Home > Wine Glossary > P: Palo Cortado to Puttonyos

Wine Glossary: P

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Palo Cortado
A rare style of dry Sherry. It is the result of failure of complete development of the flor, so it starts life as neither Fino nor Amontillado. What flor there is subsequently dies, and as a consequence the eventual wine develops a character midway between an Amontillado and an Oloroso.

Passito (Italy)
The passito method describes the drying of grapes prior to fermentation. The dehydration results in an increased sugar concentration. The practice is traditional in Veneto, Italy, particularly in the production of Amarone della Valpolicella and Recioto della Valpolicella, but also for Recioto di Soave and other sweet wines. Traditionally the grapes are dried on straw mats, but they may also be dried in baskets in warm lofts, or even hung directly from the rafters.

Pasteurisation
The process of sterilisation by heating, named after Louis Pasteur. The process may be used to protect against bacterial spoilage before bottling, by heating the wine. There are concerns, however, about the effect of heat on the quality of wine, and thus many quality orientated producers avoid this practice. Nevertheless some famous producers do employ flash pasteurisation.

Pedro Ximénez
An important Sherry grape, which produces an intensely sweet juice. It may be bottled as an unblended PX Sherry - so obviously a very sweet wine - or may be blended with other wines to produce a sweet style.

Pétillant (France)
A term used to describe a lightly sparkling wine. Pétillance may occur in many wines not intended to be sparkling at all, such as top German Rieslings which may often be bottled with a small amount of residual carbon dioxide, hence the sparkle.

Photosynthesis
The biological process in which plants, by virtue of chlorophyll and energy derived from the sun, convert carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. The result is the accumulation of sugar in the plant, including the fruit. The accumulation of sugar continues until the fruit is eventually considered ripe, although this only refers to sugar ripeness not physiological ripeness.

Phylloxera
A vine louse which devastated the vineyards of Europe in the late 18th Century. The cause of the disease was initially uncertain, but eventually the Phylloxera vastatrix louse was identified on the roots of the affected vines. It was imported from North America, where the indigenous American Vitis labrusca vines are resistant to the effects of the louse. The solution: graft the European Vitis vinifera vines onto American rootstock. Now, save for a tiny proportion of vineyards, all vines are grafted onto such rootstock before planting. This caused many difficulties - no longer could cash-strapped vignerons propagate vines by pushing a runner into the soil - they had to purchase more expensive grafted vines from the nursery. Some vignerons today continue to plant ungrafted material, because of heritage (such as the vines for Bollinger's Vieilles Vignes Française Champagne), expense, because of a belief that ungrafted vines make better wine, or because they have suitable soils - Phylloxera dislikes sandy soils.

Physiological ripeness
This refers to the ripening of substances other than sugar in the grapes, such as tannins. Picking grapes that have sugar ripeness ensures the wine will reach a sufficient alcohol content as the sugar is converted, but if the grapes are not physiologically ripe they will impart a green, harsh character to the wine. The onset of physiological ripeness is signified by the change in colour of the pips from green to yellow.

Pierce's Disease
A bacterial disease spread by insects known as sharpshooters or leafhoppers. It has devastated areas of California's vineyards. There is no known treatment, although the problem is subject to considerable research.

Pigeage (France)
This is one method of submerging the cap of skins and grape solids, which is kept in contact with the fermenting wine to increase extract during the cuvaison. Pigeage à pied is the process of pushing it down with the foot. The same may be achieved by pumping the fermenting wine over the cap, or be submerging it using boards laid across the top of the vat.

Portugal
See my Portuguese wine guide.

Potential Alcohol
The potential alcohol depends on the must weight. The more sugar there is in the juice prior to fermentation, the greater the amount of alcohol in the final wine, hence it has a higher potential alcohol.

Powdery Mildew
See Oidium.

Prädikat (Germany, Austria)
The Prädikat is a classification of wine depending on the must weight, which may be reported in a variety of units including KMW, Oechsle, Baumé and Brix. The classification includes three basic levels, Kabinett, Spätlese or Auslese. Additional categories include Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese and Eiswein. This is the only classification system dependent on sugar content, implying (although it is not necessarily true) that the more sugar a wine has the better it is - a belief no doubt related to Germany's northerly location where ripening of grapes has been difficult in the past. It does not form a guide to taste, as a wine with a higher must weight may be vinified dry and so will not necessarily taste sweeter. For more information see my German wine guide.

Press wine
During the winemaking process the wine must be taken from the grape solids - pips, skins, pulp and stalks. First it may be run off - this is the free-run wine and is of higher quality than the wine obtained by pressing the cap, which is the press wine. Press wine has more tannin. It may be blended back in in varying proportions according to the practice of the winemaker, or it may even be blended into another wine if more than one cuvée is produced, such as at Charles Joguet in Chinon.

Prüfungsnummer (Germany)
See Amtliche Prüfnummer.

Pruning
Essential vineyard practice, important in canopy management. For more information see my article on vine training techniques.

Pupitre (France)
A wine rack which holds bottles in a suitable position for remuage. For more information see my guide to Champagne.

Puttonyos (Hungary)
A 25kg basket used in the harvest of grapes, puttonyos have become a measure of the addition of sweet nobly rotten grapes known as Aszú to Tokay wine. The more puttonyos are added per gönc of dry wine, the sweeter the final wine will be. Generally wines range from three to six puttonyos. A wine made from harvested grapes where the Aszú are not separated out range from dry to sweet and are called Szamoridni. A wine made from the puttonyos grapes alone is called Aszú Essencia.

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