Saale
-A district and river of the Franconian wine area, Germany.
Saar
-This is the name of an important wine district and of the largest tributary of the Moselle, which it joins just west of Trier. The most important communes are : Ffizen, Wawern, Kanzem, Wiltingen, Oberemmel, Niedermennig, Ayl, Ockfien, Saarburg. Serrig.
Saarburg
-This picturesque town of 5,000 inhabitants, with a waterfall in its very middle. is the centre of the Saar wine trade.
Sables St. Emilion
-The wines of Saint-Emilion (q.v.) (Bordeaux) are subdivided into three appellations, and the third is Sables St. Emilion ; mainly wines from the Libourne (q.v.) area.
Sablons
-A red wine making village between Guitres and Coutras in the Gironde.
Saccharometer
-An instrument employed to estimate the amount of saccharine matter present in wine.
Saccharomyces
-Designation of a type of yeast belonging to the genus endomiciticae. The wine yeast S. Cerevisae Var. ellipsoideus (for brevity called S. ellipsoidars) differs from beer yeast S. Cerevisiae in cell-shape and some biological properties. In natural fermentation, S. Apiculatus (more correctly Kloeckera Apiculata) is responsible for the first stage of the process-until the must has about 4 per cent. by volume of alcohol.
At this stage K. Apiculata ceases to ferment and the wine yeast S. ellipsoideus takes over for the second stage. See also flor.
Sack. Also Sacke, Sackis
-Known and much drunk in England from the sixteenth century, this was the general name for a white wine imported from Spain and also from Canaries. The other places from which sack (other spellings are seake, sekk, sakkes, seck) principally came at that lime were Malaga, Galicia and Portugal, but from the latter two places it was con-sidered weaker.
How the wine came to be called sack has been the subject for much etymological discussion and still authorities disagree. It is possible that it is a corruption of the French word see. It has been suggested that it could-less plausibly-come from Xeque, a wine town in Morocco; and-even more far-fetched-that it could from saki, a Japanese liquor. Again, it has been linked with the English word sack in the sense of plundering a town, since wine might have been part of the booty ; and again it has been suggested that it could come from sack in the sense of a leather wine bottle. It has, again, been suggested that the word could come from the Old High German sacwin, which in very early times meant a beverage made by steeping the lees of wine in water and then straining it through a bag.
Although no reference is made to it in the Oxford English Dictionary, a very plausible suggestion is that it comes from the Spanish verb sacar,to take away or take out.
Sacramental Wines
- Wines of various types used by the several branches of the Christian Church during certain solemn ceremonies.
Saint
-In the wine.producing district of the Gironde there are 120 villages and communes beginning with the word Saint. In the same district there are of Domaines, Châteaux, Clos and Crus some 80 in all.
St. Amour
-A commune just South of Mâcon and adjoining that of Julienas in the Beaujolais.
St. Andre de Cubzac
-A town of 3,500 inhabitants and commune or 5,000 acres, fifteen miles north-west of Bordeaux, making red and white wine. It is not a great district, but a lot of wine is made here.
St. Aubin.
-A commune of the Medoc, some 10 miles north of Bordeaux.
St. Christoly
-A village (1,600 inhabitants) and commune (7,000 acres) in the Blayais (q.v.) district of Bordeaux, making red and white wine.
Ste. Croix du Mont.
-A village (1,000 inhabitants) and commune (2,000 acres) on the right bank of the River Garonne, opposite Sauternes. The wines from here which are almost entirely sweei white, have a considerable reputation and resembJe Sauternes. Some vineyards, with the annual output in hogsheads in brackets, are : Chfiteau Lamarque (200). ChAteau de Tastes (200), ChAteau du Pavillon (180), ChAteau Lou-bens (200), ChAteau Laurette (200), Dornaine du Tich (40), Clos le Vertheuil (100).
St. Elie
-Famous for its night wine (q.v.) made on the Island of Santorin (q.v.).
St. Emilion
-An attractively picturesque, romantic and historical town of three thousand inhabitants in the centre of the second most important (after the Medoc) red wine producing area of the Gironde. St. Emilion town is very hilly and from the terrace of the Hostellerie de Plaisance one gets a beautiful view of the tessellated roofs of the lower part of the town, with the vineyards beyond. It is quite a tourists' mecca for there is a lucky wishing well here, an underground monolithic church (St. Emilion was a halting place for pilgrims on the way to St. James of Compostella in Spain), and the gastronomic speciality is a little macaroon which is popular.
The wine growing commune is over 6,500 acres in extent and lies some five miles to the east of Libourne (q.v.). For some reason unknown, the wines of this truly great region were never "officially classified when those of the Medoc were done in 1855, but over the years they have fallen into a classification of their own.
Before listing some of the vineyards, it is necessary to explain that St. Emilion is subdivided into three appellations :
(1) St. Emilion (Cotes),
(2) St. Emilion (Graves),
(3) Sables St. Emilion.
Now, to take each district in turn.
(1). St. EMILION (Cotes).
As with Chateau Yquem in the Sauternes classification, so Chateau Ausone (q.v.) is listed on its own as a Grand First Growth. Some other leading chateaux of the Cotes, with annual production in hogsheads, in brackets, are : Magdelaine (80), Belair (160), Canon (300), Fourtet (200), Beausejour (100), Gaffeliere-Naudes (320), Cure Le-Bon-La-Madeleine (50), Pavie (600), Trouvielle(120),Cadet-Bon(120) Cadet-Piola(60), Troplong-Mondot (480), Coutet (160), Balestard-la-Tonnelle (120), Belle-vue (120), Canon-la-Gaffoli6rc (160), VArros6e (100), Pavillon-Cadet (80), Fonp16garde (140), Couvent (12 only but, uniquely, right in the centre of the town. and from here came the recipe for the famous macaroons), Grandes Murailles (40), La Clotte (70), La Carte (60), Cap-de-Mourlin (200)-for five centuries in the hands of the family Cap do Mourlin), Grand-Fauric (80), Grand-Pontet (100), Grand-Mayne (120), Cassevent (80), Trimoulet (100), Larmande (100), Maynan-la-Gaffelibro (120), Faurie-de-Soutard (200), Petit-Faurie-de-Souchard (160), L4 Chatlet (50), Fonroque (320), Franc-Mayne (120), Tour du Guetteur (15), Clos les Jacobins 160), Clos I'Ang61us (400), Laroze (400), Franc-Pourret(l40), Matras (140), Simard (100), Cantenac (80), Gueyrot (120), La Flour (160), Bragard (120), Clos St. Emilion (180), Maynan (80), Chante-Alouette (80), Pontot (100), Peyreau (240), Clos Badon (60), La Tour St. Pierre (100).
The above are listed as either Premiers Crils St. Emilion or Deuxiemes Premiers Cros St. Emilion. There are also about 150 Deuxiemes CrOs St. Emilion Cotes. There is also a Cave Cooperative started in July 1933 (the first cooperative in the Gironde) with 150 members and able to cope with three million bottles of wine.
(2). St. EMILION (Graves).
Here the soil is of a sandy-gravel quality and the wines are reputed to resemble those of the Medoc. First of the Grands Cras is Château Cheval Blanc (400).
