Winemaking Terms You Should Know: Part 6

In several earlier posts, we introduced a few home winemaking terms that you may or may not be familiar with.  There are many terms to learn in home winemaking, and this post, like all the previous posts, gives you a short introduction to a few of those terms to help you get started in home winemaking, or perhaps brush up on some of the terms you may not have seen in a while. Today we’ll explore some of the lesser known terms used throughout the winemaking world.

• Doble Pasta – Doble Pasta?  Is that some sort of newfangled recipe that the foodies are making these days?  Actually, Doble Pasta is a Spanish term used in winemaking to refer to the process of macerating a wine with 2 times the ratio of skins to juice as normally would occur during the maceration process.  Basically, you start off the maceration process normally, then bleed off some of the juice in order to increase the skin to juice ratio in the tank.  The process of Doble Pasta effectively increases the polyphenolic content of the finished wine.
• En Tirage – No, not entourage; en tirage. En Tirage is a French term used in sparkling winemaking to refer to the period of time when the sparkling wine is in contact with the lees while in the bottle during the secondary fermentation process.  The term “en tirage” translates to “in pulling”, which you can think of in terms of the pulling or extracting of flavors, aromas, and complexities from the lees into the developing sparkling wine.
• Estufagem – Moving over to Portugal now, “estufagem” is a Portuguese term used in the process of making Madeira wines where the Madeira is heated in ovens (“estufas”) and subsequently cooled to produce unique flavors, aromas, and complexities in the finished wine.
• Dopplestück, Stück, Fuder, Halbstück, Halbfüder, Viertelstück – These are all German terms for oak barrels with the capacity of 635, 317, 265, 159, 132, and 80 liters, respectively (that’s 2400, 1200, 1000, 600, 500, and 300).  All you really have to know is that a Stück barrel holds 317 gallons (1200 liters) and a Fuder barrel holds 265 gallons (1000 liters), then all you need is a basic math skills.  Think of “Dopplestück” as “double stuck”, and just multiple the capacity of a Stück barrel by 2 (317 x 2) = 634 (close enough). Think of “Halbstück” as “half stuck”, and divide the capacity of a Stück barrel by 2 (317 ÷ 2 = 158.5).  Similarly, think of “Halbfüder” as “half fuder”, and divide the capacity of a Fuder barrel by 2 (265 ÷ 2 = 132.5). You don’t even have to speak German to figure this out!

— Other Winemaking Terms You Should Know:
Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.