Which Champagne For New Year? And Which Travel Resolutions?

 

G H Mumm Champagne Brut Cordon Rouge.  Photo by Angela Lansbury.

My husband chose this Champagne for Christmas. Champagne comes from the Champagne region of France. It is a dry wine, hence the word Brut, meaning dry. 

Angela and her husband Trevor drinking Champagne on Christmas Day. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

Champagne is a sparkling white wine, made with red skinned grapes. I kid you not. This one is made from a grape called pinot noir. Noir is French for black. In English we describe grapes as red and black grapes but in wine-making most grapes are black.

Rouge is the French word for red. The word rouge in English has also come to mean red cosmetics applied to the cheeks for colour.

Cordon rouge, like cordon Bleu, (Bleu is French for blue) refers to the cordon, which is a sash. You see it here on the Champagne worn diagonally. It is on both the bottle and the cap.

Other Champagnes sold in the same supermarket were made from Chardonnay grapes. My husband prefers the fuller flavour of pinot noir. Most people are happy with a best selling cheaper wine.

For New Year, for a change, my husband might buy a blanc de blanc, meaning a white wine made from white grapes. And what about New Year resolutions and travel?  My plans include:

1 Keeping A Travel Wishlist

2 Learn a new language each year. Finish a course in that language on Duolingo.

3 Learn the words from every bottle of wine. (Even if you are not a drinker, you can learn the words from the wine bottles, the wine list, and the menu.

I have been to many Champagne cellars in Rheims, as well as wineries around the world.

According to their website, the Mumm company has installed art and architecture making it an award winning tourist attraction. So they are on my wish-list for a destination as soon as Covid-19 caused restrictions are lifted and I and my family can fly to the UK and on by ferry to France. Meanwhile, a happy New Year to you and yours.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champagne

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Mumm

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

 

French words, and colour words, used in clothing, films, paints and wines

Blanche sat in Cafe Rouge drinking pinot noir ...

I just wrote that sentence for you after I looked at the words Cafe Rouge and thought, that means Red Cafe. I was reminded of the fact that a number of familiar words are colors which makes it easy to remember the French and other language words. The name Cafe Rouge also reminds us that in French the adjective (describing word) comes after the noun (name), the opposite of English.

Who is the eminence g r i s e who has carte blanche? The doyenne wearing Jacques Vert, drinking pinot noir in Cafe Rouge!

 
   Here are some French words and phrases using colour:

Cafe Rouge - red cafe

Orange - orange

Cordon Bleu - blue cord or ribbon award

Jacques Vert  - Jack Green (fashion label)
Film Noir - black film - film with sad, serious, somber subject
Eminence gris -grey / gray, shadowy figure of influence
pinot gris - white grape
pinot noir - black grape (from Burgundy)
burgundy - wine colour from Burgundy
blanc - grape (grey) white - the wine world does not use the word green
noir - grape black
rouge - red wine
blanc - white wine - mispronunciation led to the British slang plonk
carte blanche - white card (notice the adjective in French is second) / free hand / do what you like
eminence grise - secret power behind the throne

French colour words:
yellow - jaune
silver - argent
gold - or
dark pink - cerise
rose - pink

Colour Words Used For Clothing and Paints
Beige - beige
creme - cream colour

taupe - the word taupe in ladies' clothing catalogues used to puzzle me. (Here is a description of the colour and the origin of the word From Wikipedia:)
"Taupe (pronunciation: /ˈtoʊp/ tohp) is a dark tan color in-between brown and gray. The word derives from the French noun taupe meaning "mole". The name originally referred only to the average color of the French mole, but beginning in the 1940s, its usage expanded to encompass a wider range of shades.

"Taupe is a vague color term which may refer to almost any grayish-brown or brownish-gray, but true taupe is difficult to pinpoint as brown or gray.

"According to the Dictionary of Color, the first use of "taupe" as a color name in English was in the early 19th century; but the earliest citation recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1911."

vin jaune - straw colour, yellow wine, from Jura, Savoie, eastern France bang up against Switzerland (expensive, £30-£50 - high quality with expensive production costs)

champagne - colour of Champagne wine, Champagne being a region, and French control of brand names prohibits wine makers from other countries and regions from using the place name (except I think some places where the French Champagne houses have planted the vines and supervised the methods, made the profits, whatever), although you can use the words methode Champenoise, which means made in the same way, from the same method, but not from the same area -
Colours have official numbers and names. You can get a colour chart online or from a supplier of paints.

blanc de blanc - sparkling wine made purely from white grapes (Chardonnay)
blanc de noir - white sparkling wine made from black grapes (usually pinot noir and M e u n i e r  - sorry, I have had to make this word appear with spaces because spellcheck turned this word into meaner)
Most champagne has more black grapes than white grapes even though it's a white voice

Château Neuf du pape = new chateau (notice the adjective comes second) of the pope or father of the Catholic church

blanc - white
blanche - feminine of white / girl's name

Clairette - old grape variety originally used to make Claret, which gave the name Claret

blanc de blanc - white wine from white grape

Just to let you know, Angela Lansbury is my pen name but also my real name. I was nee (French for born, double e for feminine) Lansbury.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons, teacher, tutor, author, speech trainer, speaker.
Popular Grammarian at Toastmasters International speakers' clubs in the UK, China and Singapore.
Author of: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When? ; Wedding Speeches and Toasts.

What a vineyard tour teaches you about red and white wine and sparkling wines

I need to know about wines for my level one exam. So here's a recap to help me and you.

Blanc is white (in French). Noir is black. White and black grapes.

Blanc de blanc (on the bottle label) is white wine from white grapes only, chardonnay the white grape.

Much rarer is
Blanc de noir which is white wine made from a black skinned grape which nonetheless has a clear colour juice.

The most usual black skinned grape juice added for a mixed grape sparkling will be pinot noir.

Pinot grapes come in three well known varieties, pinot blanc (white), pinot gris (grey), and pinot noir (black).

What about pinot meunier added by Nyetimber to one of their blends?


It is known is 'm e u n i e r' for short, because there are several pinots but only one m e u n i e r. I have had to insert spaces because the spell checker keeps changing the word to meaner.

So there are several Pinots.

Most champagne is brut - the driest.

Buying wine - are you blank about Blanc de Blanc and plonk?

At the airport or supermarket wondering what those wine labels mean?
Blanc de Blanc means white (wine) made from white (grapes).

    That's usually white sparkling wine, Champagne if from the Champagne region of North East France.
   Champagne and other white wines are the 3Cs: Champagne, on chalky soil, from Chardonnay white grapes.
   (Chardonnay is a village, not in the Champagne region but further south of Champagne in Burgundy. A wine expert tells me the finest white wines in the world are white burgundies.)
(At the southern end of Burgundy you get Beaujolais.)

   (The German name for Pinot Noir grape is Spatburgunder - meaning late Burgundy, late to ripen? or lately or formerly from Burgundy.)

   Blanc de Noir is white (sparkling) wine from a black grape, Pinot Noir. Noir is French for black.
(Pinot is a kind of grape. You find more than one grape starting with the name Pinot then the colour. Pinot Gris is grey - a white grape with a reddish mottle.)

  Blanc de Noir is a white sparkling wine from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

For more details see a book called Wine Grapes by Jancis Robinson.

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer, speaker, speech coach and English teacher.

PS Plonk is supposed to be the English language attempt to say Blanc. Those not fussy about wine would just ask for a bottle of white, Blanc, called it Plonk.