Here follow some First Growths: Figeac (400), La Dominique (160), Ripeau (160), Jean-Faure (120), Croque-Michotte (160), La Tour-du-Pin-Figeac (180), Corbin (50), Gran d- Barrail- Lamar z~lle-Figeac (400), La Marzelle (100), Grand Corbin (200), Yon-Figeac (300), Chauvin (140), Reine-Blanche (60), Cormey-Figeac (180), Monlabert (140), Clos Cormey (100). There are also some 30 Second Growths.
(3). SABLES St. EMILION.
Some vineyards : Martinet(480), Quinault (200), Gueyrosse Cruzeau (140), Cru Austerlitz (40), Ct-fl Mond6sir (50), Garde-rose (60). Some other St. Emilion communes :-
The following communes in this region produce wines which have the legal right to be called and labelled St. Emilion": St. Laurent - des - Combes, SL-Hippolyte, St. - Christophe - des-Bardes, St.-Etienne-de-Lisse, St.-Pey -d'Armens, St. -Sulpice -de -Faleyrens, Vignonet, St.-Georges, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin, Parsac.
St. Estephe.
-A village (200 inhabitants) and commune (9,000 acres) of the Medoc. beginning five miles to the north ef Pauillac and the northernmost district of the Haut Medoc. It contains two second class growths (Montrose and Cos d'Estournel), one-third (Calon Segur), one fourth (Rochet), and one fifth (Cos Labory) Some other vineyards, with annual number of hogsheads in brackets, are : Tronquay-Lalande (240), Meyney (600), Le Crock (500), de Marbuzet (200), Beausite (400), Phelan Segur (480), Canteloup (320), Capbern (360), Houissant (130),Beausejour (240), Picard (240), Le Boscq (200), de Pez (360), Pomys (100), Les Ormes de Pez (320), Blanquet (80), La Tour do Marbuzet (200).
St. Florent-See St. Hilaire.
St. Gall
-A canton of Switzerland, possessing 500 acres ofvines,95 per cent. of which is the Pinot Noir.
St. Georges
-A commune of the St. Emilion (q.v.) area.
St. Georges. Les
-Perhaps the most noted vineyard of the commune of Nuits. Burgundy.
St. Goar
-A village (population 2,000) and commune of the Middle Rhine where much ordinary white wine is made.
St. Goarhausen
-On the opposite bank of the Rhein to St. Goar (this is where the famous Lorelei rocks are) where more- but still ordinary-wine is made. Some vineyards : Gartenack, Hessern, Lochern. Rabenack.
St. Hilaire
-A village usually linked with St. Florent as St. Hilaire-St.-Florent, just outside and south of Saumur, France. where a great deal of sparkling wine is made.
St. Hippolyte
-A commune of St. Emilion (q.v.), Bordeaux.
St. Jean d'Angely.
-A town north of Cognac,in the departernent of the Charente-Maritime, with extensive brandy making interests.
St. Julien
-A village (population 1 200) and commune (2,700 acres) of the Medoc, 25 miles north of Bordeaux and bounded on the north by Pauillac. It contains five second growths (L6oville-Las - Cases, L6oville - Poyferr6, L6oville-Barton, Gruaud-Larose, Ducru-Beaucaillou), two third growths (Lagrange, Langoa), and four fourth growths (Saint-Pierre, Talbot, Branaire, Beychevelle).
Some other vineyards-annual production of hogsheads in brackets-are : B o n t c m p s -Dubarry (80), Moulin Riche (200), du Glana (200), Gloria St. Julien (100), St.-Louis-du-Bosq (40).
St. - Lambert - du - Lattay
-A village where several growers have their cellars and a commune of the Coteau du Layon, between Angers and Saumur.
St. Laurent
-A small village (population 2,000) but large commune (34,000 acres) to the west of St. Julien and Pauillac in the Medoc. It contains three fifths classified growths (Belgrave, Camensac and La Tour-Carnet). Some other vineyards-annual production in hogsheads in brackets-are : Caronne-Sainte Gemme (320), du Galan (100) Corconae (60), Barateau (100) La Tour Marcillanet (160). Here, too, are a hundred small producers making four to 20 hogs-heads of red wine annually, and some fifty making this quantity of white.
St. Macaire
-A village (population 1,500) and commune, making not great red and white wine, on the River Garonne, right in the south and on the opposite side of the river to Langon. Although the acreage of the commune is tiny (400), it has given its name to the appellation - Cotes de Bordeaux St. Macaire.
St. Martial
-A village and commune next to St. Macaire (see above).
St. Martin
-A wine commune of the Upper Palatinate, Germany. Some vineyards ' Spielfeld, Gold-morgen, Kastanienbusch, Weisse Kreuz.
St. Martin
-The patron saint of publicans, victuallers and wine. Son of a Roman military tribune, he was born in Sabaria in Hungary about A.D. 316 and from his infancy was remarkable for the mildness of his disposition ; yet he was obliged to become a soldier. After several years of service he retired into solitude, from whence he was withdrawn by being elected Bishop of Tours in 374. Here his zeal and piety were exemplary and he converted the whole diocese to Christianity. The principle legend connected with St.Martin is concerned with his dividing his cloak with a poor naked beggar whom he found perishing with cold outside the gates of Amiens.
The reason for his being connected with wine is that his feast day is on Ilth November, the time when the cattle were killed for winter food and the new wines for the year were dcxvrawn off the lees and tasted. There is indeed more than a superficial resemblance between the Vinalia of the Romans and the Martinalia of the medieval period which became so popular in the fifteenth century that :-
"To belly cheer yet once again
Doth Martin more incline,
Whom all the people worship-peth
With roasted geese and wine."
St. Medard-en-Jalles.
- A town (5,500 population) and commune (20,000 acres) eight miles north of Bordeaux in the Medoc.
St.-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil.
- A red wine making commune next to Bourgueil (q.v.) near Tourst France. Both wines have the reputation of having a sligh, aroma or raspberry.
St. Peray
-A town (3,000 popula-tion) and dry white wine district of the Côtes du Rhône, next door to.Cornas (q.v.) and close to the town of Valence. At one time a sparkling wine was in demand in England, but now this and the table wine are rarely seen.
St. Pierre - Bontemps and St. -Pierre - Sevaistre
-This is the name of two fourth classified growths of the St. Julien commune of the Medoc which (owned by a Belgian firm of wine merchants) are usually quoted joined together. Indeed, the latest official list names Chateau St. Pierre alone. Annual production is 400 hogsheads.
St.-Pierre-du-Mons. Also called St. Pey-de-Langon.
- A village and commune (2,400 acres) next door to Langon on the Garonne, and right in the south of the Bordeaux district. Though a little ordinary red wine is made, it is noted for its white wines, of which some vineyards (annual production in hogsheads in brackets) are : Chateau de Respide (120), des Jaubertes (100), Clos d'Uza (240), des Querats (100), Mayence 120).
St. Pourgain. Also St.-Pourgain-sur-Sioule.
-A wine which two or three centuries ago was on the tables of the Kings of France. The vineyards are on a series of hills along the rivers Sioule and Allier in the Massif Central of Fiance. The red wines are only mediocre and consumed locally, but the whites have the V.D.Q.S. appellation (q.v.).
St. Saphorin
-A well known wine commune and village between Vevey and Lausanne in the Lavaux wine district of Switzerland.
St.-Seurin-de-Cadourne.
A Village and commune (3,700 acres) of the Medoc, north of Pauillac.
