A running glossary of the words you'll actually run into while studying — no jargon left unexplained — plus quick reference on major wine regions and popular grape varietals. Bookmark this page and come back to it as you work through practice questions.
Major Wine Regions
A quick tour of the regions you'll see referenced constantly in WSET study materials — grouped by country, not exhaustive, but covering the names that come up again and again.
France
Map: major wine regions of France. Boundaries: IGN (Etalab open licence), simplified.
Bordeaux
A large region in southwest France, historically split into the Left Bank (Cabernet Sauvignon–based blends) and Right Bank (Merlot–based blends), producing some of the world's most collected red wines alongside dry and sweet whites.
Burgundy (Bourgogne)
A region in eastern France built almost entirely around two grapes — Pinot Noir for red and Chardonnay for white — bottled from a patchwork of small, individually named vineyards that can vary enormously in price and style.
Champagne
The northernmost of France's major wine regions, and the only place allowed to call its sparkling wine "Champagne," made mainly from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier using the traditional method (a second fermentation inside the bottle).
Loire Valley
A long, cool region following the Loire River, known for crisp Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre), versatile Chenin Blanc, light reds from Cabernet Franc, and some of France's best rosé and sparkling wine.
Rhône Valley
Split into a cooler Northern Rhône (Syrah-based reds, Viognier-based whites) and a warmer Southern Rhône (Grenache-based blends, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape).
Alsace
A region on France's border with Germany that, unusually for France, labels its wines by grape variety — best known for aromatic whites like Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris.
Italy
Map: major wine regions of Italy. Boundaries: ISTAT / openpolis, CC BY 3.0 IT, simplified.
Tuscany (Toscana)
Home to Sangiovese-based reds including Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino, plus the modern "Super Tuscan" wines that blend Sangiovese with international grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon.
Piedmont (Piemonte)
Northwest Italy's prestige region, built on the Nebbiolo grape, which produces the powerful, long-aging reds Barolo and Barbaresco.
Veneto
A northeastern region producing an unusually wide range of styles — light Pinot Grigio, sparkling Prosecco, delicate Soave, and the rich, dried-grape red Amarone.
Sicily (Sicilia)
Italy's largest wine-producing region by area, historically known for bulk wine but increasingly for quality reds from the native Nero d'Avola grape and whites grown on the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna.
United States
Map: major wine regions of the US West Coast. Boundaries: US Census Bureau; AVAs: UC Davis Library AVA Project, simplified.
Napa Valley (California)
The US's most famous fine-wine region, best known for rich, age-worthy Cabernet Sauvignon, though it also produces Chardonnay and other varieties across a wide range of microclimates.
Sonoma County (California)
Napa's larger, cooler, and more varied neighbor, especially well suited to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay near the coast and Zinfandel further inland.
Willamette Valley (Oregon)
A cool-climate region south of Portland that has become one of the world's respected sources of Pinot Noir, alongside Pinot Gris and Chardonnay.
Washington State
A large, dry, sunny growing region east of the Cascade Mountains producing structured Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, along with aromatic Riesling.
Popular Grape Varietals
The grapes you'll meet over and over across every region above — what they taste like, and where they're most at home.
A thick-skinned, late-ripening red grape grown almost everywhere in the world, giving full-bodied wines with high tannin, blackcurrant fruit, and strong aging potential; the backbone of Bordeaux's Left Bank and Napa Valley's top reds.
A softer, earlier-ripening red grape than Cabernet Sauvignon, giving plush, plum- and black-cherry–fruited wines with less tannin; the dominant grape of Bordeaux's Right Bank.
A thin-skinned, notoriously site-sensitive red grape producing light-bodied, high-acid wines with red fruit and earthy notes; the sole red grape of red Burgundy and a specialty of Oregon and coastal California.
A dark, full-bodied red grape giving peppery, dark-fruited wines; called Syrah in France's Northern Rhône and Shiraz in Australia, where it's typically riper and jammier.
Italy's most widely planted red grape, giving medium-to-full-bodied wines with high acidity, firm tannin, and notes of red cherry and dried herbs; the grape behind Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino.
Spain's signature red grape, giving medium-to-full-bodied wines with notes of red fruit, leather, and tobacco, especially after the extended oak aging typical in Rioja.
