How Do You Pronounce Foreign Wine Names
In the past year, I’ve noticed an odd thingbubble up in pop music: artists talking about drinking wine they know nothingabout. It happens in Frank Ocean’s “Super Rich Kids” and in André 3000’s guest verse on Rick Ross’s”Sixteen”
Maybe two isn’t quite an official phenomenon,but it does make a strange blip in an otherwise strong current of winename-dropping fashionability in pop music . The songs involve too many layers of role playing to know how Oceanor André 3000 personally feel about wine, but Oceanor Ocean’s charactergotone thing right: Wine names can be maddeningly tricky to pronounce.
Evidence suggests that wineries would do well tonot make it any easier: A recent study from Brock University found that peoplewere more likely to pay a higher price for wines with harder-to-pronouncenames.
Even though we apparently enjoy paying for theprivilege of not being able to pronounce a brand, I have to say that, on theconsumer end, having to say an unknown wine name out loud can be a humblingexperience. Compounding the problem is that what is “correct” to say inthe country from which the wine is from may not be the “correct” Americanizedversion.
With wine names that have different Americanizedand original pronunciations, I can see the argument for either side, and I’mgenerally not one to condemn. My No. 1 rule when it comes to wine is”don’t make people feel bad.” Life is too short.
French Wines that are Sometimes Pronouncedthe American Way
Bollinger
Taittinger
The Guide To Pronouncing The Names Of Popular Wines
Often it can seem like knowing how to pronounce all of the different types and styles of wine out there is a bit like learning a foreign language, and it basically is, since so many of the wines we wind up buying retain their Old World names. This can be daunting, especially if French, German, Spanish and Italian arent languages with which youre familiar. It can be even worse when you say the name in a way you think is correct, only to have the name smugly said back to you by a waiter or shopkeeper the correct way, automatically causing you to lose the taste you once had for the bottle.
Since no one likes feeling uncomfortable when it comes to wine, and its even less fun to be made to feel like an amateur, were here to help. Here are the wine terms with which youre most likely to come in contact the most often, and how to pronounce each one like youre a pro.
How To Pronounce Italian Wine Names Like A Pro
To fully enjoy your Italian wine-drinking experience, practice with the following pronunciation guide the syllable in all CAPS is the one to accent. Soon, you’ll be speaking Italian like a true wine lover.
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Amarone: ah mah RO nae
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Brunello di Montalcino: brew NEL lo dee mahn tahl CHEE no
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Chianti Classico: key AHN tee CLAHS see co
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Dolcetto: dohl CHET toh
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How To Pronounce French Wines:
The green-skinned sauvignon blanc grape is found in Bordeaux, the Loire Valley and other regions and is used to make white wines. It is now grown worldwide. I love New Zealands sauvignon blancs too. Heres how you say it.
Im staying local here with this grape variety that calls the Loire Valley home. Its been cultivated for about 1,300 years and is used to make Vouvray and other varieties. Heres the chenin blanc pronunciation:
Originally from Burgundy, chardonnay is everyones favorite white wine. Is it yours? Say it the right way:
From the Nantes area, this dry, light-bodied white wine is a must-try if youre ever in my hood.
Everyone knows about the worlds favorite bubbly! Tom cringes every time I say Cham-payne like the American that I am. Its named after the region Champagne and you say it like this:
France has several varieties of Crémant but my biased favorite is the one from the Loire, where I live. It comes in white and rosé and is an affordable choice for New Years, apéro or whenever. I wrote more about Cremant here. You say it like this:
This red wine grape variety is well-known and now found pretty much all over the world. Say it like a pro:
The Cotes du Rhône wines were officially recognized in 1937, and this appellation produces some wonderful Grenache and Grenache blanc . Say it right:
Pinot noir grapes are found in several regions of France and the world. Say it the right way:
Wine Pronunciation Guide For Beginners
This article was originally published on . All credit goes to www.ilovewine.com and the author, Avery.
Learning to pronounce grape varieties and other wine terms can be quite daunting for beginners. When I first fell in love with wine, I was adventurous enough to point to menus and bottles for pronunciations when I was unsure, but not everyone feels so bold. Some wines we hear about often enough that their pronunciations seem commonplace. Few people struggle with Champagne or Merlot, for example. But, Ive noticed variations in Pinot Noir pronunciation from person to person. Here, weve compiled a list of more than thirty wine pronunciations to help you get started.
Note that some pronunciations vary from region to region, even between predominantly English-speaking countries, so theres no need to be too fussy or snobby about it.
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Learn The Names Of Wines And How To Pronounce Themyour Friends Will Be Very Impressed When You Correct Them
Barbera – Red grape variety. Most famous in the Piedmont region of NW Italy, where copious quantities are consumed with gusto. Lots of bright, sappy fruit and a tart, edgy quality that makes it a wonderful meal partner.
