Wine Terms Made Easy

Abboccato – Medium-sweet and full bodied
Amabile – Medium-sweet
Annata – Vintage
Azienda (or Casa) agricola – An estate that uses its own grapes in production of its wines
Azienda (or Casa) vinicola – A producer who buys in and vinifies, usually a large scale operation
Azienda (or Casa) vitivinicola – An estate that grows vines, buys in grapes and makes wines
Bianco – White
Botte – Cask
Bottiglia – Bottle
Cantina Sociale – Co-operative cellar
Cascina – Farmhouse (estate)
Cerasuolo – Cherry red
Chiaretto – Deep rose
Classico – The origonal centre of a DOC region, making the most typical wines.
Consorzio – Producerse trade association, whose members?wines are identified by a neck-label
Dolce – Sweet
Fattoria – Estate
Fermentazione naturale – Natural sparkle in a wine
Frizzante – Slighty sparkling
Imbottigliato alleorigine – Estate bottled
Invecchiato – Aged
Liquoroso – Strong, often fortified, wine
Maso, Masseria – Estate
Metodo charmat – Tank method sparkling wine
Metodo classico, metodo tradizonale – Traditional method, bottle-fermented sparkling wine
Passito, Passita – A generally strong, sweet wine made from part-dried grapes
Podere – A small estate
Produttore – Producer
Recioto – Similar to Passito, made with part-dried grapes
Riserva – Reserve, for DOC wines, one that has been aged in cask and / or bottle for a particular length of time
Rosato – Rose
Rosso – red
Secco – Dry
Semisecco – Medium-dry
Spumante – Sparkling wine made by any method
Stravecchio – Very old, particularly of marsala and spirits
Tenuta – Estate
Uva – Grape
Vecchio – Old; with DOC wines there are restrictions as to how this may be used.
Vendemmia – Vintage
Vigna, Vigneto – Vineyard
Vigniaiolo, Viticoltore – Grower
Vino Novello – New wine, bottled less than a year
Vitigno – Grape variety
Vivace – Slightly Sparkling.