Some chateaux, with annual production in hogsheads in brackets, are : Verdigan (400), Coufran (400), Grandis (200), Soccano (100), Senilhac (200), Lestage (80), St. Paul (120), Bel-Orme -Tronquoy-de - Lalande (400).
St. Vincent
-The patron saint of wine growers because it is on his day, 22nd January, that the pruning of the vines begins. Vincent is a Spanish saint, martyred in 304 at Valencia by the proconsul Dacian who, after cruely boiling him put him into a dungeon and left him without food. There is an old French jingle which prophesies that if the sun shines on St. Vincent's day, vignerons will have a dry year favourable to wine-making.
St. Vivant
-The largest (25 acres) and one of the most noted vineyards of Vosne-Romanee, Cote de Nuits.
Saintsbury, Professor George
-The author of the highly successful wine reminiscing "Notes on a Cellar Book", published in the early twenties. The distinguished Saintsbury Club was founded in his honour.
Sake.
-A Japanese fermented liquor made from rice, sometimes called rice wine or rice beer.
Salage. (French-salting).
-lt used to be a common practice to add salt to wine to improve the colour.
Salento.
-A potent muscatel wine made in the south of Italy.
Salina.
-An Italian island of the Lipari group, known for its Malvasia di Lipari.
Salmanazar.
-The name of an outsize bottle (apparently only used for show purposes) containing one dozen ordinary bottles.
Samos
-Much wine is made on the island of this name in the Greek Archipelago. That which is seen is generally golden and very sweet. They are at times called Samian wines and figure in Byron's Don Juan.
Sampling.
-lt is normal for a sample to be drawn from a cask by the warehouse keeper at Port of Entry at the time of the first gauging, and H.M. Customs and Excise permit 1/10th of a gallon free of duty. This sample is normally tasted by the importer in his own sample room and compared with a reference sample which has previously been despatched prior to purchase.
Sampling can further be under-taken in warehouse, subject to permission from H.M. Customs and Excise Officer, present at the warehouse concerned.
Samschid.
-Another spelling of Jamsbeed or Jamshid (q.v.).
Sain-Su
.-A Chinese rice wine, drunk hot.
Sancerre
-An attractive village (population 2,600), perched on a hill from whence is a superb view of the countryside, which gives its name to one of the best of the River Loire's dry white wines, Made in the département of the Cher, there are thirteen communes which have the appellation rights to call their wines Sancerre, of which the most important are : Bue, Verdigny, Crezancy, Saint-Satur, Sury-en-Vaux and Menetreol. The district adjoins that of Pouilly-sur-Loire (q.v.).
Sancocho
-Another word for arrope (q.v.).
Sandusky
-The most important wine-making region of Ohio, U.S.A.
San Francisco Bay
-The counties bordering this bay comprise California's finest wine growing region.
Sangaree
-From the Spanish sangria bleeding. This drink seems to have stemmed from tropical countries and though now it appears to be any long drink, it was originally one composed of lemon water and red wine.
Sangiovese
-A rich, deep red wine, the best of Emilia Romagna (q.v.), Italy. Also the name of a grape.
Sanlucar de Barrameda
-An attractive seaside resort town and port, from whence Columbus sailed on one of his journeys to America, but more famous as being the headquarters (there are many bodegas in the town) of that super-dry sherry, Manzanilla (q.v.).
San Severo
-A white wine of Apulia, Italy.
Santa Clara
-A wine growing county of California, situated to the south of San Francisco Bay.
Santa Maddalena
-A red table wine made near BoIzano in the Italian Tyrol.
Santenay
-A village (1,200 inhabitants) and commune, making fair red wine at the very southern end of the Cote de Beaune, France. Some vineyards : Les Gravières, Clos des Tavannes, La Comme.
Santenots
-A vineyard both of VoInay and Meursault in the Cote de Beaune area, France.
Santorin
-An island of the Greek Archipelago, where a considerable quantity of wine of various types is grown, including St. Elie (q. v.)
Saone-et-Loire
-That departement of France which contains Mâcon (q.v.).
Sardinia
-This Italian island (probably the Phoenicians first brought the vine here), in the Mediterranean, makes a very great deal of wine. Indeed, James Denman writing at the end of the last century says that the vine is so productive that the fruit is left on the bunches for lack of vessels to hold the fruit. Now the most popular wines are Vernaccia (produced in the lower valley of the Tirso and greatly praised by d'Annunzio), Oliena, Nasco, Monica and Giro.
Sartena
-A sweet red wine making district of Corsica.
Sassella
-A full bodied red wine of the Valtellina (Lombardy) region of Italy.
Sauces, Wine in
-Although in classical French cooking wine is used in marinading meats, sole au vin blanc, coq au vin rouge, etc., by no means all the great sauces have wine in them. For a white fish stock Escoffier recommends white wine, but not for a brown veal or white veal or poultry stock. Nor does he for Béchamel. For a Chasseur sauce he recommends white wine and brandy ; for a Bourguignonne and Bordelaise, red wine with various aromatics. A Matelote sauce contains white wine with fish stock. Francatelli has the following sauces in which wine appears : Financi~re-sherry or Madeira ; P6rigueux-truffies and white wine ; Genoise -red wine and vegetable stock ; Bordelaise ; Regency ; Neapo-litan-horseradish, redcurrant jelly and red wine; Cherry sauce à la Victoria-cloves, red-currant jelly, cinnamon sticks, orange zests and burgundy.
Sauleet
-A commune of the St. Pourgain district (q.v.).
Saumur. (Town).
-This is an attractive place (population 18,000) situated right along a flat wide promenade along the banks of the Loire and boasting a superb chateau and one of the only museums entirely devoted to horses in the world. The town is situated to the north-west of the wine region of the same name.
Saumur. (Region)
-This is a district about which it is hard to write without being accused of inaccuracy, for although it is usually lumped in books together with the chapter on Anjou wines, one French writer of renown says that it is really a continuation of the Touraine. Some points which can be stated fairly definitely are : (a) Saumur wines are made within the old province of Anjou ; (b) the district lies to the south-west of the Anjou district ; (c) the soil of the Saumur communes is more simi-lar to those of Touraine than to those of Anjou ; (d) Saumur growers have not made the same efforts to market their table wines as have other Loire dis-tricts, with the result that the public here and in France gener-ally, only have heard or Saumur sparkling wines ; (e) a little red wine is made ; (f) some Saumur communes are : (i) along the banks of the Loire-Dampierre, Sauzay, Parnay, Turquant, Mont-soreau ; (ii) South of the Loire and by the river Thouet-St. ; Cyr-en-Bourg, Breze, Poungay, Chace, Montreuil-Bellay.
Saute-Bouchon.-(French- jump cork ).
Slang for champagne
Sauternes
-The details of this entry fall into three parts (1) the village and the commune (2) the Classification of 1855 ; (3) the word in English.
(1). THE VILLAGE-flanked by those of Bommes and Fargues has 550 inhabitants and the commune has 2,500 acres and adjoins those of Preignac ' Fargues, Bommes and Barsac ' and the district is some 25 miles South of Bordeaux. The commune contains one Premier Grand Cru-d'Yquern ; two classified Grand Crus-Guiraud and Rieussec ; and five second classified growths-Filhot, d'Arche, d'Arche-Lafaurie, Lamothe Espagnet, Lamothe-Tissot. There are also in the commune of Sauternes, eight crils bourgeois superieurs, 12 crfis bourgeois and bons artisans, and a further fifteen smaller vineyards, of which only four produce as much as 40 hogsheads a year.
