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glossary (Sou - StR)

Sour lime
Is the English expression of Limette.

Souza
Souza Port comes from one of the oldest and most reputed Port-Wine Houses. Its name comes a world-known wine-expert from Portugal, Alcino Vieira de Souza. Souza Superior Tawny Port is a fine, semi-dry Port, its quality is the result of a careful choice of vintages and regions, an harmonic mixture of the Cuvées and storage in barrels for years.

Sparkling Fruit Wine
Sparkling Fruit Wines are fruity, slightly sweet and tingleing. They may be produced from seed-, stone- and berry fruit wines. The fruit wine is further trested either in a bulk procedure, transfer procedure or impregnation procedure.
Types:
Sparkling fruit wines are produced from marille, ribisel, strawberry, mahaleb, peach and pear. One of the most known Austrian products is the "Mariandl", a marille Sparkling Wine.
Regulations by law:
In Austria
Sparkling Fruit Wine is fruit wine produced from started or completed alcoholic fermentation of the juice or the mash from fresh seed-, stone- or berry fruit.
In Germany
Sparkling Fruit Wines are sparkling, with carbon dioxide impregnated fruit and berry wines similar to sparkling wines. To produce better types, the impregnation process is used instead of the bottle-fermentation.
In Switzerland
Sparkling Fruit Wine is a drink made from fruit wine through bottle fermentation.

Sparkling Wine/ Sekt
"Sekt" is the description of all sparkling wines from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. "Sekt" can be produced according to following methods: a) Fermentation-process in the bottle (Méthode Champenoise): like Champagne, b) Fermentation-process in the tank (Bulk Process, Charmat - Méthode). Cuvées are mixed with pure yeast-breed and sugar in big, pressure resistant steel tanks. Therefore, second fermentation does not happen in the bottle but in these containers. After fermentation, the raw "Sekt" is cooled down to minus 5 degrees to be able to remove the yeast. Afterwards, dosage is added, the "Sekt" is filtrated and bottled. c) Transfer-Process: A few special basic wines are blended with Cuvée. Although the used basic wines differ from year to year, the "Sekt" always has to taste in the same way. The difference the bottle-fermentation is, that the ripening procedure takes place in collecting containers. Muddy substances are removed by high pressure, then dosage is added and the "Sekt" is bottled.
Following table shows an overview about the "Sekt"-tastew-directions and their amount of sugar contained.
Taste-direction, remaining sugar per litre
Slightly bitter, brut less than 15 grams; very dry, extra dry, extra sec 15 to 20 grams; Dry, Dry sec 17 to 35 gramy; Semi-Dry, demis-sec 33 to 50 grams; mild, sweet, doux more trhan 50 grams.
Furthermore there are specialities of certain growing regions and areas (for example: Lagersekt Brut), as well as with description of vine-type and vintage.
Kinds:
Rosé Sekt: Its colour develops through leaving the pressed cider of the wine-production on the red peelings as long as it gets enough colour to be called 'Rosé' or white and red wines are used for the Cuvée. Rosé-Sekt is available dry and sweet. Red Sekt: It is produced from selected red wines and is said to be especially hot and heavy. Red Sekt is only produced by a few vinter's businesses. Schicher-Sekt: This is a special kind of sparkling wine from the Weststeiermark. Schilcher wine is the base of this sparkling wine, which is made from blue wild creek grapes. Krim-Sekt: This is a Russian Sparkling Wine produced according to the Méthode Champenoise. It has to be stored in bottles for at least three years, before it can be sold. Known in West-Europe are kinds like: Krimskoje Red, White, Semi-Dry and White Dry.
Known Sparkling Wine products in Austria:
Name, company, origin
Hochriegl Kattus Vienna, Mounier P. M. Mounier & Co. Vienna, Kloster Sekt Chorherrenstift Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg, Schlumberger Underberg/Guertler Vienna
Sparkling Wine types produced in Linz
Fuerst from Metternich, Asbach, Doornkaat, Vienna, Henkell, Scharlachberg Salzburg, Kupferberg Mautner-Markhof Vienna
Known sparkling wine companies and types in Germany
name, origin
Burgeff & Co. Hochheim/Main Deinhard & Co. Koblenz Deutz & Geldermann Breisach/Baden Fuerst from Metternich Rudesheim/Johannisberg Henkell & Co. Wiesbaden-Biebrich Kupferberg & Co. Mainz Matheus Miller (MM) Eltville Sohnlein Wiesbaden/Schierstein
Known sparkling wine companies in Switzerland
Mauler & Cie. Môtier, Neuchâtel
Other descriptions for Sparkling wine:
Vin Mousseux: This is the description for all sparkling wines from france, which are made from grapes, which do not come from the Champagne. But, like Champagne, they are also produced according to the Méthode Champenoise. Quality differences of Vin Mousseux are very big. Known products are: Anjon-Mousseux, Sammur and Vouvray from the Loire-Valley as well as Blanquette de Limoux from the South West of fRance. Californian Champagne: Unlike to Europe, in America every sparkling wine is descriped as being champagne. If tehre is a sign saying "Champagne" on the bottle's label, then it also has to say the kind of production, which could be bottle-fermentation (individually fermented in the bottle), Transfer process and Bulk process. Synthetic sparkling wine: is a wine, where carbon dioxide is added.

