Crush

Used as a verb, “to crush” means to break the grape skins so that the pulp oozes out and fermentation can more easily begin. As a noun, crush is the general term used for all of the steps, including harvesting, that take place just prior to FERMENTATION.

A full bodied wine has more flavor and a longer finish than a light bodied wine.

Answer: False.

Though it might seem like a full bodied wine would be bigger in every possible way, a wine’s body has nothing to do with its flavor intensity or the length of its finish. A wine’s body is its weight on the palate. A full bodied wine has a weight similar to Half n Half, while a light bodied wine has a weight more similar to skim milk. But either a full bodied or a light bodied wine can be intense in flavor and either can have a long finish. Finally, you might ask: what gives a wine weight? The answer is alcohol. The more alcohol, the fuller the body, and the heavier the wine will feel.

“Age gives a wine a sense of beauty and satisfaction that it could never have had before when it was young. In our minds, we intuit that beauty and satisfaction as a feeling of completeness. Because so much of life is incomplete, an old wine is remarkable and moving.”

—Warren Winiarski
Founder of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars

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