(2). THE CLASSIFICATION OF 1855.
In the first place, it is to be understood that wines made in the surrounding districts of 1 Preignac, Fargues, Bommes and Barsac have all the right to call their wines Sauternes. In the second place, more changes relative to the smaller number of chateaux listed-have occurred here than in the Classification of the Medoc. For example, Chateau Peixotto (Bommes) exists no longer,Chateau Rieussec, formerly listed in the commune of Fargues, is now put in under Sauternes. Then again the first Crus in 1855 numbered nine, whereas they now number eleven, and the second Crus in 1855 numbered twelve including Peixotto, where as now, without this chateaux, they are 15.
The list which follows then is not one hundred per cent. as it was when compiled-at the request of Napoleon III-by the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of Bordeaux in 1854, but it is the latest list as authorised by the Interprofessional Council for the Wines of Bordeaux (C.I.V.B.). The names of the present owners are in brackets.
1er Grand CrÛ
Château d'Yquem (Marquis de Lur-Saluces): Sauternes.
1er CrÛ
Château La Tour Blanche (Propriété de l'Etat) :Bommes.
Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey (Société des propriétés de famille D. Cordier) : Bommes.
Clos Haut-Peyraguey (Garbay et Pauly Frères) : Bommes.
Château Rayne-Vigneau (Héritiers du Vicomte de Pontac) : Bommes.
Château Suduiraut (Léopold Fonquernîe) : Preignac.
Château Coutet (Rolland-Guy) : Barsac.
Château Climens (Héritiers Henri Gounouilhou) : Barsac.
Château Guiraud (PaulRival): Sauternes.
Château Rieussec (Pierre-Francis Berry) : Sauternes.
Château Rabaud-Promis (So-ciété Civile du Ch. Rabaud-Promis) : Bommes.
Château Sigalas-Rabaud (Com-tesse de Lambert des Granges, née Sigalas) : Bommes.
2 ème Crû
Château de Myrat (Comte Max de Pontac) : Barsac.
Château Doisy-Daene (G. Dubourdieu) : Barsac.
Chiteau Doisy-Dubroca (Heritiers Marcel Dubroca) : Barsac.
Chateau Doisy-Wdrines (H6ritiersTeyssonneau) : Barsac.
Château d'Arche (A. Bastit-Saint-Martin) : Sauternes.
Château d'Arche-Lafaurie (Max Pellequer) Sauternes.
Château Filhot (Comtesse Durieu de Lacarelle) : Sauternes.
Château Broustet (Pierre Fournier) : Barsac.
Château Nairac (Charles Perpezat) : Barsac.
Château Caillou (Ballan-Bravo) : Barsac.
Château Suau (Emile Garros) Barsac.
Château de Malle (Héritiers du Comte P. de Lur-Saluces, P. et J. de Bournazel) : Preignac.
Château Romer (E. Farges) Preignac.
Chateau Lamothe-Espagnet (A. Bastit -Saint- Martin) : Sauternes.
Chateau Lamothe-Tissot (Gaston Tissot) : Sauternes.
(
3) THE NAME Sauternes or Sauterne? The current trend in this country when compiling wine lists and writing the word, strongly favours using the final s" --in other words, calling the wine by the name of the village and as it is called in France. But the Oxford English Dictionary (and others), Redding, Denman, Tovey and Dickens all use the word without the final s. The inference is that the English word, in the last century at any rate, for this wine was, by custom, Sauterne.
Sauvignon Blanc
-One of the great or noble species of grapes of France. Together with the Semillon, it makes all the great Sauternes, as well as the wines of Pouilly-sur-Loire, where it is called the Blanc fume. Synonyms in the Gironde are Douce-blanche and Blanc-doux.
Savennieres
-A commune of the Coteaux de la Loire district, which lies to the west of the Coteaux de I'Aubance.
Saviguy-les-Beaune
.-A commune of the Cote de Beaune, France.
Savoie and Haute-Savoie.
-ln the former departernent of France, south of Chambery (a town with extensive vermouth interests). are made the wines of MontmeIian. Here there is a Cave Co-op where they market a Chignin, Arbin, Bergeron and MontemeIian.
In the Haute-Savoie département, bordering on the Lake of Geneva by the town of Thonon, is made the white, dry, pleasant, sometimes somewhat acid wine of Crépy. Further down, around the village of Seyssel, are made the semi-sweet white wines of this same name. Near here too is made another dry white wine, Rousette de Frangy, Rousette being the name of the grape.
Savoureux. (French)
-Much used in French wine parlance, of a wine with an agreeable nose and somewhat corse (q.v.).
Savuto
-A red wine, called after the river of that name, made in Calabria, Italy.
Scantling
-The permanent support and resting place for wines and spirits in cask when laid up. Stout pieces of ship's oak or teak are usually employed, but some-times old railway sleepers are used.
Schafrhausen
-A canton of Switzerland with 1,000 acres under vines. The best known communes are Hallau, Silbingen, Ldhningen, Wilchingen and Osterfingen.
Scharlachherg
-A fine vineyard of Bingen, Rhine, but with the difference that the wine is usually sold without any other descriptive words.
Scharzherg
-A famous vineyard of Wiltingen, Saar, Germany, which is usually quoted on its own.
ScharzItofberg
-A famous vineyard of Oberemmel and Wil\tingen, which is usually sold solely under the vineyard name.
Schaumwein.
-German term for sparkling wines. See also Sekt.
Schiedam
-A Dutch town with important spirit making interests -Hollands Gin, Schnapps, Schiedam, etc.
Schillerwein. (German).
-Nothing to do with the poet, but from the word schillern, to shimmer. A mediocre vin rose made in and around Wurttemberg.
Schlossabzug
-The German equivalent of chateau bottled.
Schloss Bockelheim.
-One of the finest wine communes of the Nahe, Germany. Here is the famous Kupfiergrube vineyard, made by convict labour and owned by the German State. Some other vineyards : Felsenberg, Miffilberg, Konigsberg, Heimberg.
Schloss Johannisberg
-Probably the most reputed of all Rheingau vineyards. High up on the hills overlooking the Rhine, this magnificent castle (almost bombed to the ground during the last war except the cellars-it has now been splendidly rebuilt) has for a terrace the 66 acres which make its splendid (certainly the best known and perhaps the best of the Rheingau) wines. There was a Benedictine monastery on this steep hill which had been there since the twelfth century, and in 1716 it passed to the Prince Bishop of Fulda. Finally,: it became the property of Prince Metternich, in whose family it still remains. The cellars are open to view and are one of the most impressive of Europe.
Schloss Marienlay
-A vineyard of Waldrach on the Ruwer, Germany.
Schloss Reinhartshausen
-A very famous vineyard (70 acres), part in Erbach and part in Hattenheim.
SchlossSaaleck
-Awine-producing townlet of Franconia, Germany
Schloss Staufenberg
-A vincyari of Durbach in the Ortenau (near Baden Baden), Germany.
