Wine Labels Words Translated from French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese

 

Wine labels tell you about the style of wine, its colour, white, black, red, pink, orange. Sometimes the grape, the proportion of grapes in a blend, the flavour (such as a fruit or nut). The country, or specified place of origin, the district, or the vineyard. In some countries the division is within the owner's land, the owner, the maker, or co-operative, the importer. 

You learn whether it is dry or sweet, the sugar content. You may also learn whether it is vegan (without using egg white to clarify or cling to impurities such as the sediment of bits of wine skin or stalk or debris), Kosher may be mentioned, or kosher for Passover (around Easter time in the Jewish religion).

Alsace - region of North Eastern France, at one time German, so a mixture of French and German names and words on bottles

botas - cases in Spanish

clos was originally a walled vineyard, closed, and enclosure, but the walls have often disappeared and the name is not regulated so anybody can call their patch of land the twee title Clos.

contiene - contains in Spanish

copa - glass in Spanish

brut - French for dry. Used to describe only Champagne and other sparkling wines.

de - of in French and Spanish

De - abbreviation for Deutschland, Germany in the German language

de la - of the, in French and Spanish

Denominazione di origine controllata - Italian for name of origin controlled (You can't claim your wine is from this place if it isn't)

di - of in Italian

D.O. on Spanish bottle, denomination (accent on the on) de origen, meaning named place of origin. Is your wine from Spain, from a region of Spain, from a particular vineyard? 

DOC abbreviation for the Italian denomination of origin controlled

el - the in Spanish

ENG - abbreviation for English

es - short for Espana, Spain or Spanish in Spanish language

ESP - abbreviation for Spanish

fino - fine, pale sherry, dry, tasting of almonds

frontera - Spanish for frontier or border

it - abbreviation for Italy

nuez pecana - pecan nuts (adjective second after the noun in Spanish, as in French)

o - or in Spanish

origen - origin in Spanish

pays - country in French

piel de naranja - orange peel in Spanish

sec/vin sec - dry/dry wine in French

sherry - English word derived from the place of origin, Jerez in Spain

sin - without in Spanish

sulfitos - sulphites

tardive - late in French, like the English words tardy and retarded

Torre - Italian for tower, Spanish for tower, Brazilian Portuguese for tower

Torres - towers

una - a/an/one in Spanish

Valpolicella - val means valley in Italian, wine from Northern Italy near Venice and Verona

vendange - harvest in French

vendange tardive - late harvest, grapes left on the vine longer so that they are riper and sweeter

Wine bottle label showing the words vendage tardive, clos originally enclosure, and  domaine  denoting the house or business named after the house, a vineyard or set of vineyards, a place name, appellation Alsace controllee, pinot gris grape variety, domaine is an area. Photo by Angela Lansbury.Copyright.

vin - wine in French

vin de table - table wine, French description of basic, everyday, moderately-priced wine

vino - wine in Spanish

vina - vine in Italian

vini - wines (plural) in Italian

vins - wines, plural, in French

vol - abbreviation for volume

See my post on grape names.

Work in progress - more will be added later

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