With the September wine fairs about to start up all over France, we dust off our wine vocabulary...
Le vin - Wine
Le vin rouge - Red wine
Le vin rosé - Rosé wine
Le vin blanc - White wine
Le champagne - Champagne
Une bouteille de vin - A bottle of wine
Une bouteille à vin - A wine bottle
Un verre de vin - A glass of wine
Un verre à vin - A wine glass
Un pichet - A jug
Le cépage - Grape variety
Le millésime - The vintage
Les fûts (m) de chêne -Oak barrels
Un vin de table - A table wine
Appellation d'origine protégée (AOP) - Protected Designation of Origin
Un bouchon - A cork
Un tire-bouchon - A bottle opener / corkscrew
Une capsule à vis - A screw cap
Un bouchon à vis - A screw cap
Un vigneron - A winemaker
Un vignoble - A vineyard
Une vigne - A vine
Une cave à vin - A wine cellar
Un casier à bouteilles - A wine rack
Boire - To drink
Une dégustation - A tasting
Goûter - To taste, to sample
Cracher - To spit out
Trinquer - To have a toast
Un vin fruité - A fruity wine
Un vin sec - A dry wine
Un vin doux - A sweet wine
L'acidité (f) - The acidity or 'freshness'
L'onctuosité (f) - The smoothness
Les tanins (m) - The tannins
Pétillant, effervescent, mousseux - Sparkling
Les bulles - Bubbles
Un vin bouchonné - A corked wine
En bouche - In the mouth (flavour)
Le nez - The 'nose' or bouquet
La robe - The 'dress' or colour
The above vocabulary lists will give you an excellent basic tool kit to go out and start filling the wine cellar. For those wine enthusiasts amongst you, who already have a good level of French, here is an excellent video that will help you to really sound like an expert!
And to really start sounding like a native, sprinkle some of these wine-based sayings into your conversation!
La vie est trop courte pour boire du mauvais vin - Life is too short to drink bad wine (Life's too short...)
A bon vin ne faut pas de bouchon - A good wine doesn't need a cork (A good artisan doesn't need to advertise)
A bon vin ne faut point d'enseigne - A good wine doesn't need a label (A good artisan doesn't need to advertise)
Savoir mettre de l’eau dans son vin - To know how to water down your wine (To know how to do things in moderation)
Vin à faire danser les chèvres - A wine to make the goats danse (A really bad wine)
Faire jambe de vin - To make 'wine leg' (Drink for the strength to walk, 'Dutch courage')
Qui a bu, boira - He who has drunk, will drink (A leopard never changes its spots)
A votre santé ! - To your (good) health, cheers!
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