Schloss Vollrads
-The most famous vineyard of Winkel. It is the largest privately owned vineyard (80 acres) of the Rheingau. The castle is one of the loveliest of the Rhine, the central tower dating from the earliest part of the fourteenth century.
Schnapps
-A form of gin originally made at Schiedam and now freely produced in Germany and Scandinavia as well as Holland.
Schweich
-A wine townlet of the Middle Moselle, Germany.
Scotch
-A wedge shaped block of wood (teak or oak is best) used for securing casks on scantling.
Scotch Tiers
-A special method of binning whereby the tops of bottles are placed opposite each other and nearly touching, and another row of bottles is placed in the cradle thus formed by the front and back rows.
Scotch Whisky
-Note spelling, see also Irish Whiskey-Whether it be the water of the burns or the air coming off the Atlantic, there is little doubt that Scotch whisky is one of the hardest to imitate spirits in the world (though it has been tried in all continents) Scotch, as it is drunk today, is usually a blend of two different types of whiskies, both produced in Scotland. The first is the Highland Malt and very little of it is to be had these days. It is heavy-bodied and very smoky in flavour (it is said that the finest comes .1 off granite through peat ) and is distilled from a pure barley malt mash in the old-fashioned pot still. The lighter Lowland Scotch is distilled in a patent or continuous still and is made from a mixed mash. See also Whisky.
Scuppernong
-Originally a wild North American grape, it is the chief representative of the Vitis rotundiflora species and is grown, under a score of different names, all over the south of the United States, where it runs riot in fields and vineyards from Maryland to the Gulf and Arkan-sas to Texas
Scaling Wax
-It was formerly the custom to seal most bottled wines with wax, and this practice still applies to vintage ports. See Capsules.
Seasoning
-A term used for the various methods of preparing casks for containing wines and spirits.
Sec
-That this is French for dry is known, but a wine which has the goilt du sec is one which is somewhat harsh and has about it a taste as though too much stalk was left in with the grapes at the pressing. As for the word's meaning when describing cham-pagne, it has come to mean semi-sweet rather than dry. See Brut.
Sediment
-Matter or deposit that sometimes settles in wines, both in cask or bottle.
Seeweine. (German-lake wines)
-The name given to light, most palatable wines made in a score of villages along the shores of Lake Constance, which the Germans call the Bodensee.
Segonzac
-A town in the centre of the Cognac district.
SeibeI
-A French hybridiser, creator of many vines of American French parentage. It is considered by many that these hybrids will before long produce fine wine. Some of the better known Seibels are : for reds, 1000, 5455, 7053, 10878 ; for whites, 4986, 5409, 10868.
Sekt
-The German name for their sparkling wines.
Selestat
-A town (population 11,000) on the River Ill in the Bas-Rhin, some twenty miles south of Strasbourg, and almost at the southern end of the region. This Alsace town has a Wine Fair in August.
Self Whiskies
-Those of one particular make, and unblended.
Semillon
-A species of white grape which is used (in conjunction with-though in a much smaller proportion-the Sauvignon) in making all the great white wines of Bordeaux.
Senheim
-A wine producing commune and townlet north of Zell on the Lower Moselle, Germany. Some vineyards : Bienengarten, Lay, Rosenberg, Jünger Waldhager, Schwarzberg.
Sercial
-A dry, good quality Madeira made from grapes of the same name.
Serpette
-The name of small, four inch hooked knife used for trimming the vines in Burgundy
Serrig
-A wine commune (250 acres) of the Saar River, Germany. Some vineyards : Wilmberg, Hindenburgslay, Schloss, Saarfels, Kupp, Thinnesberg, Wingertscheck, Langfuhr.
Servan
-A very prolific grape of the Languedoc area; both table grape and good element in the local vins rosés.
Serving Wine-See Decanting and Glasses.
Sete.
-Town in the Herault area, considered as the birthplace of French vermouth, principally made from the dry white wines of the Middle Herault valley.
Setubal
-A sweet white wine making town and commune on the Tagus near Lisbon, Portugal.
Seuddy
-Of wines, turbid, full of sediment.
Skye. (French-sap, vigour).
-Used to indicate a wine's robustness as well as a bouquet which, according to one French writer, invades the nose, the mouth and even the stomach.
Seyssel
-A dry white wine of the Savoy (q.v.).
Seyve-Villard
-A French hybridiser after whom several famous hybrids have been named. Some reds are : Seyve-Villard 5276 and 18315 ; for white : 12375.
Shebeen. (lrish).
-A place where illicitly made spirits are sold.
Sherry
-A blended high strength wine, ranging in colour from pale lemon through amber, golden, russet, to almost dark brown, made from wine coming mainly from the Jerez region and matured in bodegas in the town of Jerez-de-la-Frontera (q.v.). The main vineyards lie to the north-west of the town and around the towns of Rota, Chipiona, Sanlucar de Barrameda, Puerto de Santa Maria and Trebujena, as well as to the south of Cadiz around the town of Chiclana de la Frontera. In the first named zone certain vineyards are on albariza soil (i.e. chalky) and it is in these vineyards (Machamudo, Carrascal, Anina and Balbaina) that are made the finos on which the flor or flower starts to grow on the top of the musts.
By far the most important grapes used here are the Palomino and Pedro Ximenez (qq.v.), though other varieties cultivated are the Mantuo de Sanlucar, Garrida Pina, Mantuo de Pilas, Bega, Albillo Castellano, Perruno, and the now little seen Canocazo. Though no precise date can be fixed, the vintage takes place around the end of the first week in September and lasts for some three weeks. Since 1948 in Jerez, the first picking has begun with the colourful Fiesta de la Vendimia, or Vintage Fete, in which the grapes are blessed by the church in the central square.
In this region the harvesters cut the bunches with small knives and not with small secateurs as elsewhere. The workers (usually men) then carry what they have picked in straw baskets on their heads to waiting donkeys, who then take the grapes to the almijar (yard), outside the main building. Here the bunches are laid out on esparto grass mats to dry for half a day. Rain at this point is a disaster, for it is essential that the grapes reach the lagares (the square wooden or stone troughs in which they are pressed) absolutely dry. Before the pressing, a certain amount of gypsum (q.v.) is added to the grapes, as is the custom in most other southern wine growing countries.
But there is a Spanish proverb, "el vino no se hace en la viña, sino en la bota-wine is not made in the vineyard, but in the barrel"-and we must consider the bodegas of Jerez if we are to understand the pre-eminence of this wine over all others in Spain. Some years ago a count was made of the number of casks full of sherry in the bodegas of Jerez. The total was 450,000 and the value of the casks alone was put at one thousand million pesetas, and the 206 million litres of wine they contained was conservatively valued at 4,000 million pesetas. To this must be added 35 million litres of grape brandy, contained in 65,000 butts. No mean total-it is given to show that the greatness of sherry is in the fact that as the whole art of making the wine is one of blending, equalising and maturing, this can be achieved with the gigantic stocks mentioned above.
See Solera, South Africa, Australia.
Ships' Stores
-Under this designation, supplies of wine, etc., are available free of duty for passengers and crews of various branches of the maritime services of England.
Shiraz
-An ancient and noted winemaking district of Persia -claimed by some authorities to be the home of wine-making itself. Both red and white wines are made there.
Shive
-A thin bung for a cask, made of wood.
Shrub
-A compounded drink made with orange or lemon iuice, sugar, and any spirit, but usually rum.
