as descriptive context unless a formal scheme is named.
#Layering
A shoot is rooted while it remains attached to the parent vine.
#Lieu-dit (named site)
A traditionally named place or vineyard site in France; it is not automatically a legally classified single vineyard. Retain lieu-dit in specialist-facing text.
#Limited yield
A restriction on fruit produced in the vineyard. Keep it distinct from a small finished-wine bottle count.
#Massal selection
Propagation from several selected vines in a vineyard to retain genetic diversity. Contrast with propagation from one clone.
#Minimum soil disturbance
A low-tillage approach intended to disturb soil structure as little as possible.
#Natural grass cover
Living vegetation retained between vineyard rows.
#Old vines
Vines described as old. There is no universal legal age threshold, so retain a stated age whenever available.
#Organic fertilisers
Fertilisers from organic sources. This statement alone does not mean the vineyard or wine is certified organic.
#Own-rooted vines
A natural customer-facing expression for vines growing on their own roots; often overlaps with ungrafted.
#Parcel-by-parcel vinification
Each parcel is fermented or matured separately before any later blending.
#Phylloxera
A vine pest that drove widespread grafting onto resistant rootstocks. Sandy sites can sometimes limit it, but sand is not a blanket guarantee.
#Plot / parcel
A small vineyard unit. The words are usually interchangeable in these descriptions.
#Ploughing / tillage
Mechanical working of vineyard soil. Preserve qualifiers such as regular, shallow, or minimum-tillage.
#Poussard pruning
A pruning method designed to respect sap flow and reduce trunk-disease risk.
#Rootstock
The root system onto which the fruiting grape variety is grafted.
#Shallow plowing
Shallow cultivation, often directly beneath vine rows.
#Short pruning
Retaining short fruiting wood, often to help control yield.
#Single parcel
Fruit comes from one specific parcel, a narrower claim than a general single-vineyard wine.
#Single vineyard
Wine sourced from one vineyard. Do not automatically equate it with a lieu-dit or Contrada.
#Slope
The inclination of a vineyard; preserve a stated percentage.
#Terroir
The combined influence of site, soil, climate, topography, and human practice. Keep the established loanword rather than reducing it to soil alone.
#Tree-trained vines
An old training system in which vines climb or are supported by living trees.
#Ungrafted vines
Vines whose fruiting variety grows on its own roots rather than being grafted to a separate rootstock. franc de pied is French singular, francs de pied plural; the feminine forms are vigne franche de pied and vignes franches de pied. The term does not identify a rootstock, age, pre-phylloxera origin, certification, or phylloxera resistance.
#Vegetative cycle
The vine’s seasonal sequence of growth and development.
#Very old / ancient vines
A stronger producer age claim than old vines, but generally not a fixed legal category.
#Vine age
Age of the vines or planting, not the age of the finished wine.
#Vintage climate
Weather conditions during a particular growing season and harvest, not a generic regional climate description.
#Viticultural practices
Vineyard work and farming choices. Avoid the literal and unnatural שיטות תרבותיות.
#Winemaking and cellar
Alcoholic fermentation
Yeast converts grape sugar into alcohol, carbon dioxide, and other compounds.
#Amphora
A generic ceramic winemaking vessel. It is not automatically a Georgian qvevri.
#Barrel / cask
Generic wooden vessel. Use a more specific vessel term when the source supplies one.
#Barrel ageing
Post-fermentation maturation in wood. Keep separate from barrel fermentation.
#Barrel fermentation
Fermentation occurs in wood, not merely later maturation.
#Barrique
A small oak barrel, traditionally about 225 L in Bordeaux. בריק is the Hebrew Academy term; capacity and usage can vary outside the Bordeaux context.
#Bâtonnage
Periodic stirring of the wine on its lees in a barrel or fermentation vessel.
#Bottling
Transfer into bottles. In sparkling-wine context it may refer specifically to tirage bottling.
#Burgundy barrel
A traditional Burgundy-format barrel. A standard Burgundy pièce is typically about 228 L, but preserve that exact capacity only when the source states it.
#Cellar ageing
Maturation in the cellar. Do not assume it means lees ageing unless stated.
#Clarification
The broad family of operations used to make wine clear, potentially including settling, racking, fining, or filtration. The Hebrew Academy uses צילול for both clarification and fining, so the definition or method must carry the distinction.
