Hi Bill,

There's also:

Piquette: Boisson domestique que fabriquaient jadis les vignerons pour leur
consommation personnelle en remettant de l'eau et du sucre sur les marcs de
fond de cuve après l'écoulement du vin. Face à la surproduction viticole,
cette pratique est interdite en France depuis 1945 et en Europe par les
règlements communautaires.

This is a term my brother in law (he's from the Bordeaux region of France)
explained to me when we tasted a really bad red wine at the "Chambly beer
and wine tasting festival" last month. The owner told us it was a "fruity"
wine. P Tated more like water glogged around the bottom of an oak barrel.
Piquette!

Louise)


"Bill McCarty" wrote in message
...
The Roman legions certainly brought vines into France Already in
Roman times the cool northern Burgundy region had been identified as
ideally suited to production of fine quality wines. and the warmer
southern regions ideally suited for lesser quality, but higher quantity
of wine. With wines being made in France for a few thousand years,
the French have developed an entire vocabulary used to describe
wines. Many of their terms are used world wide by wine growers and wine
writers. Below is a list of terms you may have come across and which
may have puzzled or intimidated you. Now your days of puzzlement or
intimidation are over ! . You can even drop a few fancy terms into your
own conversation. Enjoy !

The first terms are concerned with how a wine looks at first glance:

Le Voir. seeing.
La Robe. refers to the general way the wine comes across to
the viewer from 4 visual aspects:
Limpidité. limpidity or clarity
Brillant brilliance
Teintes colors
Viscosité viscosity or surface tension.

Limpidity can be further qualified as follows:
claire light
faible weak
légère slight
faneé faded
tendre delicate
pure clear
net clean
cristalline crystal clear
diaphane transparent
chatoyante iridescent
bien habillee well dressed
mal habillee poorly dressed
foncée dark
terne dull
vive vivid
riche rich
chargée too colored
voilée cloudy
louche cloudy
borrue murky
plombée livid
bleuatre off color, bluish
grisatre off color, greyish
tuilée off color, brick like
opalescent resembling an opal

Here's a range of tints for white, red and rosé wines:
Vins blancs white wines
jaune clair light yellow
jaune serin canary yellow
jaune d'or golden
jaune paille straw colored
jaune ambré amber colored

Vins rouges red wines
rubis ruby red
franc red
grenat garnet
pourpre crimson
violacé purple

Vins rosés rosé wines
oeil-de-perdrix brilliant pale red
rosé vif brilliant pink
pelure d'oignon onion skin pink
tuile tile like pink
faible pale pink
gris palest pink

More important than appearance is smell. Below are some
terms associated with the odor of wine

Odors are often divided into two categories, which are not easily
distinguished:
A. L'arôme fragrance
B. Le Bouquet bouquet

The following terms are often used to describe odor
fruité with the odor of different fruits, not merely grapes.
floral with the odor of flowers
framboisé suggesting raspberries
fin refined
parfumé perfumed
truffé full
delure wide awake
subtil subtle
riche rich
il a du nez has "nose"
il a du panache has style
court insufficient
vulgaire dime store scent
ingrat unpleasant
eteint faded
flétri withered
éventé flat
désagréable unpalatable
il sent le mercaptan repellent
fétide rotten egg odor

Getting down to the taste, there are only four tastes the human tongue
can respond to:
doux or sucré sweetness
salé saltiness
l'acide acidity
l'amer bitterness

Other terms used to describe the taste of wine:
léger light
moelleux mellow
huileux oily, slick
thermique hot with alcohol
fort strong
chaud warm
avoir du feu with fire
capiteux goes to the head
spiriteux stronger than normal
vineux normal for wine
étoffé full bodied
généreux strong
racé a thoroughbred
fortifié with added alcohol
mou soft
pauvre poor
plat flat
flasque flabby
maché over exposed , evaporated
de la chair has meat on the bones
charnu solid, meaty
corsé full bodied
ferme firm
de la mâche seems chewable
puissant powerful
gras fat
musclé robust
nourri well fed
vigoreux vigorous
maigre meager
étriqué skimpy
mince thin
efflanqué lanky
mal bâti poorly made
décharné scrawny
creux empty
coulant flowing
friand appetizing
fondu mellow
glissant smooth
rond well balanced
gouleyant glutton making
fourré fur lined
velouté velvety
souple supple
enjoué sprightly
savoreux with gusto
chantant singing
suave bland
plein de sève full of sap
aigrelet sourish
aigre sour
dur harsh
rude rough
mordant biting
grossier coarse
commun everyday
rustre unpolished
muet says nothing
piquant tartly tickling
piqué excessively acid
passé too old
usé exhausted
rance rancid
tourné turned to vinegar
madérisé oxidized


Bon Appetit.