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Bacchus
The Roman god of wine. The Bacchus white grape variety comes from a crossing between a Silvaner-Riesling and Müller-Thurgau.

Barrel
A wooden container, generally 60-gallons, used for fermenting and/or aging wines. New oak barrels impart aroma and taste to the wine.
Barrel-fermented
Barrel-fermented wines, usually white and often Chardonnays, have been fermented in oak containers. Fermenting wines in oak barrels tends to impart a more subtle oak character than simply aging them in oak barrels. Successful barrel fermentation makes the wine rounder, and creamier, with a hint of butter, toast, spice, and vanilla.
Blend
To combine two or more individual lots of wine, usually coming from different grape varieties. Skilled winemakers also blend juices from different vineyard or different vintages. In France most Bordeaux wines blends of different grape varieties, while most Burgundies are not. Champagnes are usually the result of blending dozens of lots, often combining red (Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) grapes and white (Chardonnay) grapes. Traditional Italian Chiantis are blends of red and white grapes. Modern Chiantis are not.
Blush Wine
A blush wine is made from red grapes but in a white wine style. Blush wines are pink in color.
Body
A wine's body is its weight as perceived in the mouth. A wine may be described as light, medium, or full bodied. Its body is usually related to its alcohol level but is independent of its strength of flavor.
Bordeaux Mixture
A blue-green fungicide made from copper sulfate and slaked lime, widely used in Europe to prevent mildew.
Botrytis Cinera (noble rot)
Botrytis cinerea is a beneficial grape skin mold that removes water and shrivels the grapes. This process concentrates the sugars and intensifies the bouquet and aroma. Many of the world’s greatest dessert wines, such as French Sauternes, German Trockenbeerenauslese, and Hungarian Tokaji Aszú are the products of this truly Noble Rot. If conditions are not just right, instead of Noble Rot, the grapes undergo Grey Rot, which means that they just rot. Just a word of advice, if you have a weak stomach, stay away from pictures of either category of affected grapes.
Bottle aging
A wine’s maturation after bottling that may enhance its quality. Red wines are more likely than white wines to improve with bottle aging, but exceptions abound.
Bottle fermentation
Bottle fermentation occurs when a sparkling wine’s secondary fermentation occurred in the bottle instead of in a large vat.
Bottle sickness
A temporary condition, perhaps from shaking a bottle, that disturbs a wine reducing its fruit flavors. Leaving the bottle undisturbed for a few days usually remedies this condition. A synonym is bottle shock.
Bouquet
The bouquet is the smell of a mature wine. Contrast to aroma.
Brettanomyces
A fungal infection. This fungus can originate in the vineyard but is also found in barrels and other wooden elements of the winery. Contaminated wines may have barnyard, horse, or metallic aromas. Unfortunately some usually excellent wines such as Châteauneuf du Pape of the Rhône Valley and St Julien of Bordeaux may be contaminated.
Brix
A scale that measures liquid density, indicating the sugar level.
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