Results for Letter e
Early Harvest: Denotes a wine made from early-harvested grapes, usually lower than average in alcoholic content or sweetness.
Earthy: Describes wines with aromas or flavors of soil or earth. In small amounts the aromas or flavors can add complexity and be positive characteristics, but become negative as the intensity increases. Frequently associated with Pinot Noir.
Ébourgeonnage: French term for debudding vines. This is performed early in the growing season as part of yield control and canopy management.
Éclaircissage: French term for green harvest, or crop thinning. Grape bunches are removed to improve air flow through the canopy, facilitate the ripening of the remaining bunches and reduce the crop yield.
Edelfäule: German term for Botrytis cinerea, or noble rot.
Eiswein: Wine made from grapes that have frozen on the vine. Since only the water in the grapes freezes, the super-concentrated grape pulp produces a wine that is very sweet and often high in acidity. Eiswein is an official German classification; such wines from other regions are called ice wine.
Elegant: Describes balanced, harmonious, refined wines; subtle rather than a highly-extracted blockbuster.
Élevage: French term for the progression of wine between fermentation and bottling. Comparable to the term "raising" in English; think of élevage as a wine's adolescence or education. The raw fermented juice is shaped during this period into something resembling its final form, through techniques such as barrel aging, filtering and fining. Good winemaking decisions during élevage can help the juice achieve its full potential; bad decisions can leave it flawed.
Empty: Similar to hollow; devoid of flavor and interest.
En Primeur: Also known as "futures" in the American market, en primeur sales typically refer to Bordeaux, but not exclusively. The en primeur offerings are a winery's first offer of a particular vintage, when the initial price is set, and offers buyers the opportunity to purchase wines before they are released.
Enologist: A scientist involved with winemaking.
Enology: The science and study of winemaking. Also spelled oenology.
Enophile: A lover of all things vinous.
Estate: A property of land which may include vineyards. See also Estate-Bottled.
Estate-Bottled: A term once used by producers for those wines made from vineyards that they owned and that were contiguous to the winery "estate." Today it indicates the winery either owns the vineyard or has a long-term lease to purchase the grapes.
Esters: The fragrant chemical compounds responsible for the aromas and flavors found in food and wine.
Eszencia: Hungarian dessert wine classification for Tokaji made from the free-run juice of individually picked, botrytized aszú berries.
Ethyl Acetate: A sweet, vinegary smell that often accompanies acetic acid. It exists to some extent in all wines and in small doses can be a plus. When it is strong and smells like nail polish, it's a defect.
Extra Brut: A dry Champagne or sparkling wine. In Champagne, the scale from driest to sweetest is: Brut Nature, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra-Dry (or Extra-Sec), Dry (or Sec), Demi-Sec and Doux.
Extra Brut (Champagne): Has a dosage level that yields 0 to 6 g/l of residual sugar.
Extra-Dry: A misleading term, which designates a relatively sweet Champagne or sparkling wine. In Champagne, the scale from driest to sweetest is: Brut Nature, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra-Dry (or Extra-Sec), Dry (or Sec), Demi-Sec and Doux.
Extra-Dry (Champagne): Has a dosage level that yields 12 to 17 g/l of residual sugar.
Extra-Sec: See Extra-Dry.
Extract: Richness, depth and concentration of fruit flavors in a wine. Usually a positive quality, extract adds to wine’s body, yet highly extracted wine can also be very tannic. To calculate extract levels, some winemakers measure the dry residue remaining after the wine is boiled off.
Extraction: The process by which pigment, tannins and flavor and aromatic compounds contained in grape skins are dissolved into wine. Extraction is most commonly achieved through maceration (soaking the skins of the crushed grapes in the wine after fermentation), during which alcohol helps dissolve flavor, aroma and especially tannin molecules—as with a steeping tea bag, the longer and warmer the maceration, the greater the degree of extraction. During fermentation, punching down the cap (floating layer of skins, seeds and stems) and pumping liquid from the bottom of the tank over the cap (pump-over) are other methods of extraction. For reds made in lighter-bodied styles such as Pinot Noir, a pre-fermentation cold soak of the skins in the grape juice can extract water-soluble flavor and pigment molecules while limiting the amount of more alcohol-soluble tannins released into the wine.
