To treat wine with gall (an acidic substance from oak galls) or to use tannic substances to improve wine's flavor and aging properties.
From 'gall' (the acidic growth on plants, particularly oak trees) plus the suffix '-ize.' This winemaking technique refers to adding tannins to enhance wine chemistry, a practice dating to medieval European vineyards.
Winemakers discovered that oak galls contain powerful tannins that make wine taste better and last longer—it's basically the 14th-century equivalent of laboratory testing to perfect a product.
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