Wine Glossary - O &P
From: Wine Taster's Glossary, Barbara Ensrud
August 15, 2011
O
Oak
A type of hardwood commonly used for building wine barrels. American oak has a distinctive, bourbon-like flavor while the French oak flavor is more subtle. Both types of oak barrels contribute considerable tannin and vanillin (vanilla) flavors to wines during aging.
Oaky
Tasting term to describe the smell or taste of excessive oak flavor in a wine.
Orvieto
White wine from Italy. Generally good, if not distinguished.
Oxidized
Flavor term to describe a wine which has suffered excessive oxidation. During oxidation, wines lose their original fruitiness and take on a darker color, eventually becoming quite brown. The fruity flavor is replaced by one reminiscent of "vegetable soup," later becoming nutty or maple-like and, finally, meat-like and dead.
P
Pauillac
One of the four great communes of the Medoc region northwest of Bordeaux (and clearly the most important from a quality point of view). Named for the town of Pauillac, this region produces some of the world's finest red wines, including Chateau LaFite, Chateau LaTour and Mouton Rothschild. There are so many very good wines produced in the region that nearly all the wine is chateau bottled and named for the producing winery.
Phylloxera
An otherwise beautiful, brilliant yellow, microscopic aphid which lives on vine roots by sucking their juice. Unfortunately this isn't very good for most roots. The aphid kills European wine varieties but native American vine roots are resistant. All the world's wine regions defeat Phylloxera not by chemicals, but by grafting the European wine varieties onto (resistant) American vine roots.
Pinot
Family of grape varieties. The most famous member is Pinot Noir, although its white fruited variant, Pinot Blanc, deserves special recognition as well.
Pinot Gris (Grigio)
White grape variety of the Pinot family. The color of this grape can vary from white to slightly pink. The style of wines produced using this grape can vary widely fromthe dry, crisp wines of northern Italy (where it's called Pinot Grigio) to the fat, honeyed winesof France's Alsace.
Pinotage
A South African hybrid of Pinot Noir and Cinsault which the South Africans sometimes call Hermitage, thus the derived name Pinotage. This red-wine grape was bred in 1925, but it wasn't until wines made from Pinotage won awards in 1959 that it became popular. Pinotage is now extensively grown in South Africa with small amounts in California and New Zealand.
Pomace
The solid residue (primarily skins, seeds and stems) left behind by draining juice from white must, or draining new wine from a red fermentation tank.
Port
Any of the fortified, rich, sweet, alcoholic and full bodied wines shipped from the Oporto region in the north of Portugal. Other countries also use the term for wines of similar type, but the original name is Portuguese. Port wines are classic examples of fortified dessert wines which seem to age forever. In exceptionally good vintages the Portuguese producers declare a "vintage" and produce ports that carry the vintage year on the bottle.
Pouilly Fuisse
(pronounced poo'-ee fwi-zay.') This appellation is located in the Maconnais area of France's Burgundy region. The only grape used for making wine here is Chardonnay. It is produced only in the villages of of Solutre', Pouilly, Fuisse', Chaintre' and Vergisson. The quality can be quite good from many smaller producers. The large cooperative in Chaintre produces wines of average quality.
Pouilly Fume
A dry white wine, produced in the Loire Valley. Not to be confused with Pouilly Fuisse, though it often is. Unlike Pouilly Fuisse, which is produced from Chardonnay grapes in Burgundy, the Pouilly Fume is produced from Sauvignon Blanc in The Loire. It was the similarity between this wine and that produced from the same variety in the Napa Valley of California which led Robert Mondavi in the 1970s to name his dry Sauvignon Blanc "Fume Blanc." That name is now widely used in California for dry Sauvignon Blanc table wines.
Proof
Scale for measuring and expressing the alcohol content of liquids (never used for wine). The "proof" of a liquor is twice its alcohol content, ie, 80 proof = 40% alcohol. Since wine is always much lower in alcohol than the range commonly used for proof, the term has no use in wine production or on wine labels.
Provence
Wine region of southeastern France, on the Mediterranean. It is divided into five departments
Puglia
This area is the "heel" of the boot shaped Italian land mass. It actually has a high output of wines but much of it is consumed locally. The major red grape varieties grown here are Negroamaro, Malvasia, Primitivo (Zinfandel) and Uva di Troia. Principal white varieties are Bianco d'Alessano, Bombino Bianco, Malvasia Bianca, and Trebbiano.
Punt
The concave indentation in the bottom of certain wine bottles, especially those containing sparkling wine.
Hot Topic Archives