Wine Words Demystyfied: Brix

You know the deal; the more some folks learn about a topic, the more shortcuts/slang/acronyms/initials/technical jargon can be tossed around.  I’m here to help you understand those sometimes mysterious words and phrases, thus – Wine Words Demystified!

This week’s word is Brix…

According to Karen MacNeil‘s The Wine Bible:

A measure of the sugar content of grapes before they are harvested.  Used to estimate the ALCOHOL content of the resulting wine

Brix are measured in degrees.  It is an approximation rather than an exact measurement.  Each degree Brix is equivalent to 1g sugar per 100g juice.

It’s pretty common, when reading about a wine or talking to winemaker, for the degrees brix to be mentioned (e.g. the grapes for this wine were picked at 22 degrees brix)

Brix may be measured with an instrument like this…

Refractometer – Image courtesy of online.missouri.edu