WORDS & MEANINGS

Anthocyanins

Pigment molecules that provide a great deal of the colour in grapes, particularly red ones.

Bon-bons

Tremendous bottles that are quite round, and as such look like candies. Quite a lot of people age their Rancio Banyuls in these, and then leave them out in the direct sunlight to cook the wine.

Bordelais

People from Bordeaux, generally, though usually referring to someone involved in wine in Bordeaux.

Bouchon

A cork, but also the bung for the top hole of a barrel.

Cap

The giant clump of skins and stems that floats on a cushion of CO2 above the fermenting juice.

Casot

A small hut or shed in the vines used for storing water and tools and the like. Ridiculously quaint-looking, even when dilapidated.

Catalan

Someone from Catalonia. Also the language of Catalonia.

Catalonia

A culturally distinct region that stretches from north-east Spain to south-west France along the Mediterranean side, pretty much from Barcelona to Perpignan. Collioure and Banyuls are in French-Catalonia.

Cathars

Also known as Albigensians. Thirteenth-century heretics who were the targeted both by the papacy and French crown. They were eliminated in a brutal crusade and built remarkable castles.

Distingués

Big beers in the Roussillon. But still less than a pint.

Élevage

This is the ageing and raising of wine after fermentation but before bottling. In some cases it is just a case of leaving it in a tank for a few months, but more often there’s blending, racking and stirring of the lees to take care of as well.

Ferment or Fermentation

The conversion of sugar into alcohol by yeast. The yeast may be indigenous or ‘natural’, living on the grape skins in the vines, or it could come freeze-dried in a bag, kind of like the yeast you use to make bread at home. The latter needs to be added to the grape juice to start the process (called inoculation), while the former is already there, and will start the process whether you’re ready for it or not. Usually not.

Fine Lees

The fine lees are mostly dead yeast cells that, after feasting mightily on the grape sugars and frantically converting them into alcohol, fall quietly to the bottom of the fermentation vessel, be it barrel or tank. There may be some smaller particulate matter mixed in as well. The fine lees can influence the flavour of the wine considerably (if allowed to – you can always rack the wine off these to reduce influence) – they provide texture and can deepen flavours. Some folks encourage this by stirring them frequently during élevage. We don’t tend to stir that much.

Fortification

Adding nearly pure alcohol to wine during fermentation to preserve sweetness.

Frogbus

The remarkably useful bus service that ferries folks from Girona to Perpignan.

Gross Lees

The first batch of lees that settle at the bottom of the tank after wine has been pressed. These will be solids and particulate matter from the vines, including dead wasps, twigs, dirt, earwigs and the like. The ‘gross’ refers to the size of the bits, although they are pretty minging as well. We always rack the juice off the gross lees.

Lees

General term for the detritus that settles at the bottom of the tank.

Phenols

The stuff in wine that isn’t fruity.

Pied de Cuve

A small tank that is set aside to start the ferment; that is then subsequently added to larger tanks to start their ferment. Either it will have started its ferment naturally or have been inoculated. Larger volume tanks can sometimes take absolutely ages to start their fermentation, and so some of the juice may be bled off into a smaller vessel where it is easier to get things going. That juice, once it’s begun its ferment, will then be added back into the larger tank.

Pigeage

‘Punching down’ in English. Where we grab a giant fork and push the cap into the fermenting juice that it’s sitting on top of.

Press

What we squish grapes in.

Racking

Moving juice from one tank to the other. Sueterage in French. Usually to move juice off its lees.

Red Socks

A Carignan Noir that I blend at Mas Cristine.

Named after a baseball team but misspelled for legal reasons.

Red Sox

A baseball team from Boston. Formerly the Boston ‘Americans’. Responsible for insomnia and mood swings ranging from frustration and rage to euphoria, delight and childlike glee.

Remontage

‘Pumping over’ in English. This is when we pump the fermenting juice from the bottom of the tank over the skins at the top of the tank (called the cap).

Schist

The prevailing soil-type in Collioure and Banyuls. Ancient clay that has turned to stone. Good for growing Grenache in all its rainbow of colours.

Stagaire

Kind of an intern, but a winemaking intern. And they get paid.

Staves

The long, curved planks that make up a barrel.

Vendangeur

Picks grapes. Often hippies or hipsters.

Veraison

The point at which the grapes stop growing and begin to ripen.

Vigneron

A winemaker or proprietor/owner of a winery.

ZZ Top

Texan Rock ’n’ Blues band formed in 1969, noted for their massive beards.