2023-05-05 16:39:11
If you spend any length of time in France, a vineyard tour and wine-tasting is almost obligatory, not to mention choosing wine in restaurants and savouring a good bottle with family and friends.
But this can bring with it a certain amount of stress around the specialist and technical French vocab particular to wine.
This is because the world of wine, really rather unfairly it has to be said, has a reputation as a world of high-minded connoisseurs, with lingering notes of pretentiousness and an aroma of self-superiority.
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In truth, it mostly isn’t like that, especially away from the great vintage set – and going on a vineyard tour, or a wine-tasting is one of the joys of being in France.
Although many of the bigger vineyards offer English-speaking tours, it’s still a good idea to know at least some French terms – this is France, and knowing a few words always helps break the ice – when you head to the winery.
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Let’s start with the basics; a red wine is a vin rougea white is a vin white. Pink is the same in both languages and you might also come across a yellow wine (yellow wine) – this is a particular style of white wine.
A grape is, confusingly, called and raisin in French (what’s a raisin in French? It’s a raisin – a dried grape. Logical).
In terms of where the wine is made, the French term for vineyard is a vineyard while a wine cellar is a cave. (pronounced oon-cav). This is also the term used for a specialist wine shop.
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When describing the flavour or taste of a wine you might hear your sommelier (the person serving you, be nice to them) mention certain wines being sugar (sugary); or talk about acidity (acidity); the sea (bitter) and dirty (salty). They may also mention sec (dry), soft (sweet), or corset (full-bodied).
You’ll also hear many mentions of the terroir (te-woaaah) – this technically translates as soil or earth, but in wine terms it means how the growing environment (the soil, the weather, the altitude, the farming practices etc) affects the grape and thus the taste of the wine. For some producers terroir has an almost mystical importance.
Here are some other useful terms and phrases:
Tasting (day-gus-tass-yon) – A tasting. You may see the word on a sign outside a vineyard. You can wish someone a ‘nice tasting’ by saying ‘Good tasting‘.
I’ll have a glass of white (jhe vay prond-rr un verr de blan) – I’ll take a glass of white [wine]
The color / the dress (la cool-err / la robb) – The colour of the wine. It’s important to mention this, and try to use synonyms for the classic colours.
Rotate (fair turn-ay) – swirl. As in swirl the wine in your glass to release the…
Bouquet (boo – kay) – the aroma of the wine when you taste it. Try to remember fruit and flowers and use those terms. If you can, sneak a look at the bottle. That usually tells you what the vintner / marketing people think it smells of.
I prefer fruity wines. (jhe preh-fir lay ven freetay) – I prefer fruity wines. Feel free to substitute the adjective according to your wine preferences. Options include: costs (fray) – fresh; sparkling (pett-e-lon) – sparkling; syrupy (lick-or-err) – sweet; wooded (bwa-say)
Smell the aromas (sonteer lez a-romm) – Smell the aromas. Another way of saying bouquet.
take a sip (prend-rr one gorjay) – To take a sip
It is a sweet/dry/full-bodied/spicy wine (set un van doo / sec / cor-say / eh-pee-say) – it’s a sweet / dry / full-bodied / spicy wine
This wine is good (se ven ey bon) – you like the wine, you intend to buy half-a-dozen bottles. Say this.
This wine is piquette (se ven ey de la pick-ett). DO NOT SAY THIS – EVEN IN JEST. It means the wine tastes ‘cheap’ and references a drink made out of the skins, pulp, seeds, and stems of grapes and water. Better to simply leave the wine, or – if there’s a bucket for the purpose (and there may be) – politely tip it into there before moving on to, hopefully better, wines.
A wine region (oona rej-eon vit-e-col) a wine-growing region
Harvest (twenty-danger) – the French for “grape harvest”. If you are in wine country at the end of the summer, you may be able to help out at one. It’s genuinely hard work, though.
The grape variety (le seh-parj) – the grape variety. Honestly, there are so many varieties of grape, and some of them are pretty rare… Braucol, anyone, or Duras, which are used to make Gaillac wines in southwest France…
a wine lover (an amateur / amatreece de ven) – a wine lover
Oh, and already we’ve covered what to say if you’ve enjoyed a little too much vineyard hospitality.
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