Home > Wine Glossary > L: Lactic Acid to Lyre Training

Wine Glossary: L

Glossary pages: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ

Lactic acid
One of the many acids that contribute to the overall acidity of a wine. This acid, which is also found in milk, makes a much softer impression on the palate than many others, such as malic acid. As a consequence many winemakers encourage the conversion of the harsh malic acid to lactic acid by the malolactic fermentation.

Lagar (Portugal, Spain)
Not a misspelling of a popular style of beer, rather a traditional stone trough where grapes are crushed underfoot.

Landwein (Germany, Austria)
The equivalent of French vin de pays, although whereas there are many enjoyable bottles of vin de pays, this is less likely to be true of landwein!

Languedoc
See my Languedoc guides, for the Coteaux du Languedoc and Outside the Coteaux du Languedoc.

Late bottled vintage
A style of Port, first introduced by Quinta do Noval in 1954. It is designed to mimic the vintage style, with less time until release and less expense. The wines are softened by ageing in wood for up to six years and are generally ready for consumption when released. The best, although not the cheapest, examples are labelled 'traditional' or 'unfiltered'. These offer a real glimpse of vintage quality and often continue to improve after release.

Lees
A heavy sediment consisting of dead yeast cells and other solid matter such as grape pulp, pips and so on. Keeping the wine on the lees, especially if they are stirred from time to time, may be beneficial to the wine, imparting extra flavour and body. Eventually, however, they must be removed. This may be achieved by racking the wine off the lees. Residual solid matter may be removed by filtration.

Left Bank
A collective term for the communes of the left bank of the Gironde in Bordeaux. For more information, see my guide to Bordeaux wine.

Legs
A tasting term. It refers to the tear-like tracks that a wine makes down the side of a glass after it has been swirled. It may be related to alcohol or glycerol content - it's a matter of contention. Not really essential for assessing the quality of a wine, although some tasters do still pass comment on the legs.

Length
A tasting term, describing how long the flavour of the wine persists on the palate after it has been swallowed. A lengthy persistence of flavour may be taken as a sign of quality, but to time it, as some people do, is going too far.

Lieu-dit (France)
A term most often used when describing Burgundy and Alsace. It refers to a named vineyard which does not have Premier or Grand Cru appellation.

Loire
See my Loire Valley wine guide.

Lyre
A vine training method. More details may be found in my advice page on vine training techniques.

Glossary pages: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