#Cold stabilization
Chilling to encourage tartrate crystals to form before bottling.
#Coquard press
A named Champagne press design. Keep Coquard as an equipment name.
#Demi-muid
A medium-large French wooden cask, often roughly 500–600 L; exact capacity varies.
#Destemming
Removing grape berries from the cluster stems before fermentation or maceration.
#Élevage
The wine’s post-fermentation development and care before release; broader than barrel ageing alone.
#Filtration
Physical removal of particles or microorganisms through a filter.
#Fine lees
The finer sediment retained for maturation after heavier solids are removed.
#Fining
Clarification by adding an agent that binds suspended material so it can be removed. The Hebrew Academy explicitly prefers צילול, not הצללה; the longer Hebrew label distinguishes this specific operation from the umbrella process.
#Foudre
A large French wooden cask, commonly 1,000 L or much larger. Capacity varies. Do not merge it with German Fuder.
#Fuder
A traditional German cask; in the Mosel it is commonly around 960–1,000 L, while regional capacities vary. Distinct from French foudre.
#Indigenous / native yeast
Producer terms for yeasts originating in the vineyard or cellar environment. They overlap in marketing use but are not always technically identical.
#Large-format wooden cask
A generic large wooden vessel. Do not infer the more specific foudre, Fuder, or demi-muid unless the source names it.
#Lees
Sediment left after fermentation, dominated by spent yeast but potentially containing other solids. Do not treat the ordinary English verb lies as an alias.
#Lees ageing
Keeping wine in contact with fermentation sediment to influence texture and aroma. Sur lie is the French label form.
#Maceration
Contact between juice and grape solids to extract colour, aroma, flavour, and phenolics.
#Malolactic fermentation
Bacteria convert sharper malic acid into softer lactic acid. It can reduce perceived acidity and alter texture and aroma.
#Minimal sulfite use
A lower-use claim, distinct from no added sulfites and not a defined universal threshold.
#Must
The liquid product obtained from fresh grapes by crushing, destemming, draining, or pressing. In cellar usage, qualify whether it is fresh, partially fermented, or contains grape solids when context requires; do not assume clear, unfermented juice.
#Natural cork
A bottle closure cut from cork bark. Keep closure material separate from barrel or oak-ageing terminology.
#No added sulfites
No sulfur dioxide was added. It does not mean sulfite-free because fermentation can produce sulfites naturally.
#No cold stabilization
The wine was not cold-stabilized. This negative phrase must outrank the positive substring passage au froid.
#No malolactic fermentation
Malolactic fermentation did not occur. Say it was blocked only when deliberate prevention is stated.
#Old / used oak
A previously used wooden vessel that generally contributes less new-oak aroma. Do not call it neutral oak unless the source does.
#Partial malolactic fermentation
Only part of the wine or blend undergoes malolactic fermentation.
#Pressing
Extraction of juice from grapes with a press.
#Qvevri
A Georgian earthenware vessel traditionally buried in the ground. Keep it distinct from generic amphora.
#Racking
Transferring wine from one vessel to another while leaving settled solids behind. Distinct from filtration and fining.
#Skin contact
Explicit contact between juice and grape skins; a more specific phrase than maceration alone.
#Slow pressing and gravity flow
Gravity usually describes feeding or transfer, not the force doing the pressing. Preserve that distinction unless the producer specifies otherwise.
#Spontaneous fermentation
Fermentation starts without inoculation with a selected commercial yeast culture.
#Stainless-steel tank
An inert stainless-steel vessel. Inox means stainless steel.
#Sulfites
A family of sulfur-containing preservative species associated with sulfur dioxide in wine. Preserve the source wording rather than claiming that fermentation produces one specific species.
#Sulfur dioxide (SO₂)
The antioxidant and antimicrobial compound commonly discussed as a cellar addition. In these descriptions, bare “sulfur” usually means sulfur dioxide rather than elemental sulfur.
#Temperature-controlled tank
A vessel whose fermentation or storage temperature is actively controlled.
#Traditional pressing
Pressing with the producer’s traditional equipment or cycle; the phrase alone does not define pressure or yield.
#Unfiltered
The wine was not filtered; it may still have been fined or racked.
#Unfined
No fining treatment; this does not also mean unfiltered.
#Vat / tank
A generic fermentation or storage vessel.