Sicily
-This Italian island, the home of the cult of Dionysus (q.v.), produces wine in prolific abundance. From here, in the province of Messina, comes the golden Mamertino ; and then further south, on terraced vineyards that lend a touch of colour to the lava-blackened slopes, are white and red Etnas, named after one of the greatest active volcanos of the world.
Still further south behind Syracuse and the plain of Noto come Moscato di Siracusa and Moscato di Noto. Also there is Moscato di Panatellaria and Moscato di Lipari. Then Frappato di Vittoria. Finally, the great Marsala (q.v.).
Sierre
-A wine commune in the Valais, Switzerland.
Sigolsheim
-A hamlet and wine commune near Colmar in Alsace, France.
Sikes (Sykes)
-The inventor of a particular system of Hydrometer still employed in this country both officially and otherwise. It is on his tables and calculations that our system of proof" strengths is based. Pure alcohol is 175.2º or 175.2º Proof.
Sillery
-A famous and ancient vineyard district of the Montagne de Reims, Champagne. Before the beginning of the nineteenth century, after which all wines from this district went to market as champagne, Sillery was so reputed a district that much champagne (still and sparkling) was sold under its own name.
Single Quinta
-Port is nearly always a blend of wines of many years and many different estates (quintas). To designate a port which has come from only one farm, it is called a Single Quinta wine.
Sitges
-A small seaside town south of Barcelona which used to have a reputation for a sweet Muscatel. Mentioned by Cyrus Redding.
Skid
-A plank or roller along which a heavy cask may be pushed.
Sling.
-A long American drink composed of brandy, rum or any other spirit, sweetened and flavoured.
Slip Labels -See Labels.
Slivovitz.
-A form of plum brandy made in Central Europe.
Sloe Gin.
-A compounded drink made by steeping sloes in gin.
Smash
-An American drink made of spirit, crushed ice and flavoured with mint.
Smith Haut Laffitte, Chateau.
-An important vineyard of the Graves district (commune of Martillac), producing 200 hogsheads of red wine annually.
Soave
-One of Italy's most reputed wines. It is dry, full and comes from the picturesque and ancient village of that name, a few miles east of Verona.
Solera System
-One of the meanings of this Spanish word is a plinth and this might (for no one quite knows how the word came to stand for this complicated Jerez system of equalising wines) give some clue to the provenance of the word, for it has been argued that when the bodegas were formerly used as drinking rendezvous for the friends of the proprietor, guests used to ask for their next glass off the floor, i.e. from the lower butts on the scantling which were the best.
The above serves as an introduction to the solera system. In the bodega a group of butts will usually be arranged in tiers of four or (less commonly now) five and this group is operated as a single unit to produce one only matured wine. The young wine enters the solera by way of the topmost row of casks, which in turn has given a proportion of its wine to the second row, and so on until the row on the ground floor is again replenished. This explains why sherry with a vintage added to the label must be a misnomer. But a sherry labelled Solera (say) 1890 purports to show that it comes from a group of butts laid down that year, for theoretically there always remains an infinitesimal fraction of the original wine.
Solide
-Said in France of a wine which is robust and well-made, but which lacks charm.
Solutrk
-A white wine making commune adjoining those of Pouilly and Fuisse, Macon, France. It has the appellation right to market its wines as Pouilly-Fuisse.
Soma
-An extremely ancient intoxicating Hindu drink, drunk at religious ceremonies and identified with their most popular warrior god, Indra.
Somlauer.
-A Hungarian table wine of repute.
Sommelier
-French for wine butler.
Sondrio
-A wine making region and town of Lombardy, Italy, from whence come Valtellina (q. v.) wines.
Sonnenuhr. (German-sundial).
- The most famous vineyard of Wehlen, Moselle, and that which often fetches the highest price of all great growths along this river.
Sonoma
-An important wine-growing region of California. It lies north of San Francisco Bay between Napa County on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west.
Sophistication
-The imitating or copying of sherry and port, mainly by infusing the essence of almonds, wormwood, and such like, appears to have been a regular practice during the last half of the nineteenth century and there was more than one book published on the sophistication of wines.
Sorbet
-A water ice usually made with Maraschino, served in the middle of extremely copious banquets.
Sorghum
-Sorghurn saccharatum is the botanical name for the Chinese sugarcane, from which a potent beverage is made.
Soulignac
-A village and mainly white wine making commune near Cadillac, 25 miles south-east of Bordeaux.
Souple.(French-supple).
-Said of an agreeable moelleux (q.v.) wine, rather full of glycerine, which gives no shocks to the palate.
Soussac
-A tiny village and commune where none the less some eight vineyards make seven thousand hogsheads of white wine annually. It is in the Entre-deux-Mers district, some 30 miles south-east of Bordeaux.
Soussans
-A village (700 population) and commune (3,700 acres) of the Medoc, adjoining the communes of Margaux and Cantenac to the south, some 25 miles from Bordeaux. Some Chateaux include: Bel - Air-Marquis-d'Aligre (120 hogsheads annually), La-Tour-de-Mons (500), Paveil (80).
South Africa
-When the Dutch East India Company decided to establish a settlement at the Cape, the object was to have a refreshment station between Europe and the East where ships could revictual. To this end they sent out as first commander, Jan van Riebeck, who landed first in 1648 and then at Table Bay in April 1652. His interest in viticulture must have been considerable for he made experiments with Muscadel a other white grapes and impor, root stocks from Brazil, Batay Persia, Italy, Germany, France, and even Japan and St. Helena. In 1658 he pressed some of his grapes, from which he produced, a small cask of wine which he pronounced "good". That same year the Company gave Riebec a piece of land near Wynberg on which he planted a vineyard, a well as one at Protea (Bishor Court) where he planted out 1,200 vines, this becoming the first vineyard of the Cape.
A few years later this energetic pioneer was able to produce( 600 bottles of wine which, as some travellers are supposed to have taken them for hocks, must have been white. At this period the farmers were not keen to plant vines on a commercial scale as they had to wait too long for their liking for their crop-a situation which has gradually changed over the intervening years and now the trouble is to persuade farmers not to over plant with vines.
The next landmark in Cape (a word preferred by many to South Africa) wine history was when Governor Simon van der Stel between 1679 and 1699 (the French Huguenots arriving in 1688 gave a great impetus to the trade, many of them having been wine growers in the south of France) encouraged the planting of yet more vines and indeed developed the farms of Groot and Keiln Constantia as vineyards for his own account. Willem Adriaan van der Stel, who succeeded his father and was also a Governor of the Cape, was also a great believer in the wine industry and on his own farm "Vercelegen" near the present Somerset West planted something in the order of 100,000 to 250,000 vines, an enterprise of such magnitude that it was one of the causes that led to his downfall and recall to Holland by the Dutch East India Company.
But the quality at this time was by no means perfect, for in February 1743, we find Governor General Baron von Imhof writing to Mr. Hendrick Swellengrebel, another Governor, Export of wine is not permissible except when the company has no other wine for its ships ... Further the making and treatment of wine has, in my opinion, by a long way not reached that stage of perfection which is possible, and I shall therefore request the Directors to send out a few viticulturists from the Rhine and also a few from France if they are procurable in order to instruct the settlers in the proper way of making wine.