Cabernet Franc – Red grape variety and member of the Cabernet family. Bright raspberry fruit and occasionally leafy tobacco and green herb flavors. Typically softer than Cabernet Sauvignon.
Cabernet Sauvignon – Red grape variety. Widely planted with Bordeaux as its historical reference point. Often blended with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Flavors run from red cherry to blackcurrant and are usually quite assertive.
Carignan – Red grape variety. The most common grape variety in France and widely planted in the Midi. Carignan tends to be low in acidity, extract and tannin making it useful for blending. Also planted in Algeria, Spain and Californias Central Valley.
Charbono – Red grape variety. Obscure at best and probably better known in California than anywhere else, although its origins point to southern France. Capable of producing hearty, richly flavored reds with real personality.
Chardonnay – White grape variety. The white wine darling of the wine world. Widely planted and fairly successful in many areas of the world. Varies widely in style from the crisp lemon-lime-mineral flavors of classic Chablis to rich, oaky, buttery wines from California, Australia and other areas of the new world.
How To Pronounce French Wines So You Sound Like An Expert
Have you ever scanned a restaurants wine menu only to nervously wonder how on earth youre supposed to pronounce the name of the wine when it comes time to order? You try to practice a few options under your breath, but at the very last moment you order a Coke to save yourself the embarrassment of a flubbed chenin blanc pronunciation in front of new friends or colleagues.
Back in the US, its no big deal if you botch the name of the wine. Others around you are probably doing the same thing. Besides, you could always just point to the one you want. But if youre visiting France and want to get the name of the wine right, this post is for you Toms joining me today and together were cluing you in on how to pronounce French wines.
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How Are Wines Named
You can see the wine name when going through the bottle label. When it comes to naming this beverage, one of two approaches can be taken.
One is by identifying where the grape originated and what varietals were used in its creation. For centuries, the location where a specific wine is produced has been deeply ingrained in its name.
In Europe, it was not uncommon for wines to have the names derived from a specific place of origin, like in some French wines named from French wine regions. However, this practice differs significantly outside of Europe as many countries do not make or produce enough wine varieties on such a large scale.
Clear As Mudpractice Makes Perfect
Okay, pop a cork and grab a glass of your favorite Italian wine and lets practice speaking the most common Italian wine names. Ive pulled together a list below and provided audio tracks so you can hear me pronounce the name, and Ive included the phonetic spelling so you can sound it out.
Note that the phonetic spelling Ive provided is intended to make it easy to read & pronounce for Americans. If youre an expert in the Italian language or linguistics and think a name should be pronounced differently, then Add your recommendation to the Reply section at the bottom of this page and Ill update the list. You may want to bookmark this page for future reference.
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How To Nail Your Wine Name Pronunciation
Weve all been there. Youre looking at the wine menu, and you think you know which wine you want, but theres just one problemyour wine name pronunciation is hit or miss.
Your cheeks get hot. Your palms start to sweat. And you curse yourself for not sticking with high school level French Spanish? German? What language even is this?
In fact, the mere idea of uttering this strange arrangement of letters makes you want to throw the wine menu across the room and hide in a hole for the rest of eternity.
First off, this reaction is completely normal and natural. Second off, theres really no need to be embarrassed. Some wine words are extremely counterintuitive or feature crazy accents and umlauts , while some wine words look like straight up gibberish.
Unless youre a certified sommelier with years of training, chances are, some wine words are going to trip you up. The important thing is giving it the good old college try, and keep learning as you go.
Hopefully you have the kind of friends who would pull you aside rather than call you out in front of a group of people. We hope you consider this blog post exactly that a slight nudge from a friend.
Fear not today youll learn the right way to say the most mispronounced wine words.
The 31 Most Difficult Wine And Grapes Names: How To Pronounce Them
On CTV News, Leanne and I chat about the most difficult wine and grape names to pronounce.
As anglophones, we find many of these names difficult since their origins are often European, with accents and inflections that are new to us.
Tip: often e and i are pronounced in the reverse when in the middle of a word, and an e at the end of a name often sounds like a long a.
Why bother? We often overlook these terrific wines, and dont ask for them in liquor stores or in restaurants because theyre so hard to say.
We also pay tribute to the movie My Fair Lady at the beginning of segment one.
In the clips, Rex Harrison as Dr. Henry Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle practise pronouncing that chestnut phrase, The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain.
Hes trying to teach her the elegance of the English language, and how important it is to use proper diction and enunciation, especially if you dont want to be pegged uncultured and lower class.
Meanwhile, a real-life and modern-day doctorate of learning, Dr. Antonia Mantonakis, is teaching us about how we react to difficult wine names.