Sparkling Wine
"Sekt" is the common description of sparkling wine in Germany. Nowhere in the world sparkling wine is so highly consumed as in Germany. The Germans are sparkling-wine-champions, a position, which could not be defeated by crisis or high sparkling wine taxes so far. Germans consume about 4.4 litres per head per year. French people are second consuming 3.7 litres. It is not exactly dated, when the first sparkling wine pearled in a glass, but all evidence and documents point to South-France, where "Blanquette de Limoux" is mentioned in 1544. It is said to be the first French sparkling wine. About 100 years later, Champagne was invented. Its production became a flowering economic-branch in the 19th century. The first German sparkling wine vinter's business was founded on 1st July 1826 by George Christian Kessler, who was trained in France. There are amusing stories about the development of the name "Sekt". It has its origin in Spanish "vine seco". At the end of the 19th century the description "Sekt" for sparkling wine was taken over everywhere in Germany. The name "sparkling wine" had no chance in the common use of language. Only lawyers have to be very exact, because "Sekt" is always sparkling wine in law, but not every sparkling wine is always "Sekt". Sparkling wine is, like the name says it, a sparkling wine-product. The stress is one wine. Its quality depends on quality of the raw substances, wine or the grapes. It is impossible to create a good "Sekt" out of a low-quality basic wine, even using all technical finesse. It is possible to produce a product, which is free of mistakes and corresponds to the minimum requirements, but it is not quality wine. Not every vine is good enough to produce "Sekt" from it. Grapes having a lot of acid are necessary for a good "Sekt" production. German Riesling delivers the best "Sekt" basic wine. It has all characteristics (acid, race/ kind), elegance, which is guaranteed from a top "Sekt", which can also compete with Champagne. But German Riesling is rare and expensive; therefore "Sekt" producers had to look for foreign sources. France and especially Italy became the cheap supplier for German "Sekt"-producers. In 1852/ 53 still 75 % of wines used to produce "Sekt" came from German areas. In 1980, it dropped down to 10 %. Sparkling wine can be produced in three different procedures: 1. The oldest known technique is the "countryside method", where sparkling wine is produced in the first fermentation. The cider of the grapes is fermented directly without getting in touch with wine. This method, where always very bouquet-rich grape ciders are used, is used in Italian Ast and French Limoux. 2. The classical sparkling wine procedure is the production through a second fermentation. It is the most important method. The simple principle is: filling dosage (of yeast and grape-cider) is added to the fermented basic-wine. The yeast culture start the second fermentation in the closed bottle or in a pressure-tank. The added sugar is splitted into carbon dioxide and alcohol. When fermentation and storage finish, yeast and muddy substances are removed through filtration or degorgation. After adding shipping dosage, which gives it the taste, the finished "Sekt" can be bottled. 3. A method, which hardly plays a role today anymore is the impregnate procedure. The wine is mixed with alien carbon dioxide; there is no second fermentation. This procedure is still the classical method to produce sparkling fruit-wine. Different procedures are used to produce sparkling wine through a second fermentation. There is the classical bottle fermentation (shaking method), the filtration to remove yeast, which is also called transfer technique and the bulk fermentation. The shaking procedure is the traditional method, which is still practised by a few smaller sparkling wine vinter's businesses today. The yeast-removal-filtration is a form of transition to the bulk process, where second fermentation and ripening storage still takes place in bottles, but filtration takes place in containers. The bulk fermenting procedure, where the whole production process takes place in pressure resistant huge tanks, is the economical most important method. All three procedures have the first step of production in common, which is the selection of Cuvées to an harmonically raw substance. Different wines are blended to produce sparkling wine of continuing quality, independent from the harvest's vintage. The quality of the Cuvée is responsible for the quality of the finished product. The never ending fight about whether the bottle or the bulk fermentation is better, is still going on today. The bulk process was improved and completed so much in the last years, that the For and Against - Fight seems to be not worth while. Decisive are the qualities of the basic wines and the times of yeast storage; when both conditions are perfect to reach a good final product - no matter whether the fermentation took place in the bottle or tank. Hidden tests showed that not even experts are always able to differ bottle-fermented sparkling wine from tank-fermented sparkling wine. For the lawmaker, sparkling wine is the main description of all products, that are produced through first or second alcoholic fermentation of grapes, grapes-mist, table wine or quality wine. They have an over pressure of at least three atmospheres in closed containers at a temperature of 20 degrees only caused by carbon dioxide produced through fermentation. The difference between "sparkling wine" and "quality sparkling wine" is the alcohol content, minimum storage time and allowed amount of sulfur. The Cuvée for quality sparkling wine has to have an alcohol content of at least 9 %, the sulfureous acid should not exceed 200 milligrams per litre. The production time, including ageing, has to be at least nine months, starting from the point of fermentation. The remaining amount of sugar has to be declared, it causes the sweetness of the sparkling wine: a "Brut -Sekt" has to contain less than 15 grams remaining sugar per litre; "Extra-Dry" contains a rest sugar amount of between 17 and 35 grams; "Semi-Dry" between 33 and 50 grams per litre. Then the "Sekt" is mild. Offered today are: Sparkling Wine and "Sekt" (= sparkling wine of high quality). "Sekts of certain growing areas" as well as "Sekts" with wine types and vintage descriptions also belong to the specialities of the second group. "Sekt" can only be sold on the market, when the official control number is obtained.

