I would like a glass of wine

Je voudrais un verre de vin… You might find yourself forming that sentence as you come out of your French class and your head buzzes from all the things you just learnt. A nice glass of wine might be the answer to relax it all into place.

We are lucky to have the lovely Winehouse just round the corner on Shacklewell lane. It’s definitely a welcome addition to the neighbourhood!
Aleksic and Mortimer are wine importers specialised in artisan wines. They source their bottles from small domains, located mainly in France, and provide a very interesting selection with friendly starting prices.
Don’t hesitate to ask for advice if, like me, you don’t know much about wine. They are passionate about what they do and genuinely helpful!

 

Some vocabulary

  • Vin blanc: (don’t pronounce the final ‘c’): white wine
  • Vin rouge: Red wine
  • Vin rosé: Rosé (pink) wine
  • Cépage: grape variety
  • Vigne: vine
  • Domaine: domain, piece of land on which vine is cultivated
  • Château: castle or large country house. Traditionally vine has been cultivated on feudal estates dominated by a castle. By extension the château you read on your bottle of wine implies ‘winery’. Nowadays there isn’t always an actual ‘castle’ on the land it comes from.
  • Terroir: type of land on which the vine (or other crops) grow. A terroir is determined by the composition and quality of the soil, the orientation of the land, the wind, the amount of sun it gets etc…
  • Ivre: drunk. Bourré is the slang version.