Australian Translation of French Wine Terms 24 July 05

My thanks to Mark Cohen for providing this one.

French: A good year
Translation: A bad year

French: A classic year
Translation: Most of the wines are undrinkable

French: A Parker wine
Translation: Lucky bastards

French: An elegant wine
Translation: A wine with no fruit

French: A wine with great structure
Translation: A wine with ferocious (probably unripe) tannins

French: A vintage for the purist
Translation: Please buy my wine – somebody, anybody…

French: Prices will be the same as last year
Translation: Make me an offer

French: It is a Cabernet vintage
Translation: My winery is in the Médoc

French: It is a right bank vintage
Translation: My winery is in St Emilion/Pomerol

French: It is impossible to generalise
Translation: It was crap everywhere.