But in spite of Governor Imhof's suggestion that all the wine was not as good as it might be, an exception must be made for Constantia which as early as 1711 was sufficiently good for a diarist to say, They reached the world famed Wynberg which is distant about three hours from the Cape and which under the name of Constantia supplies the popular and really good delicate Cape wine.
The next period of interest in the South African wine industry was from about 1811 to 1860. During this half century he shipments of wine from the Cape to Britain (more than four-fifths of it was, from
1811 to 1824 at any rate, called Madeira) multiplied four times, until in 1859 it reached nearly eight hundred thousand gallons.
The main problem at this time was to prevent wine farmers from exporting bad wines and so a brave experiment was tried out by Sir John Craddock, the then Governor of the Cape, for in December 1811, he appointed an official Wine Taster, whose main task was to pass all casks to be used for exportation, Those which did not come up to standard were to be marked condemned and anyone effacing such a mark was to be fined 100 Riksdaalders (about £17). Anyone who used such a cask for export was to be fined five times this sum, with an alternative of six months' imprisonment. At the same time, it was enacted that all wines destined for export should be at least 18 months old. In 1818 the standard size of the leaguer cask was fixed at 152 gallons ; it came down to 127 gallons in 1826 when the British Imperial Gallon was increased by nearly 20 per cent. In 1826 the Wine Taster's office was abolished.
Then in 1859-60 came a grievous blow. Possibly to prevent a war with France, Cobden and Gladstone negotiated a commercial treaty with France which brought the duty on the wines from that country tumbling down from 5s. 6d. a gallon to 3s. a gallon in 1860, while those from the Cape paid 2s. 9d. The result was that whereas in 1860 South Africa had sent 670,000 gallons of wine to Britain, the figure fell the very next year to 126,000 gallons and by 1865 it was down to 93,000 gallons. In this same year France sent over just on 3 million gallons, whereas in 1858 the amount was only a little above half a million gallons.
All the above set the South African wine industry back considerably (so far as trade with Britain was concerned) until sales were again stimulated by the favourable Customs and Excise rates granted to South Africa and other dominions and colonies at the Empire Conference in 1927.
As to the modern quality of the wines, it is probably accurate to say that, again so far as Britain is concerned, their sherry has the most important sale of South African wines, and of all the countries of the world making this style of wine, South Africa has managed to make the nearest approach to the original and authentic Jerez- de-la- Frontera wine. Other wines made are a port type and the usual table wines.
All the South African vineyards are within 200 miles of the Cape Town, the most important regions being Paarl, Stellenbosch, Tulbagh, Worcester, Robertson, Constantia, Caledon, Swellendam, Drakenstein, Malmmesbury, Wellington, Riversdale, Calitz Dorp, Somerset West, and Ladismith.
Soyeux (French-silky).
- Wines whose contact with the palate produces an agreeably caressing sensation.
Spain
-The third largest wine producing country of the world, making just on five hundred million gallons yearly (half the output of Italy). She boasts only one truly great wine, sherry (q.v.) and in this region the area under vines is small compared to the vast amount produced in the La Mancha (q.v.) are around the towns of Valdepelias (q.v.) and Manzanares (q.v.). Further districts are the coast area of Catalonia (see Tarragona, Vila Franca de Pa-nades, and Reus), further south around Valencia, Utiel, and Alicante (q.v.), and then again in the south-west between Seville and Huelva (q.v.). But the best table wine district is certainly that of the Rioja (q.v.). A little wine is also made in Galicia.
Spanish Earth
-A substance obtained from the soil originally found in Spain. The main source of supply today is the United States of America and certain parts of South America. It is a complex silicate with the unique property of absorbing colloidal matter, both positive and negative and is extensively used as a fining. See also Lebrja.
Sparkling Wines
-Depending on whether one is speaking to someone in the wine trade or outside it and on the context it is possible for this word to have exactly opposite meanings, To the public it means all wines, whether red or white, made by the 'méthode champenoise' or carbonated, and from any country, but would exclude those which are petillant or spritzig (qq.v.). In the trade it stands for all wines which sparkle, except champagne. It is to be noted that about a hundred years ago this was far from the case and if a champagne was wanted that was not still it had to be asked for as sparkling.
The words in French, German and Italian are vin mousseux, Schaumwein or Sekt, vino spumante.
Spitburgunder.
-The German name for the Pinot Noir (q.v.).
SpatIese.
-German. Late gathered. Said of wines which have been harvested late. Wines with this word on the label are ones which, by German law, should not be artificially sugared.
Spey
-The most important river and valley of the north of Scotland along whose banks is made the finest Highland whisky.
Spigot
-A cone shaped wooden peg used for plugging an examining hole in the head of a cask.
Spile
-The same as spigot, see above.
Spionian.
-A popular wine of ancient times made in the Greek Archipelago.
Spirit
-The alcoholic liquid resulting after the distillation of such substances as fermented grape juice, grain, potatoes, sugar cane, etc.
Spirit Expansion.
-Spirit, especially when of a high strength, is capable of expansion with increasing temperatures.
Spirit, Fortifying.
-When it is necessary to raise the strength of a wine, a quantity of spirit is added according to a definite scale. This operation is technically known as fortifying. See also vintage.
Splash, Port
-After a vintage port has been bottled, a splash of whitewash is run the upper side of the bottles when they have been binned so that future purchasers can always tell which way up to bin away the wine.
Spritzig
-German for petillant
Spumante. (Italian-sparkling).
- All Italian wines which are manufactured to sparkle are so called.
Star Bright.
-Applied to wines which are bottled with absolutely no trace of cloudiness.
Starch.
-A soft white substance found in most plant forms which renders them capable of fermentation.
Staves.
-The curved pieces of wood that form the sides of casks. Oak is the timber mainly preferred, but chestnut (and other woods more rarely) is sometimes employed.
Steaming Casks.
-In several wine-making countries, casks are treated by steam for cleansing and sterilising the interiors.
Steinberger
-Wine from the State owned Steinberg vineyard at Hattenheirn in the Rheingau. Now ranks with Schloss Johannisberg as one of the most noted hocks. With Schloss Vollrads and Schloss Johannisberg, the only estates in the Rheingau not divided among several owners.
Steinwein
-This is wine from a precipitously steep vineyard over-looking and within the municipal limits of Würzburg (q.v.), which is the centre of the Franconian (q.v.) wine district. But the name of this vineyard has become so popular that not infrequently now all Franconian wines are called Stein wines. Stein also in German means an earthenware drinking vessel.
Stellenbosch.
-An attractive university town and one of the most noted vineyard districts of the Cape.
Sterile Bottling
-This is a method which has been developed with great success, especially in Germany and Alsace, where the low strength white wines made there are liable to infection. Generally, wines with an alcoholic content of less than 10.5 %. by volume are those which will be attacked by yeasts, bacteria and fungi, and as the law prohibits more than a certain amount of S02 being added, the answer is to remove these micro-organisms by killing them in filters, empty bottles, corks, etc.
Sterilisation of filters and sheets. The filter should first be broken down, all plates removed and the entire machine cleaned with hot water, after which steam is passed through the filters ; it is essential to start using the machine as soon as it has cooled.
Bottle sterilisation. These should be treated with a 1.5 per cent. to 2 per cent. water solution of S02 and the bottles (and this is important since otherwise there will be a con-siderable addition of free SO2, in the wine) must either be very well drained (and the more free SO2, there is in the wine to be bottled the longer must be the draining period) before the bottling takes place or they must even be again rinsed in distilled water.
