Deliberately combining trees, shrubs and hedgerows with farmland. In a vineyard they give shade, break the wind, cool the microclimate and harbour a range of beneficial insects.
A small 225 L oak barrel in the Bordeaux format (barrique bordelaise). The smaller the barrel, the stronger its influence on the wine – unlike large barrels of 500 L and up, which are meant for gentle oxidation rather than wood flavour.
Stirring the lees in the barrel with a stick, to increase their contact with the wine and add body. A winemaker who skips it lets the lees settle on their own.
A white wine made from red grapes. The grapes are pressed straight after harvest without spending time on the skins, so the colour stays in the skins and does not pass into the juice.
Whole bunches are sealed in a closed vessel filled with CO₂, and fermentation starts inside the berries themselves. It gives pronounced fruit and especially soft tannins. Semi-carbonic maceration follows the same principle, in an open or partly sealed vessel.
The grapes are pressed straight after harvest, without the juice spending time on the skins. For whites this is the norm; for reds, it is how a white wine or a pale rosé is made from dark grapes.
Removing the yeast sediment from the neck of the bottle after the second fermentation of a sparkling wine. This is usually when a sugar solution (dosage) is added, which sets how sweet the wine will be.
Everything that remains in a wine once the water and alcohol have evaporated: minerals, acids, sugars and polyphenols. The higher the extract, the denser and thicker the wine feels on the palate, even at low alcohol.
How many times a barrel has been used to make wine. A first-fill barrel gives the wine plenty of wood flavour and tannin; from the second fill on its influence fades, and the barrel serves mainly for gentle oxidation and texture.
Passing the wine through a membrane or filter layer to remove yeasts and particles. It stabilises and clarifies, but also strips away some texture. An unfiltered wine may be cloudy, and that is normal.
Adding a substance that binds to suspended particles and pulls them to the bottom, so the wine stays clear. Egg white, bentonite and gelatine are the most common. Some winemakers do without it and let the particles settle on their own.
A layer of yeast that forms on the surface of the wine in the barrel and protects it from oxidation. Typical of Sherry from Jerez de la Frontera in Spain and of the Jura in France, it gives the wine a nutty, salty note.
A very large wooden cask, usually 1,000 to 5,000 L. An almost neutral vessel, meant for gentle oxidation rather than wood flavour. The German Stückfass is a foudre of about 1,200 L.
A white Pannonian variety, called Šipon in Slovenian, best known from Tokaj in Hungary. High acidity, full body and long ageing potential. In Slovenia it is the serious variety of Štajerska.
Several varieties planted together in the same vineyard, picked on the same day and fermented in the same vessel. The old Central European way. The proportions of the varieties are set in the vineyard, not in the cellar.
Instead of removing the sediment by mechanical or chemical means, the wine is left to stand until the particles sink on their own. A slow process, with no intervention.
The top tier of the Austrian Sekt pyramid: at least 30 months on the lees in bottle, traditional method only, from hand-harvested grapes from a single wine village.
The internal origin ladder of VDP estates, and others like them, in Germany. In ascending order: estate wine, village wine, first-class site, great site. The higher the step, the smaller the parcel and the stricter the rules.
A low range of hills in Burgenland, north-west of Lake Neusiedl, on mica schist and limestone soils. Leithaberg DAC is the designation of origin named after it.
A secondary fermentation in which bacteria convert malic acid into lactic acid. It softens the acidity and stabilises the wine enough to bottle it without filtration.
The wine is bottled before its first fermentation has finished, and the fermentation ends inside the bottle. This is the pét-nat method: a single fermentation, with no second fermentation and no added sugar.
Leaving the juice to rest after pressing so that particles settle before fermentation. A winemaker who skips it ferments the juice while it is still cloudy, which adds body and texture – but only if the grapes are perfectly healthy.
A wine region in Burgenland named after a broad, shallow steppe lake (Steppensee) on the Hungarian border. Gols, the centre of Pannobile, lies on its northern shore; the Seewinkel is to its east and the Leitha range to its west.
The Slovenian-Styrian dialect name for a soil of limestone and clay formed from marine sediments, typical of Haloze and Maribor. It holds water well, keeps the roots cool, and is credited with giving wine salinity and a smoky note.
From ‘Pannonia’ and ‘nobility’: a name coined by Hans Nittnaus and given in 1994 to an association of Gols winemakers. Today it has nine wineries. The reds are made only from Zweigelt, Blaufränkisch and St. Laurent; the whites only from Burgundian varieties and Neuburger. Every vintage is tasted blind by the members.
An American aphid-like insect that reached Europe in the 1860s and destroyed most of the continent's vineyards. The solution was to graft European varieties onto resistant American rootstocks.
Preservatives that stop yeasts from waking up and fermenting again in the bottle. A winery that does without them relies on clean work and microbiological stability.
Moving the wine from the vessel it rests in to a clean one, to separate it from its sediment. A winemaker who avoids it leaves the wine on its lees undisturbed, which builds texture.
A state in which a wine develops without oxygen and gives off a smell like flints struck together – something like a struck match or toasted corn. In the right measure it adds complexity and tension; in excess it is a fault.
The root of a phylloxera-resistant American vine, onto which the European variety is grafted. Almost every vine in Europe has been grafted this way since the late 19th century.
An old Austrian white variety with pinkish-red skins that nearly died out. It is not genetically related to Grüner Veltliner, and is grown mainly in Wagram, the Weinviertel, Kamptal and Kremstal.
A category in German wine law for a pale pink to light red wine made from white and red grapes pressed together before fermentation. It may not be made by blending finished wines.
The plain east of Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland, dotted with dozens of shallow salt lakes. The lakes moderate the temperature and bring salt up into the soil, hence the salinity attributed to the area's wines.
A wine from one parcel only (Ried, Einzellage), the top tier of the Austrian origin pyramid. Below it is the village wine, and below that the regional wine.
The time the juice spends in contact with the grape skins. In white wines, this is what draws out colour, tannin and texture, and makes what is usually called orange wine.
Treatments that stop a wine from changing in the bottle: chilling, agents against protein haze, pasteurisation. A winemaker who forgoes them gets a wine that may go on changing, so it needs cool, steady storage.
An association of Styrian wineries, founded in 1986, that created a vineyard classification: regional wine → village wine → single-vineyard wine, and within the last tier 1STK (first-class site) and GSTK (great site).
An association of Slovenian winemakers that ranks wines by how narrowly their origin is defined: SVL Okoliš (area), SVL Vas (village) and SVL Lega (single vineyard).
The bunch goes into the process as it is, stems and all. Whole-bunch pressing (whites): the bunch goes into the press uncrushed, the pressing is gentle and the juice picks up less bitterness. Whole-bunch fermentation (reds): the stems add spice and tannin, and berries that stay whole go through partial carbonic maceration.