#Vinification
The operations that turn grapes or must into wine.
#Tasting and style
Ageing potential
Capacity to develop beneficially in bottle; not a guarantee of improvement.
#Appearance
Visual assessment of colour, clarity, and bubbles.
#Astringency
A drying, puckering tactile sensation, often caused by tannins or other phenolics. It is not the same as bitterness or acidity.
#Attack
The wine’s first impression as it enters the mouth.
#Autolytic character
A sensory character associated specifically with yeast-cell breakdown during lees ageing; see Yeast autolysis for the process.
#Balance
A sense that sweetness, acidity, alcohol, fruit, texture, and other elements are proportionate.
#Body
Perceived weight and volume in the mouth, not alcohol alone.
#Bone dry
Strong sensory emphasis on dryness. It is not by itself a regulated label category.
#Bouquet
Developed aromatic complexity, often associated with fermentation or ageing rather than primary grape aroma alone.
#Brioche
A bread-and-butter aroma often associated with lees ageing, fermentation, or maturation.
#Chalky character
A sensory metaphor for a powdery texture or chalk-like impression. Do not turn it into a factual soil claim.
#Concentration / density
Intensity and compactness of flavour or palate weight.
#Crunchy
A sensory metaphor for vivid acidity and a firm, fresh texture. It does not describe literal solid texture.
#Crystalline
A metaphor for purity, clarity, and precision, not literal crystals in the wine.
#Finesse
Delicacy, precision, and refinement rather than simple lightness.
#Finish / aftertaste
Sensations remaining after the wine is swallowed or spat. Avoid טעם לוואי, which often implies a defect.
#Flinty character
A sensory metaphor often used for a struck-stone or smoky-mineral impression. Do not turn it into a factual soil claim.
#Freshness
A lively impression usually linked to acidity, fruit profile, and lack of heaviness.
#Grip / grippy
Tactile firmness or resistance on the palate.
#Incisive
Precise and penetrating, usually driven by acidity or structure.
#Layered / multidimensional
Complexity that unfolds in several aromatic, flavour, or textural stages.
#Mid-palate
The middle phase between the initial attack and finish.
#Minerality
A sensory metaphor for impressions such as stone, chalk, or salt. Do not present it as literal mineral transfer from soil into wine.
#Mouthwatering
A salivating sensory effect, commonly driven by acidity or salinity.
#Nose
Aromas perceived by smelling the wine. אף is accepted professional shorthand; ניחוח is more customer-friendly.
#Oxidative
A character developed through oxygen exposure. It can be an intentional style; it is not automatically oxidized or faulty.
#Palate
The flavours and tactile sensations perceived in the mouth.
#Persistence / length
How long flavours and sensations remain after tasting.
#Phenolic grip
Firmness caused by phenolic compounds from skins, seeds, stems, or wood.
#Racy
Energetic, usually with vivid acidity. Never translate literally as גזעי.
#Reductive
Character associated with restricted oxygen and sulfur compounds. It can be temporary or stylistic, not automatically a fault.
#Saline / salinity
A salt-like or marine sensory impression, not necessarily measurable salt content.
#Sapid
Full of flavour or pleasantly taste-provoking. It can overlap with savoury or saline language but is not a direct synonym for either.
#Savory
Context-dependent non-sweet character, often herbal, earthy, salty, or umami-like. It does not necessarily mean spicy, salty, or פיקנטי; choose the Hebrew wording from context.
#Sensory acidity
The structural and sensory effect of acids. In tasting language it is perceived freshness or sharpness, not necessarily a lab value.
#Slatey character
A sensory metaphor for a slate-like mineral impression. Do not turn it into a factual vineyard-geology claim.
#Structure
The framework created by acidity, tannin or phenolics, alcohol, fruit, and texture.
#Tannin
Phenolic compounds that contribute structure and can create a drying sensation. Distinguish the compounds from the sensation of astringency.
#Tannin-like grip
A tactile resemblance to tannin. Do not upgrade it to a factual claim of tannin when the critic explicitly says “tannin-like.”
#Tasting notes
A structured sensory description, often divided into appearance, nose, palate, and finish.
#Taut
Firmly structured and compact rather than loose or broad.
#Tension
A sense of energy and controlled pull between acidity, fruit, and texture. It is sensory, not a laboratory measurement.
