| Word |
Definition |
| Mate |
A textura fina e granulosa dos tintos jovens com taninos de boa qualidade ainda com uma sensação mate (ant.: polido). |
| Matéria corante |
Elementos existentes na película das uvas e que transmitem a cor ao vinho tinto. |
| Maturação |
Período de amadurecimento das uvas; dura cerca de 45 dias. Durante este período a acidez vai baixando à medida que aumentam os teores de açucar das uvas. |
| mature |
Describes a wine that has developed fully, having reached its optimal age for drinking. |
| mead |
An alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey. |
| meaty |
Describes a wine with so much rich extract and mouth-filling body that it seems chewable. See also chewy and fleshy. |
| mellow |
Used to describe a wine, usually mature, that is soft yet balanced. |
| mercaptans |
Particular chemical compounds that can develop in wine after fermentation if the yeast is allowed to react with sulphur in the lees. They are pungent, smelling of skunk or rubber, but can be avoided by proper handling of the wine. |
| mesoclimate |
This term refers to the distinct climatic conditions of a specific area, from tens to hundreds of metres (or yards) across. This is usually the correct term to use in reference to the conditions affecting a vineyard or potential vine-growing site, though microclimate is frequently and erroneously used. |
| Metálico |
(Aroma a tinta de caneta). Aroma desagradável frequente nos vinhos e que resulta do contacto dos taninos do vinho com o ferro ou cobre das cubas ou cascos. |
| méthode champenoise |
French The method, developed in France's Champagne region, by which the finest sparkling wine is traditionally made. An expensive and time-consuming process, it results in complex, exciting wines with a delicate effervescence that would be unattainable through more industrial techniques. Initially, still wines are blended to arrive at the particular style of the winemaker or house, then sugar and special yeasts are added and the wine is bottled and stoppered. A secondary fermentation takes place in the bottles creating additional alcohol as well as carbon dioxide which gives the wine its fizz. This fermentation produces lees which are allowed to remain in contact with the wine for a period of time ranging from as little as nine months to as much as ten years. During this time the dead yeast cells in the lees undergo a change called autolysis which can impart complex flavours to the wine. The next step in the process is removing the lees from the bottle, which is done by means of riddling and disgorging. Finally, a mixture of sugar syrup and wine, called dosage, is added to bring the wine to desired level of sweetness before the bottles are corked and labelled. |
| méthode classique, méthode traditionelle or méthod |
French Terms equivalent to méthode champenoise approved for wine labels by the European Union. |
| Methuselah |
Large bottle used in Champagne and Burgundy equivalent to 8 standard bottles (6 litres, 1.58 US gal., 1.32 UK gal.). See also half-bottle, magnum, Jéroboam, Rehoboam, Salmanazar, Balthazar and Nebuchadnezzar. |
| microclimate |
This term refers to the distinct climatic conditions within a very specific area, no larger than a few metres (or yards) across and frequently much smaller. It might refer to conditions at a certain depth of soil, or within the shade of a particular tree. It is widely misused to mean the climatic conditions affecting a larger area, a vineyard for example, for which mesoclimate is the correct word. As it is applied to wine it is intended to convey the finicky nature of vines and the potentially profound effects of slight changes in elevation, soil, exposure, etc. on the resulting wine. |
| millerandage |
French An abnormal vine condition caused by cool weather at the flowering stage that results in grapes of greatly differing size within the same bunch. There is some evidence that in some varieties smaller grapes produce better wines, so this condition is not always undesireable. |
| millésime |
French Year, or vintage. |
| minöségi bor |
Hungarian Quality wine. |
| mis(e) en bouteille |
French Bottled, as in "mise en bouteille au château", meaning château-bottled. On wine labels certain specific phrases like this are guarantees of a wine's authenticity. |
| mistela |
Spanish Equivalent to the French mistelle. |
| mistelle |
French A fortified wine made from grape juice to which alcohol is added before any fermentation can take place. See vin de liqueur. |
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