How many times have you been out on a dinner date, looked at the wine list, couldn’t pronounce anything, so just order the vodka? No? Just me?
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Travelista Teri Schools Us on the Correct Way to Pronounce Wine
How many times have you been out on a dinner date, looked at the wine list, couldn’t pronounce anything, so just order the vodka? No? Just me?
Karla
Although I somewhat agree with what Law Wanxi said (particularly regarding the snotty sommelier), I like the fact that she's trying to educate. I started learning French in 7th grade and minored in it in college. Wine names roll trippingly off my tongue but guess what? There are some sommeliers who can't get it right either and it would never occur to me to "correct" them. As it says in Ecclesiastes 8:15, "Then I commended mirth, because a person hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry!"
Law Wanxi
I watched the French and the Italian videos, mostly just to watch her. I found that I could correctly pronounce everything before she said it, which is interesting because I don't drink.
My question is why do Real Americans care how much they butcher French? A sneering Sommelier is easily dealt with: leave no tip and let a pompous paid servant know exactly why. And what's so bad about just pointing at the wine list or menu? C'mon, when you go to a pho joint, nobody there expects ANYONE who isn't Vietnamese to be able to say "Gỏi Huế rau muống" and get it anywhere near correct with the tonals perfect. Instead you point to the menu or say the number, in this case at my favourite place, "G7". Nobody expects even non-Cantonese speakers to correctly order "鹹蛋蒸肉餅" because in Cantonese it's 'haam daan zing juk beng'. A Mandarin speaker would read that as 'xiándàn zhēng ròubǐng' and the Cantonese waitperson would look confused. Real Americans feel no shame whatsoever at pointing at the menu and the waitperson is happy because there's no way to mess up a finger point and a just-to-make-sure repeat back of "OK, you want steamed ground pork with salty duck egg, right?"
So why do we feel compelled to suck up to the French?
SirLoinDeBeef
Law Wanxi I suppose it stems from the 'James Bond' image, where your sense of sophisticated, bad-boy manhood gets all confused with some esotericia (like concealed carry weapons ... or wine) - but the French no longer dominate good wine (most French vines date from those imported from California in the 1800's, when a fungus wiped out 80% of the European vines) ... I drink vintages from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Spain, Greece, South Africa ... even from New York State & Ohio - plus, given that the pricing of wine is a total crap-shoot, I can enjoy and $8- $10 bottle just as well as a $40.
I remember a New York Times article, where there was a new investment in wines produced in Mongolia.
As to drinking or not drinking wine, it's a personal choice - should we ever meet, I would very much like to share a fine, aged-in-the-bottle 1999 Diet Coke, particularly on a hot Southern California day ...
And, yes, I point to menu items, too ... which is how I discovered seaweed soup, back when I was a teen ... in the 1950's (really weird kid).
VintageNarcissa
Very cool! I looooove pronoucing wine names! There were some that I didn't know. I'm more of a Spanish wine fan though.
Definitely not your mama’s relationship book…
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