Still Wines
-A term used to describe non-sparkling wines, in contrast to those of a sparkling character.
Stillage
-A stand for casks.
Stills
-Apparatus used for distillation. There are two main kinds of stills used for this purpose : the old-fashioned still, which is for brandies and certain types of whisky, is still in use ; and the patent still of various kinds employed in the manufacture of gin, grain whiskies, etc.
Stirrup Cup
-A cup of wine or some other drink offered to a parting guest.
Storage
-The best temperature for practically all wines is 16ºC and it is to be noted that it is the subjection of wines to sudden changes of temperature (the hot cupboard in the winter which is allowed to become freezing cold at night) which can do them the greatest harm. It is also bad to leave wine in the light as the reds have their colour extracted from them and the whites turn cloudy; therefore, if a shop front display of bottles is wanted, the well made-up dummy is better than the bottle full of wine, particularly as a burst of sunshine will cause the wine to expand, weep out through the side of the cork and trickle down on to the label, spoiling the effect.
The private customer should be advised that table wines, sherries. and especially vintage port and champagne should be stored away lying down, so that continuous contact of the liquid with the cork will ensure that the latter does not shrink . Spirits are best left standing up. Little is known about the effect of light on various types of wine, and as sunlight and normal filament light are composed of various wavelengths, the problem is rendered complex. The only established fact is that infra-red radiation helps towards the formation of copper casse in wines where such a tendency is already apparent.
Strabo
-A Greek traveller and writer of the beginning of the Christian era who recorded much interesting information about wine and wine-making.
Strasbourg
-Although actually near to only a few acres of vines immediately to the south, this town of 200,000 inhabitants is the centre of the Bas-Rhin subdivision of Alsace and a good jumping-off place for touring its vineyards.
Straw Wines
-A translation from the French vin de paille which are wines, usually very sweet, made from grapes which have according to the French Code du Vin, been laid out on straw mats or hung up for a minimum of two months.
Stringing, Cork
-Before the advent of the all-wire fastener, sparkling wines were secured by string fastenings in addition to the wire ones.
Stromboli
-One of the Liparl islands where a golden Malvasia is of repute.
Stück
-The standard measure for casks used in the Rheingau and Hessia of 1200 litres, though wines are more often quoted by Halbstuk or half piece of 600 litres.
Stum
-Unfermented or partly fermented grape juice or must used to revitalise flabby wine. In German, stummer Wein is one which tastes flat.
Style
-Used to describe wines which in their taste and flavour follow the accepted style of the region they come from. Or again, a firm may ship a range of hocks, burgundies, ports, sherries, etc., which have a recognised style of their own and yet to a larger or smaller degree are alien to the general style of their district.
Suave-
One French writer describes such a wine as one which "creates a peacock's tail in the mouth" -moelleux, harmonious, near perfection.
Suau, Chateaux
-A second classified growth of Sauternes in the commune of Barsac, making 60 hogsheads of wine annually. There is another Chateaux Suari in the commune of Capian (Premieres Cotes du Bordeaux) which makes 800 hogsheads of white wine annually.
Suduiraut, Chateaux de
-A first classified growth of Sauternes in the commune of Preignac, formerly belonging to the ancient family of Suduiraut and at present a splendid property (it used to be called Cru du Roy) and 500 acre estate producing (on 250 acres of vines) 400 hogsheads of wine annually.
Sugar Cane
-A cane grown extensively in the tropics, the juice of which has a high content of Saccharose (cane sugar) used in the fermentation for the production of rum.
Sugar, Grape
-Grape sugar is mainly composed of Dextrose (Glucose) and Levulose (Fructose) and traces of other reducing and non-reducing sugars. During fermentation these sugars are decomposed into alcohol and carbonic acid gas (CO2). The higher the sugar content, the greater will be the residual sugar after fermentation, hence, a sweet wine. When the sugar has fully fermented out, the result is a dry wine.
Sulphur
-Called in popular language brimstone and coming from the thirteenth century Provencial word solfre (and old Spanish 'cufre' and Portuguese 'xofre'), sulphur is a yellowish-greenish non-metallic substance found in large quantities in volcanic regions. It is so much the most important chemical (atomic weight 32) in use in the wine trade that a few notes of explanation may be useful.
When the ordinary yellow sulphur is burned it forms a gas, sulphur dioxide-SO2. A solution of S02 in water becomes sulphurous acid, and some experts do not approve of its use. Formerly wine cellars relied solely on burning sulphur as their source of SO2, but now this has largely been replaced by solutions of SO2 liquefied under pressure.
Wide use is also now being made of potassium metabisulphate which, of course, must be dissolved in water before being added to the wine. Some experts, however, aver that this treatment has the disadvantage of increasing the potassium concentration of the wine and leads to the form-ation of potassium bitartrate deposits.
The SO2 which is in any wine (the amount incidentally in bulk wine arriving in this country is very varied) can be divided into two parts : (a) the bound, which married up with certain substances in the wine ; and (b) the free SO2, which has not gone into chemical combination but remains there in its free state. It is this S02 which generally speaking does the bacteria killing and the preserving.
Both in England (Regulations in the Merchandising and Public Health Acts of 1887, 1891, 1953) and France (Code du Vin) the maximum amount allowed is 450 milligrams per litre.
The burning of suphur sticks (Fr. meche) in casks (which must positively have no water in them) is done by affixing the stick to an iron hook, which is, in turn, stuck into the bottom of the wooden bung. The sulphur is then lit and the bung and burning stick is securely fixed into the bung hole. But this method has now been discontinued in favour of gaseous SO2 injection. See also Oidium.
Surrentine Wines
-A wine of the ancients much appreciated by Athenaeus.
Sussling
-One of the many synonymous names for the Chasselas grape.
Sweets
-A technical and official name (used in various liquor Acts before the eighteenth century) to describe certain types of British made wines.
Swiss Wines
-Making annually thirteen million gallons (the same as Tunisia and Austria) of wine (nearly all white), Switzerland is the twentieth largest wine producing country in the world. She makes no truly great wines, but equally very little is bad. The foremost viticultural canton is undoubtedly the Vaud (q.v.). The others are the Valais, Schaffhausen, Neuchâtel, Tessin, Zürich, Berne (qq.v.). Of the cantons which have not separate entries there is Geneva with 25 acres under vines ; Fribourg, with 320 acres, where a red Vully is made ; Argovin with 850 acres-some names are Ennetbaden, Wettingen, Klingau and Dottingen ; Grisons, with 450 acres of vines-the principal vineyards are around Chur ; Thurgovia, 320 acres-some names are Warth, Weinfelden, Ottenberg and Boltshausen ; Basel-Land, 200 acres-some names are Buus, Maisprach and Wintersingen.
Swizzle Stick
-Originally a slang word for various compounded drinks and for intoxicating drink in general, a swizzle stick was first one for getting a froth into drinks. Now, in England especially, it is a small five or six-pronged metal contraption used for taking the effervescence out of any sparkling wine.
Sydney- See Australia (New South Wales).
The 'Wine Dictionary' was compiled from:
Winecraft The Encyclopaedia of Wines & Spirits
Compiled by - T.A. Layton |