Sparkling
Froth

Spined Annone (Stachelannone)
It is a green, oval-shaped fruit with spikes. Its taste is similar to that of Cherimoya. Its white pulp is juicy and sour. It is growing in South America and used as fresh fruit juice or syrup for Alcotropics. Other word for it: Sauersack.

Spirituous Liquors
Spirituous liquors are divided into four groups: there are the main categories of Spirits and Liqueurs, then punch extracts and alcohol containing mixed drinks. Regulations by law say, that spirituous liquors are drinks for the human luxury, where sugar containing fermented substances or substances turned into sugar and being fermented are distilled to produce alcohol. Therefore, a spirituous liquor is only a product, which contains alcohol, spirit, produced from distillates. When no law regulations are broken, spirituous liquors might be coloured, as well as sugar couleur may be used. There is a duty to sign the colouration, only sugar couleur does not have to be declined. Spirituous liquors described with "Old" have to be stored at least for six month. Fruit spirits, like cherry-water, zwetschgen-water and other are allowed to be sold under the description "Old", when they have been stored for one year. Descriptions, like "Old", "Older" or similar ones always assume, that these are qualitative high value products. Spirits and wine are not allowed to have a sign of longer storage. The description "Quality-Spirits made from wine" or "Brandy" are already indirect age-descriptions, because these products have to be stored for at least six months. "Old Brandy" has to be stored for at least 12 months. Cognac and Armagnac with a sign saying V.S.O.P. have a storage time of at least four years; the description ""Napoléon" at least five (or six) years. German Brandy with a sign of V.S.O.P. has to ripen in a oak barrel for at least one year. The description "Napoleon" is not allowed in Germany.

Squeeze
Squeeze out, often used: citrus fruits.

St. Raphael - France
This aperitif is made of white-, red- and sweet wine that has been stored at least two years. Ist characteristic bitter sweet taste comes from the cinchona and other spicy herbs. It would be good if it was stored in an oak-wood-butt for at least one year. Colour might be rouge or blanc, 17 Vol.-%. Sale in Austria: Family Martini & Rossi, Vienna.