So you’ve landed your precious self in Portugal. You’ve rented a car the size of a sardine can, mispronounced pastel de nata, and now you’re standing in a Douro vineyard nodding enthusiastically while someone explains malolactic fermentation in rapid-fire Portuguese. Don’t panic. You don’t need to become fluent overnight—but knowing a few wine words? That’s how you level up from “clueless tourist” to “curious winelover with a surprising gift for unfamiliar languages.”

Because let’s face it: wine people love language. They love it almost as much as they love skin contact and volcanic soil. Dropping a well-timed vinha velha or asking if the garrafeira stocks Curtimenta will not only impress your host—it’ll distract from the fact that you just knocked over a spittoon with your backpack. So before you swirl, sniff, and accidentally call a Touriga Nacional a tortilla, take a moment to arm yourself with the essentials. The glossary below won’t make you fluent, but it might just earn you a top-up. Learn these terms. Then tattoo a few on your soul. You’ll thank us when the winemaker hands you an unlabelled bottle and just says, “This one doesn’t exist.”

 

Açúcar residual – Residual sugar

Acidez – Acidity

Adega / Quinta / Herdade – Winery, wine estate

Barrica – Oak barrel

Branco – White

Bruto – Brut, for sparkling wine with sugar dosage ≤12g/L

Carta de vinhos – Wine list

Casta – Grape variety

Casta autóctone – Native / indigenous grape variety

Colheita – Vintage, date of harvest

Copo de prova – Tasting glass

Copo de vinho – Wine glass

Corpo – Body (light, medium, full)

Curtimenta – Skin contact fermentation (“orange wines”)

Decantador / Decanter – Decanter

Degustação – Wine tasting (can be formal or casual)

DOC (DOP in the EU) – Official designation for wines from regulated regions

Doce – Sweet

Emparelhamento / Harmonização – Food and wine pairing

Engarrafamento – Bottling

Engarrafamento em origem – Estate bottled

Enólogo – Winemaker

Estrutura – Structure

Estágio – Aging (in bottle or barrel)

Fermentação – Fermentation

Fermentação maloláctica – Malolactic fermentation

Final – Finish (aftertaste)

Formato grande – Large format

Fortificado – Fortified (e.g., Port, Madeira)

Garrafa – Bottle

Garrafa numerada – Numbered bottle

Garrafeira – Wine shop or wine cellar

IVV – Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho (Wine & Vine Institute)

Lagar – Traditional stone or metal vat for treading or fermenting grapes

Leveduras indígenas – Indigenous yeasts

Lote – Wine lot or batch (often a blend)

Madeira – Fortified wine from Madeira island

Maceração – Maceration

Meio torto – Tipsy

Microclima – Microclimate

Monocasta – Single varietal wine

Oxidação – Oxidation

Parcelas – Vineyard plots

Persistência – Persistence (length of finish)

Produtor – Producer

Prova – Tasting

Prova cega – Blind tasting

Prova vertical – Vertical tasting

Redução – Reduction

Remontagem – Pumping over

Rolha – Cork

Saca-rolhas – Corkscrew

Serviço à mesa – Table service

Tanino – Tannin

Temperatura de serviço – Serving temperature

Tinto – Red

Verdadeiro vinho – Authentic wine (often used to distinguish natural or traditional wines – optional entry)

Vinha velha – Old vine

Vindima – Harvest

Vinho – Wine (can also refer to classification outside DOC/IGP)

Vinho de garagem – Garage wine

Vinho de Talha – Amphora wine

Vinho Espumante – Sparkling wine

Vinho Licoroso – Fortified wine

Vinho Regional (IGP in the EU) – Protected Geographical Indication (less strict than DOC)

Vinho Tranquilo – Still wine

Vinho Verde – Wine from the Vinho Verde DOC (sometimes just “Verde”)