A dark, fruit-forward red grape originally from southwest France, now most associated with Argentina, where it produces rich, plush wines with black-fruit and cocoa notes.
A high-alcohol, red-fruited red grape usually used in blends, forming the backbone of Southern Rhône wines like Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Spain's Garnacha-based reds.
A red grape with high sugar and alcohol potential, closely associated with California, ranging in style from jammy, high-alcohol reds to sweeter White Zinfandel.
A versatile, adaptable white grape that takes on the character of where — and how — it's made, from lean and citrusy in Chablis to rich, buttery, and oaked in California.
An aromatic, high-acid white grape known for zesty citrus, green-apple, and herbaceous notes; classic examples come from the Loire Valley (Sancerre) and New Zealand.
An aromatic white grape capable of everything from bone-dry to lusciously sweet, always keeping high, refreshing acidity; most associated with Germany and, for dry styles, Alsace.
The same grape under two names — light, crisp, and neutral as Pinot Grigio in Italy; richer, more textured and aromatic as Pinot Gris in Alsace and Oregon.
A perfumed, full-bodied white grape with notes of stone fruit and blossom, traditionally associated with the Northern Rhône appellation Condrieu.
General Terms, A–Z
A
Acidity
The tart, mouth-watering quality in wine, coming from natural acids in the grape. It's what makes a wine feel "crisp" or "fresh" rather than flat, and it's a big part of why wine pairs well with food.
Aeration
Exposing wine to air before drinking it, usually by swirling it in the glass or pouring it into a decanter, to soften harsh edges and let aromas open up.
Appellation
A legally defined wine-growing region named on a label (such as a specific valley or district), used to tell buyers where the grapes came from and, often, what rules the wine had to follow to earn that name.
Aroma
The smells that come directly from the grape itself — fruity, floral, or herbal notes — as opposed to smells that develop later from winemaking or aging.
B
Balance
How well a wine's different elements — sweetness, acidity, tannin, alcohol, fruit — sit together, with no single one sticking out awkwardly above the rest.
Barrel-aging (oak aging)
Storing wine in wooden barrels, usually oak, before bottling. It can add flavors like vanilla or toast, soften texture, and let a small, controlled amount of oxygen reach the wine over time.
Blend
A wine made from more than one grape variety, combined to balance flavor, acidity, or structure in a way a single variety might not achieve alone.
Body
How light or heavy a wine feels in the mouth — closer to the weight of skim milk versus whole cream is a common comparison. Alcohol level and sugar both contribute to it.
Botrytis (noble rot)
A fungus that, under the right conditions, shrivels grapes and concentrates their sugar, used deliberately to make certain intensely sweet dessert wines.
Bouquet
The more complex aromas that develop in a wine as it ages or ferments, as distinct from the simpler, fruit-driven aromas of a very young wine.
Brut
A dryness level used mainly for sparkling wine, meaning very little residual sugar — the most common style of dry sparkling wine.
C
Chaptalization
Adding sugar to grape juice before or during fermentation to raise the finished wine's alcohol level, typically used in cooler regions where grapes don't always ripen with enough natural sugar.
Corked
A wine fault caused by a contaminated cork, giving the wine a musty, wet-cardboard smell. It's a flaw in that particular bottle, not a sign of a bad producer or vintage.
Cru
A French term, meaning roughly "growth," used to mark out a vineyard or group of vineyards considered to produce especially good wine — the exact meaning varies by region.
D
Decanting
Pouring wine out of its bottle into a separate container before serving, either to separate it from sediment or to let it breathe and open up.
Dry
A wine with little to no perceptible residual sugar — the opposite of sweet. A wine can be full-bodied or high in alcohol and still be completely dry.
E
Estate-bottled
Wine made entirely from grapes grown, and bottled, by the same producer, rather than grapes bought in from other growers.
F
Fermentation
The process where yeast converts the sugar in grape juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide — the core chemical step that turns grape juice into wine.
Finish
How long a wine's flavor lingers on the palate after you swallow (or spit). A "long finish" is generally seen as a sign of quality.
Fortified wine
Wine that's had a distilled spirit (usually brandy) added to it, raising its alcohol level and, often, stopping fermentation early to leave sweetness behind. Port and sherry are classic examples.