#Texture / mouthfeel
Tactile character such as creamy, silky, firm, or chalky.
#Varietal character
Aromas, flavours, or structure associated with a grape variety.
#Vinosity
Wine-like body, warmth, and depth, especially when a Champagne’s wine character is more prominent than its bubbles.
#Yeasty
An aroma or flavour reminiscent of yeast or dough. It does not necessarily establish prolonged autolysis.
#Zesty / tangy
Lively, sharp freshness, commonly citrus-like or acidity-driven. Translate by context rather than literally as seasoning.
#Champagne and sparkling wine
Base wine
Still wine before blending and secondary fermentation. In Champagne context vin clair is more specific than the literal “clear wine.”
#Blanc de Blancs
White sparkling wine made only from white-skinned grapes. In Champagne it is usually Chardonnay, but the phrase alone does not universally guarantee Chardonnay.
#Blanc de Meunier
A white sparkling wine made from Meunier.
#Blanc de Noirs
White sparkling wine made only from dark-skinned grapes, with skin contact minimized during pressing.
#Blend / assemblage
Combining wines, varieties, sites, or vintages. Choose one primary UI label and retain the others as aliases.
#Brut
An EU sparkling-wine sweetness category: under 12 g/L.
#Brut Nature
An EU sparkling-wine sweetness category: under 3 g/L sugar, with no sugar added after secondary fermentation. It is related to, but not merely a translation of, zero dosage. Do not match the bare word nature.
#Bubbles / perlage
The visible stream and sensory presence of bubbles in sparkling wine. These words alone do not claim that the bubbles are fine or persistent.
#Cœur de Cuvée
A producer term for the preferred central portion of the pressing or cuvée. More specific than generic cuvée.
#Coteaux Champenois
The appellation for still wine from Champagne; in the corpus it appears as a rosé blending component.
#Crémant
A protected sparkling-wine term used within specified Crémant appellations, generally made by the traditional method. It is not a generic name for every traditional-method wine outside Champagne.
#Cru in Champagne
In Champagne, a cru corresponds to a winegrowing municipality. Elsewhere cru can classify a vineyard or estate, so region is essential.
#Cuvée
Context-dependent: a particular bottling, selection, or blend; in Champagne pressing, it can also name the first juice fraction.
#Disgorgement
Removal of the sediment collected in the bottle neck after riddling.
#Dosage
Addition made after disgorgement that tops up the bottle and helps set the final style. A reported dosage in g/L is not automatically the wine’s total residual sugar.
#Effervescence
The wine’s overall bubbling activity.
#Extra Brut
An EU sparkling-wine sweetness category: 0–6 g/L.
#Fine, persistent bubbles
A tasting description of bubble size or duration, not a production method. Preserve whichever qualifier the source actually states.
#Grand Cru in Champagne
A Champagne village-level label classification historically rooted in the échelle des crus. It is not the same system as Burgundy vineyard crus or VDP German classifications.
#Lees ageing in bottle
The key maturation period between secondary fermentation and disgorgement. Generic time “on lees” may also describe still-wine maturation, so bottle or sparkling context is required.
#Liqueur d’expédition
Wine, usually with sugar, used for dosage after disgorgement. Distinct from liqueur de tirage.
#Liqueur de tirage
The still wine, sugar, yeast, and processing aid added before the second fermentation.
#Mousse
The foam and tactile quality of bubbles in sparkling wine. Transliteration as מוס alone is opaque in Hebrew.
#Multi-vintage
A wine that explicitly foregrounds a blend across more than one harvest year. Related to, but not identical with, non-vintage.
#Non-vintage
A sparkling wine sold without one declared vintage. It is often blended across years, but the term itself only states that no vintage is declared.
#Perpetual reserve
A multi-vintage reserve replenished over time as wine is withdrawn. It may resemble a solera but is not automatically identical.
#Premier Cru in Champagne
A Champagne village-level label classification historically rooted in the échelle des crus. It is not the same system as Burgundy vineyard crus or VDP German classifications.
#Reserve wine
Base wine held from earlier vintages for later blending. It is not simply a premium-quality label.
#Riddling
Gradual turning and tilting of bottles to collect sediment in the neck before disgorgement. Sediment collection is the result, not the action itself.
#Rosé d’Assemblage
Rosé produced by blending white base wine with a proportion of still red wine.
