French to English: Wine, Part 2

In my previous blog, I promised to show a video.  I found one that I thought was both educational and entertaining.  Gary Vaynerchuk speaks about decanting wine, especially top dollar wines.  In this video, he features the Amon-Ra Shiraz 2004 from the Barbosa Valley (Australia's equivalent of California's Napa Valley) to explain the benefits of decanting.

As I listened to Gary's engaging presentation, I couldn't help but think that decanting wine is like the courtship stage in a budding romance.  If a man meets a woman and proposes marriage after a few days' of wining and dining and then they tie the knot and hit the hay (pardon the  vulgar expression), they discover soon enough that the hasty decision to marry was a bad one.  The feelings of non-fulfillment and dissatisfaction nag at their psyche.  They come to another hasty decision:  they split up, bitter at the amount of money that was spent for the wedding, the reception and the honeymoon.

Gary Vaynerchuk says that if you buy an expensive Bordeaux, and then you take it straight to a restaurant to share with friends, you've just thrown away your precious dollars.  To get the FULL potential of wine and its  explosive and delightful combination of aroma, taste and texture, decanting is an indispensable step.  He suggests four to six hours of decanting to allow the wine to breathe freely.

Watch this video now.  You'll agree with me that his arguments are convincing!

You can tell Gary Vaynerhuk has discovered his passion.  I have a confession to make.  I have this secret wish of creating a video presentation with me as presenter, but my timid nature tells me that while I can convey the information I want to convey, I may not hold the attention of my audience long enough - the way Gary Vaynerchuk does so effortlessly!

Here's your lexicon:

FRENCH	ENGLISH
réfractomètre	refractometer
tenure en sucre	sugar level
machines à vendanger	machine harvesting
vendanges tardives	late harvest
vin de glace	ice wine
le buttage	banking up
chaufferettes	anti-frost smudge pots
trémie de réception	receiving hopper
fouloir/égrappoir	crusher/de-stemmer
cuve de fermentation	upright fermentation vessel
presse pneumatique	pneumatic press
chaptalisation et acidification	chaptalization and acidification
macération	maceration
remontage	remontage
remuage des lies	stirring the lees
fermentation malolactique	malolactic fermentation
vin de "goutte"	free run juice
vin de presse	press wine
tanins	tannins
décantation	racking
vieilissement en bouteille	bottle aging
collage et filtration	fining and filtering

More wine terms in part 3.  Come again!