Wine

BBC Learning English

London Life
Wine

Jackie: Hello I'm Jackie Dalton, this is London Life. Today

I'm at London's

annual Good Food Show. I've tried out plenty of food

already, but I also want to find out about the wine here.

I'm going to talk to David, an English wine-maker – yes,

there is such a thing as English wine! As we listen to him,

we'll explore some wine-related language. David is going to

start by talking about one of his favourite wines. What

word does he invent to describe the wine that he's

drinking?

David

So can you tell me about this particular sparkling wine

that you've got here?

Well, this is a blend of Reichensteiner, which is a

Reisling style, perhaps more similar to a Gewurz Traminer.

So what you want to do when you taste a wine is to take a

nice mouthful of it and breathe in air over the top of it

and then breathe it out and it’s you're nose which

actually tastes the wine. So that's what I'm going to do…

If you're looking
for adjectives, basically, it's 'gulpable'.

Jackie: 'Gulpable'. 'Gulpable' is not a word you'd normally

find in the dictionary, but you will find the word 'gulp 1'.

The verb 'to gulp' means to drink something very quickly,

swallowing a lot at a time.

Voice: She gulped 2 down her breakfast then ran off to catch

the bus. Jackie: It can also be a noun:
Voice: He finished his drink in one gulp.
 
Jackie: So 'gulp' is normally used as a noun or a verb. But

what David has done,

is turned it into an adjective by adding a-b-l-e on the

end, describing wine as 'gulpable'. The kind of wine you

can drink easily and quickly.
Next, David is gong to use a word which has an opposite

meaning to

'gulp'. Can you spot what it is?

David

If you're looking for adjectives, basically, it's

'gulpable'. The test of a good wine is that if you have to

sip 3 it, it's a bad wine.

Jackie: David says if you have to sip wine, it's a bad

wine. To 'sip' means to drink very slowly, taking just a

small amount into your mouth each time. While we can use

'gulp' when talking about both food and drink, we can only
use 'sip' with liquids.

Voice: Hmm, have a sip of this, it's delicious!

Jackie: So David reckons the kind of wine that's easy to

gulp down is better than the kind of wine that you would

only sip.

David

The test of a good wine is that if you have to sip it, it's

a bad wine. If you can actually gulp it down, then that is

the indication that that wine has been perfectly 4 made, it's

easy to drink, it's soft and that is the whole key to good

wine-making.

Jackie: David is going to tell us more about the wine he

has. For him the wine is very 'fruity'. What words does he

use which show you he thinks this?

David

So, what you notice immediately that it's got a lemony,

slightly orange flavour to it. It's got masses of fruit

there, that's come through initially 5. It's got a nice

sweetness to it, but the balance and the harmony is

absolutely perfect.
 
Jackie: David talks about the wine's flavour – what it

tastes like. He uses the adjective 'lemony' to suggest it

tastes a bit like lemons and says it also has an orange

flavour. He also says it has masses of fruit, which means

lots of fruit: 'masses' – an adjective to describe

quantity which can be used in
lots of contexts…

Voice: There's a huge party outside, there are masses of

people in the streets. Voice: I'm afraid I can't go out

with you, I've got masses to do this weekend.
David

It's got masses of fruit there that's comes through

initially. It's got a nice sweetness to it, but the balance

and the harmony is absolutely perfect.

Jackie: David says it's 'got a nice sweetness to it' – it

tastes quite sweet. It also has a perfect balance and

harmony. By 'balance' he means no one flavour stands out;

the different elements have equal strength. 'Harmony' is

when things seem to work well together. So David says all

the different elements of the wine come together perfectly.

Now let's practise some of the new words that have come up.

Over to you! What verb beginning with 'g' means to eat or

drink something quickly and in large amounts? (To gulp)

What about a word that begins with 's' and means to drink

something slowly and in small quantities? (To sip)

If we want to talk about what a food or drink tastes like,

do we talk about its flavour or its flower? (Food and drink

have 'flavours')

What word beginning with 'm' did we hear which means a lot

of something? (Masses) And that's all for this week's

London Life. Do join us again next time!