#Rosé de Saignée
Rosé made by short skin maceration and drawing off coloured juice. Distinct from rosé d’assemblage.
#Second fermentation in bottle
Fermentation that creates the wine’s carbon dioxide and bubbles. Outside sparkling context, “secondary fermentation” can refer loosely to malolactic fermentation. Prise de mousse literally refers to gaining sparkle.
#Sekt
The German-language term for sparkling wine. Quality and production method depend on the full designation.
#Solera
A fractional multi-vintage blending system in which older wine remains in the system as younger wine is added. Champagne descriptions sometimes use the word loosely.
#Spécial Club
A prestige bottling by a member of the Club Trésors de Champagne that passes the group’s tasting approvals.
#Sur lattes
Bottle ageing horizontally after tirage, normally on the lees. Do not translate it opaquely as על לייסטים.
#Tirage
Bottling the base wine with the tirage mixture to begin secondary fermentation. A date after tirage is the bottling date, not the disgorgement date.
#Traditional method
Sparkling wine made by a second fermentation in the bottle. Outside Champagne, prefer “traditional method” rather than implying Champagne origin.
#Vintage sparkling wine
A sparkling wine bearing a declared harvest year. Required proportions depend on the applicable law or appellation; do not infer 100% from the generic phrase. Do not map a bare vintage without sparkling-label context.
#Yeast autolysis
Breakdown of yeast cells during lees ageing, releasing compounds that can affect texture and aromas such as bread or brioche. Reserve the adjective autolytic for the sensory-character entry.
#Zero dosage
No dosage sugar was added. This process claim does not mean the finished wine contains literally zero residual sugar.
#Labels and classifications
A.P. number / Amtliche Prüfungsnummer
The official German quality-wine test/approval number. Match bare AP only when an approval-number pattern and German-label context are present; do not treat it as a critic score.
#Auslese
A Prädikat from selected fully ripe grapes. Often sweet, but the word itself is a ripeness classification.
#Beerenauslese
A rare, rich sweet-wine Prädikat from individually selected overripe berries, commonly affected by noble rot.
#Between trocken and feinherb
Source-specific stylistic wording for a wine presented between dry and off-dry. It is not a recognized formal German category.
#Botrytis
A fungus that can be beneficial or destructive depending on conditions. Its presence does not automatically mean noble rot.
#Botrytis-free
Explicitly states that the fruit or wine was not affected by botrytis.
#Eiswein
Wine from grapes harvested and pressed while naturally frozen. Included as the adjacent Prädikat category needed to interpret the series.
#Feinherb
A flexible, non-fixed stylistic term commonly used for off-dry wines. Do not automatically equate it with the regulated Halbtrocken.
#Gold Capsule
A producer convention often marking a special or richer selection. It is not one uniform legal category.
#Kabinett
The lightest Prädikat level, based on ripe grapes and must weight. It can be dry or sweet depending on the rest of the label.
#Noble rot
Beneficial botrytis that dehydrates berries and concentrates sugars, acids, and flavour. Keep distinct from generic botrytis. Edelfaul is a source variant, while Edelfäule is the standard German noun.
#Prädikatswein
German wine classified by must weight and ripeness into categories from Kabinett upward. It does not by itself state final sweetness.
#Qualitätswein
A German legal quality-wine category tied to a recognized growing region and official testing.
#Spätlese
A higher Prädikat from riper, later-picked grapes. It is not guaranteed to be sweet.
#Trocken
The German dry designation. Apply the legal term rather than inferring dryness from taste notes.
#Trockenbeerenauslese
An extremely concentrated sweet-wine Prädikat made from shrivelled, usually noble-rotted berries. Trocken here describes dried berries, not a dry wine.
#VDP
Germany’s association of Prädikat wine estates, with its own origin-based classification.
#VDP.Erste Lage
A classified VDP vineyard tier. It is often compared with Premier Cru but is not literally 1er Cru.
#VDP.Erstes Gewächs
A dry wine from a VDP.Erste Lage site. Keep the distinction between the vineyard tier and the wine designation.
#VDP.Grosse Lage
The top VDP vineyard classification. GL names the site tier, not the finished dry wine and not a literal Grand Cru translation.
#VDP.Grosses Gewächs
A dry wine from a VDP.Grosse Lage vineyard. GG is the wine designation; GL is the vineyard tier.
