Home › Glossary › Letter W

Whole Cluster

Viniculture
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A winemaking practice in which grapes are fermented with their stems and bunches intact.

Detailed Definition
Whole-cluster fermentation can add structure, spice, lift, and a distinctive herbal character, though its effects depend on ripeness and cellar choices. The practice offers poetry an image of refusing disassembly: fruit, stem, and architecture entering transformation together. It can evoke memory kept in context, a body not reduced to its sweetest parts, or a community whose complexity survives because its pieces are allowed to remain connected.
Example
Example in poetry:
Whole cluster winemaking ferments intact bunches of grapes rather than separating every berry from its stem; “Whole cluster fermentation brought a lifted, herbal note to the red wine”; A poet may describe the intact bunches as a community of fruit, stems, and air; “The cellar received whole cluster grapes, each bunch carrying its small architecture”; The technique can add freshness, stem character, and sometimes a gentle rusticity.
Additional Notes
Whole-cluster fermentation leaves some or all stems attached to the fruit. It can increase freshness, lift, and structural tannin when stems are ripe and suitable, but green stems may add vegetal flavors. The practice is related to carbonic and semi-carbonic fermentation, though it is not identical.
Also Known As
Whole Bunch Whole-Cluster Fermentation Whole-Bunch Fermentation
Skip to main content