Dr. Mantonakis, the brilliant lead researcher at Brock Universitys Cool Climate of Oenolgy and Viticulture Institute in St. Catharines, has conducted many break-through studies of consumer wine habits.
Among them, consumers will pay more for wines that have more difficult to pronounce wine names.
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White Wines
| Ksee NO ma vro |
Natalie: Exactly.
Natalie: Yes.
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Top 12 Difficult Wine Names To Pronounce
Wines are made and sold all around the world these days, and many are still made all across Europe in countries speaking varied languages.
Grape varieties have been selected from Vitis Vinifera and adapted to different climates and soils in all corner of Europe. They have different names in their respective region of origin.
Furthermore, many wine appellation are named after the famous local wine village.
As a result, many names of wines are simply very difficult, hard to pronounce for non-French, -German, -Spanish, or -Italian speakers.
While there are thousands of wine names that make most of us uncomfortable saying, for some of them, it just seems impossible to figure out the correct pronunciation when looking at them.
Here weve selected the 12 hardest names of wines to pronounce properly, unless you know and hear their correct pronunciation first. once youve done that indeed, you will realize they are not all that difficult to say after all
This is why you will find below a video gathering and explaining those 12 impossible wine terms, what they mean and where they come. Once youve heard a word in its context and its meaning, its simply much easier to remember.
You will also find individual videos for each word if you need further details and explanation about how to pronounce them. Enjoy
Leopoldo Lares: The 31 Most Difficult Wine And Grapes Names: How To Pronounce Them
On CTV News, Leanne and I chat about the most difficult wine and grape names to pronounce.
As anglophones, we find many of these names difficult since their origins are often European, with accents and inflections that are new to us.
Tip: often e and i are pronounced in the reverse when in the middle of a word, and an e at the end of a name often sounds like a long a.
Why bother? We often overlook these terrific wines, and dont ask for them in liquor stores or in restaurants because theyre so hard to say.
We also pay tribute to the movie My Fair Lady at the beginning of segment one.
In the clips, Rex Harrison as Dr. Henry Higgins and Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle practise pronouncing that chestnut phrase, The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain.
Hes trying to teach her the elegance of the English language, and how important it is to use proper diction and enunciation, especially if you dont want to be pegged uncultured and lower class.
Meanwhile, a real-life and modern-day doctorate of learning, Dr. Antonia Mantonakis, is teaching us about how we react to difficult wine names.
Dr. Mantonakis, the brilliant lead researcher at Brock Universitys Cool Climate of Oenolgy and Viticulture Institute in St. Catharines, has conducted many break-through studies of consumer wine habits.
Among them, consumers will pay more for wines that have more difficult to pronounce wine names.
Wines Featured on CTV
White Wines
| Ksee NO ma vro |
Natalie: Exactly.
Natalie: Yes.
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How To Pronounce French Wines And Chenin Blanc Pronunciation
Lets get right into it. Most people arent going to nail French wine pronunciation and sound exactly like Tom , but just do your best.
Below youll find out how to pronounce French wines like a French person in French. But be warned, if you get too fancy and bust out your perfect French pronunciation somewhere other than in France, your friends might tease you for being so French and not pronouncing the wines like an English speaker.
Some of the words below are regions, grapes and wine types all words youll want to get right! . And by no means is this an all-inclusive list. Just a few of my faves like chenin blanc pronunciation.
**Click the little play icon underneath each picture for the wine pronunciation audio that Tom so generously recorded for me. He says each French wine pronunciation twice the first time is at regular speed and the second is slower so you can hear the sounds better. -)**
How To Pronounce Wine Names
Taste testing wine once it has arrived at your table is easy, proper pronunciation when ordering can make anyone a little nervous. You may be out to dinner with clients to close a deal, celebrating a milestone with colleagues, or just enjoying conversation with friends, but in any scenario, knowing proper pronunciation is a quick way to impress.
Wines come from all over the world and that can make pronunciation tricky, having you thinking back to your high school Spanish, French, or Italian classes. For example, do you say Cabernet with a hard t? Is the d in dAbruzzo silent or not?”
Dont worry you dont need to take language classes or meet privately with a sommelier . Weve got you covered with a wine pronunciation guide that you will want to bookmark for years to come.
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Wine Names Pronunciation Guide
Not being able to pronounce a word can be embarrassing. I should know since I had to learn English practically from scratch when I moved to Los Angeles in the 90s. To this day, I continue to mispronounce certain words, but my sons make sure to correct me when I do )
English has been widely propagated around the world by the British Empire. Through the spread of English literature, world media networks such as the BBC, the emergence of the US as a global superpower, and the Internet, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and in professional contexts such as science. But when it comes to wine, the terminology belongs to Europe With the exception of the word meritage which is a made-up term that belongs to California, and is pronounced mer-i-tij .