#VDP.Gutswein
Entry level of the VDP origin hierarchy, from the estate’s vineyards.
#VDP.Ortswein
VDP village-level wine from vineyards within one locality.
#Measurements and analytical shorthand
Alcohol by volume
The percentage of the wine’s volume that is alcohol. Expand the abbreviation at first use.
#Dosage in g/L
The sugar addition associated with dosage. Do not relabel a bare g/L sugar value as dosage unless context confirms it.
#Grams per litre
Concentration by mass. Preserve whether the number refers to residual sugar, acidity, or dosage.
#Must weight
Density of grape must, driven mainly by sugar and used as a ripeness measure before fermentation. It does not state finished-wine sweetness.
#pH
A logarithmic measure related to hydrogen-ion activity; lower pH indicates greater active acidity. It is distinct from total acidity.
#Residual sugar
Sugar remaining after fermentation, normally reported in g/L. It is not the same measurement as dosage.
#Total acidity
Titratable acidity determined by titration and usually reported in g/L in these descriptions. It is different from pH and from the sensory impression of sourness. Reserve bare prose acidity for the sensory entry unless analytical context is explicit.
#Vintage year
The year the grapes were harvested. Basis or base in non-vintage sparkling descriptions often means the dominant base year, not a declared vintage.
#Soils and geology
Campanian chalk
Chalk from the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous.
#Chalk
A soft, porous form of limestone. In marketing Hebrew גירי is common, but קירטון preserves the geological distinction. A bare sensory chalky belongs to tasting language unless soil context is present.
#Chalky clay
Clay containing chalk or a clay-and-chalk profile.
#Clay
Fine soil particles with strong water-holding capacity.
#Clay-limestone soil
Clay mixed with or over limestone. It is not one rock type.
#Clay-silt soil
A mixed soil texture; do not collapse both components into clay.
#Devonian slate
Slate identified with the Devonian geological period. Preserve both the age and any colour description.
#Flint
Hard silica-rich rock. Flinty in tasting notes is a sensory metaphor, not proof that flint entered the wine.
#Gravel
Coarse rock fragments in the soil.
#Hard limestone
The specific limestone description used for several Côte des Bar wines.
#Kimmeridgian subsoil
Strata deposited during the Late Jurassic Kimmeridgian age/stage; in Champagne and Chablis, strata of this age are commonly associated with limestone and marl. Treat it as a geological descriptor, not a flavour.
#Lignite-bearing limestone
Limestone containing lignite. Prefer the explanatory phrase to the opaque literal adjective.
#Limestone
Carbonate rock; broader and generally harder than chalk. Do not normalize every limestone reference to chalk.
#Lutetian limestone
Limestone identified with the Lutetian stage of the Eocene.
#Lutetian stage
An Eocene geological age/stage. It can modify limestone or silica sand, so the adjective alone must not be normalized to one rock type.
#Pebbles
Rounded or small stones; do not normalize every occurrence to generic soil.
#Quartz
A crystalline silica mineral. Do not confuse it with quartzite.
#Quartzite
A metamorphic rock rich in quartz; retain עורקי קוורציט when veins are stated.
#Sand / sandy soil
Coarse mineral particles. In the catalog, sandy soil is important to the survival of some ungrafted vines.
#Schist
A foliated metamorphic rock. Do not translate it as slate.
#Silica sand
Quartz-rich sand. Keep it distinct from flint.
#Silt
Soil particles finer than sand and coarser than clay. Avoid the ambiguous Hebrew טין, which is also used for clay.
#Slate
Fine-grained rock common in German vineyard descriptions. Preserve colour qualifiers such as red, blue, grey, brown, or dark grey. A bare sensory slatey belongs to tasting language unless geology context is present.
#Soil
The upper material in which the vines grow. Keep it distinct from the geological subsoil below it.
#Stratum
A distinct layer in a soil or rock profile.
#Subsoil
The material beneath the surface soil. Preserve any stated depth or geological layer.
#Weathered slate
Slate broken down by long exposure and weathering.
#Method and review
Champagne Fairy maintains one canonical terminology dataset for this page, translation review, and product-content quality checks. Definitions are concise editorial explanations rather than substitutes for the applicable regulations.
- Last reviewed
- Dictionary version
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