Champagne and Sparkling Wine
Glossary T
Tart
For champagne, the term is referring to a wine that is excessively high in acid. In other wine, the term can indicate high acid, but can also indicate unripe fruit.
Tank Method
Sparkling wine making process where secondary fermentation takes place in bulk in a pressurized tank. Also called the Charmat or cuve close method.
Tartaric Acid
From a winemaking perspective, tartaric acid is the most important acid due to the prominent role it plays in maintaining the chemical stability of the wine and color and finally influencing the taste of the finished wine. In most plants, this organic acid is rare but it is found in significant concentrations in grapes.
Tartrates
By product of the wine making process. Crystalline deposits that precipitate out of wine. They are harmless and have the appearance of sugar crystals. They can occur when a wine experiences low temperatures or through aging.
TCA
2,4,6-trichloroanisol is the predominant compound that causes ‘cork taint’ or ‘corked wine’. It causes musty odors and tastes sometimes described as wet cardboard, damp basement or wet dog. It is thought to occur in differing degrees in up to 5% of wine and possibly more. The taint was thought to come from washing cork with chlorine bleaches, but after switching to peroxide, the incidence remained the same. It has been determined that TCA is present in cork trees as well as oak barrels and other wood.
Terroir
The all encompassing factors of a grape’s growing environment and their expression in the wine. Factors include climate, weather, soil, aspect of the vineyard, altitude, etc. The literal translation is soil, but the definition is much larger than that. (French)
Téte de cuvée – See First Press. (French)
Texture
The way a wine feels in the mouth. Mouthfeel.
Thin
A wine lacking important attributes such as body or fruit.
Traditional Method
See Methode Champenois for the process. (Note: the term ‘methode champenoise’ is not allowed on any wine label except champagne in the European Union.)
Transvasage
Secondary fermentation for a sparkling wine occurs in a bottle, but not in the bottle that will eventually be sold. See the webpage Sparkling Wine Production for additional information.
Type – See Style.
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