Name for a wine, which is used to define the taste of a certain type of wine in a wine evaluation. It is used, for example, when a wine must meet certain sensory requirements in a quality inspection. These can be different requirements such as "no barrique note" and/or "fruity" and/or "regionally typical" and/or "no tastable residual sugar" and/or "no botrytis note". The reference wine must meet all these defined requirements, regardless of the number of points it scores in any grading. It then serves as a benchmark for the wines to be assessed. A level wine has a completely different objective.
The glossary is a monumental achievement and one of the most important contributions to wine knowledge. Of all the encyclopaedias I use on the subject of wine, it is by far the most important. That was the case ten years ago and it hasn't changed since.
Andreas Essl
Autor, Modena