I
Icewine
A sweet wine made from grapes that were left on the vine and pressed while still frozen, concentrating their sugar and acidity.
L
Lees
The spent yeast cells and other solids left over after fermentation. Leaving a wine in contact with its lees for a while can add texture and bready or nutty flavors.
Legs (tears)
The streaks that run down the inside of a glass after swirling wine. They mostly reflect alcohol level, not quality — a popular myth, but not a reliable one.
Length
Another term for how long a wine's flavor persists after tasting it — used more or less interchangeably with "finish."
M
Malolactic fermentation
A secondary process, common in many red wines and some whites, that converts a sharper acid (malic) into a softer one (lactic), giving the wine a rounder, sometimes creamier texture.
Must
Freshly crushed grape juice, skins, seeds, and stems, before or during fermentation — the raw material wine is made from.
N
Natural wine
A loosely-defined style made with minimal intervention — often organic grapes, wild (native) yeast, and little or no added sulfites.
New World / Old World
A common shorthand in wine: "Old World" refers to Europe's traditional wine regions (France, Italy, Spain, and similar); "New World" refers to regions that took up winemaking later, such as the Americas, Australia, and South Africa.
Non-vintage (NV)
A wine blended from more than one year's harvest, common in sparkling wine, used to keep a consistent house style from year to year.
Nose
A wine's overall smell, taking in both its simpler grape-driven aromas and its more complex, developed bouquet.
O
Oxidation
A wine's reaction to excess exposure to oxygen, which can dull fruit flavors and turn a white wine brownish. In small, controlled doses it's a useful winemaking tool; uncontrolled, it's a fault.
P
pH
A scientific measure of a wine's acidity level. Lower pH means more acidic; most wine falls in a fairly narrow, naturally acidic range.
Phylloxera
A tiny insect that attacks grapevine roots and devastated European vineyards in the late 1800s. Most of the world's vines today are grafted onto resistant American rootstock because of it.
R
Racking
Moving wine from one container to another during production, leaving sediment behind, to clarify it without filtering.
Reserve
A term meant to suggest a higher-quality or longer-aged wine, but with no single fixed legal meaning across regions — worth checking what it means for a specific label rather than assuming.
Residual sugar
The natural grape sugar left in a wine after fermentation stops, which determines where it falls on the dry-to-sweet spectrum.
Rosé
Pink wine, usually made by briefly letting red grape skins contact the juice before removing them — much shorter contact than for a red wine.
S
Sediment
Solid particles — tannins, dead yeast, tiny grape fragments — that settle out of a wine over time, especially in older reds. Harmless, but often decanted off before serving.
Skin contact
How long grape skins stay in contact with the juice during winemaking. Longer contact extracts more color, tannin, and flavor — the main reason red and white wine look and taste so different, even from similar grapes.
Sommelier
A trained wine professional, typically working in a restaurant, responsible for building a wine list and helping guests choose and pair wine.
Sparkling wine
Wine with noticeable natural carbonation, produced by trapping carbon dioxide from a second fermentation (as with Champagne) or by other methods.
Sulfites
A preservative, naturally present in small amounts in all wine and often added in larger amounts, that protects wine from oxidation and spoilage.
T
Tannin
A naturally occurring compound from grape skins, seeds, and oak barrels that gives red wine its drying, slightly bitter, mouth-gripping sensation — similar to the feeling of strong black tea.
Terroir
The combination of a specific vineyard's soil, climate, and surroundings, and how that combination shapes the character of the wine grown there.
U
Ullage
The empty space between the surface of the wine and the bottom of the cork or cap. A larger-than-normal gap in an older bottle can be a sign of evaporation or seal failure.
V
Varietal
A wine named after, and made predominantly from, a single grape variety — for example, a wine labeled by its grape rather than by its region.
Vintage
The year the grapes for a wine were harvested. Because weather varies year to year, vintage can meaningfully affect a wine's quality and style.
Viticulture
The growing of grapevines in the vineyard — everything that happens before the grapes are picked.
Vinification
The winemaking process itself — everything that happens to grapes after harvest to turn them into wine.
Y
Yield
The amount of grapes (or wine) a vineyard produces relative to its size. Lower yields are often, though not always, associated with more concentrated, higher-quality fruit.
