Sotto Voce Terminology

Music Terms:The wines of Rhapsody are all named musical terms. Each of these names not only describes an aspect of music, but also highlights characteristics of the wine. The terms and the wine they represent include:

Allegrezza: In music, Allegrezza means to be performed brightly. It is cheerful, joyful. The Allegrezza wine is a Roussanne, a Rhona white similar in character to Viognier. It is typically a wine with pronounced florals, grass or citrus tones, and is lighter in both color and flavor than a Chardonnay, but softer or rounder in flavor than most Sauvignon Blancs. It is also sometimes used as a blending wine to soften deep reds.

Appoggiatura: In Italian, appoggiatura means roughly "to lean against." In music, it is a leaning note, a type of grace note that supports and is held for half the length of the note that follows it. For an interesting take on the apppoggiatura, listen to this story from NPR.  http://www.npr.org/2012/02/13/146818461/the-ballad-of-the-tearful-why-some-songs-make-you-cry

Appassionato: Impassioned, played with strong emotion. At Rhapsody, the Appassionato is a Syrah, a rich red wine also known in some regions as "Shiraz". Syrah is a big red, but can taste lush and velvety.  

Fortissimo: In music, fortissimo means to be played loudly. Wine which has been fortified means that it has had another alcohol, often brandy, added during or after fermentation. Fortissimo is Rhapsody's Port, a sweet, strong dark red dessert wine. 

Mezzo: Moderately, in the middle. A voice between soprano and contralto is a Mezzo. The Mezzo wine at Rhapsody in a Zinfandel, which is a moderate red wine often characterized by pronounced fruit, often the essence of berries, on both the nose and the palate.

Sotto Voce: In a quiet, soft voice. Sotto Voce is Rhapsody's premier and very limited reserve blend. It is based on Syrah, which can be complex, both rich and delicate, with other Rhapsody grapes (most likely Roussanne). Blaine describes Sotto Voce as particularly subtle, a wine that evolves on the tongue and through its exposure to oxygen.

Wine Terms
I have already posted a link to a Wine Enthusiast wine glossary that should be useful if you are unfamiliar with any wine terms, but I will also be adding to my own list as jargon or winemaking terms are used in Sotto Voce.

Brix: The Brix scale is a system used to measure the sugar content of grapes and wine, which ultimately determines its alcohol content. Each degree Brix is equivalent to 1 gram of sugar per 100 grams of grape juice. The grapes for most table wines have a Brix reading between 20 and 25 at harvest. About 55 to 60 percent of the sugar is converted into alcohol, so multiplying the Brix by .55 will provide and estimate of the alcohol content of the wine. Grapes with 20 Brix will make a wine with about 11 percent alcohol.

Cap: After grapes are initially crushed, the juice and skins are stored in containers for the early stages of fermentation, where they form a solid top, or "cap", which is "punched", or pushed and stirred, each day to break the material up and help the3 fermentation process.

Crush: Both a verb and a noun in winemaking, crush is both the period of time right after harvest when grapes are crushed and the act of crushing the grapes, typically with a machine called a crusher-destemmer. This starts the fermentation process.

Free Run: The free run is juice obtained from grapes that have been crushed and perhaps fermented, but not pressed. This is the purest and generally considered the highest quality juice.

Glassy-winged Sharpshooter: The Glassy-winged Sharpshooter is a leafhopper insect that damages a variety of plants. They are a significant threat to grape crops both as a host for lethal Pierce's Disease and by feeding on plants. GWS lay a mass of eggs on the underside of leaves, and cover them with powdery white protective secretions. After the nymphs hatch, they feed within the vascular system of the small stems on the plant where the eggs were deposited. 

Malolactic Fermentation: Also known as malo or MLF (not that MLF...), a secondary  fermentation in wines by lactic acid bacteria during which tart tasting malic acid is converted to softer tasting lactic acid.

Must: The combination of crushed grapes and skins that ferment together before the skins are pressed and separated from the juice.

Oenology/Enology: The chemistry/science of winemaking. It can be spelled either way, and represents the "E" in college "EVO" (enology & viticulture) programs.

Pierce's Disease: Pierce's  disease is caused by a strain of the bacterium that kills grapevines by clogging their water-conducting vessels (xylem). According to the University of California, the disease destroyed more than 1,000 acres of grapevines in Northern California between 1994 and 2000, causing $30 million in damages. There is currently no known cure for Pierce's disease. Researchers have developed hybrid  grape stock that has shown promise resisting Pierce's disease.

Powdery Mildew: Powdery mildew is a fungal disease that can significantly reduce crop production. It is controlled through chemical methods, genetic resistance and careful farming methods.

Press: Both a noun and a verb in winemaking, a "press" is a device in which the crushed grapes, including juice and skins, are placed and "pressed" to extract and separate all of the juice from solid matter. The remaining solid matter is known as the "cake".

Viticulture: The agricultural science of grape-growing and vineyard management.

Worm: The 'screw' in a corkscrew.