Cellar

Cellar book

The record of every movement and every treatment in the cellar that wine law requires.

Every addition, every removal, every blend, every oenological practice. Not because anybody enjoys it, but because the stock declaration, the harvest declaration and the production declaration are all calculated out of it.

Kept properly, it is not extra work but the source of the returns. Kept alongside the real work, it is both: the work and then the writing up.

English says cellar book, not journal or diary — the German term names a legal record.

In detail on this site Cellar book →

Related terms

Append-only A method in which entries are only ever added, never altered and never deleted. Reversing entry A new entry that cancels an earlier one — instead of deleting it. Batch A defined quantity of wine that is treated and tracked as one unit. Blending Bringing several wines or musts together into a new one — with every consequence wine law… Must weight The sugar content of the must, measured in Germany in degrees Oechsle. Racking Moving the clear wine off the lees into a clean vessel. Oenological practice Any permitted intervention on the wine that has to be recorded — from deacidification to… Fining A treatment that binds cloudy matter and clarifies the wine — with bentonite, gelatine or… Traceability The duty to be able to show, for any product, one step back and one step forward. Stock declaration The annual declaration to the competent authority of the wine held on 31 July. Harvest declaration The declaration of the quantities harvested, by area, variety and quality level. Production declaration The declaration of what was actually produced in the cellar out of the harvest.

These terms in daily use, not in a glossary. The tour shows where each of them turns up in VINORUM — in sixteen units at your own pace.

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