Regine Rousseau can often sense hesitation before a customer even opens their mouth. There’s often a discomforting pause, she says. Sometimes a stutter. Often, they’ll look straight at her, as if waiting to see her cringe as they attempt to say words like xarel-lo (sha-RELL-lo) or xinomavro (ksee-NO-mav-ro).
But Rousseau promises she won’t cringe. Nor will she jump in with a correction.
Whether its gewürztraminer (geh-VURTS-trah-mee-ner) or agiorgitiko (ah-yor-YEE-tee-koh), Rousseau, the television wine personality and senior sales consultant at Verve Wine in Lincoln Park, has stumbled over her share of wine names too, she says.
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“I really don’t mind if you butcher it,” she says. After all, it’s only natural. Wine draws its vocabulary from a dizzying number of languages, Rousseau explains. “You’re navigating from French to German, then Italian, Spanish or Greek.” Rousseau doesn’t expect customers to pronounce every wine grape or region correctly, and she doesn’t hold herself to that standard either. She’s constantly learning new things too, she says, and laughs as she admits to having mispronounced a few names live on television.
Wine is a peculiar consumer product. Buyers routinely choose wine from a vast selection of bottles they’ve never tasted, made from grapes and regions entirely unfamiliar, sometimes even unpronounceable. It’s this diversity that makes wine so uniquely exciting. But there’s an inherent uncertainty that often deters drinkers from wines they’d probably love, sometimes at a fraction of the cost of something better known. It’s easier to reach for a California cabernet, pinot grigio or rosé from Provence, than to take a chance on assyrtiko (ah-SEER-tee-koh) from Santorini or txakoli (chah-koh-LEE) from the Basque coast of Spain.
Matt Esser watches this play out constantly at Grand Cru, the West Town wine bar and retail store he co-owns. It’s part of why Grand Cru makes “an outsized effort” to introduce customers to the gamut of wines that sit “in the margins of the grand scheme of wine,” he explains; bottles from Greece and Tasmania, for example, or “weird grapes from northern Italy.” A constantly changing selection of wines by the glass at Grand Cru gives customers a low-stakes way to explore without committing to a whole bottle.
Because when it comes to selling wine, Esser says, how pronounceable the wine, or how familiar it sounds, matters a lot. “People are used to making quick decisions,” he says. Names like Chablis (shah-BLEE), Sancerre (sahn-SAIR) or sauvignon blanc (SO-vin-yohn BLAHNK) have, over the last few decades, become part of mainstream vernacular for many American wine drinkers. But confronted with a name they don’t recognize and a shelf full of alternatives, shoppers often tend to move on.
That puts wines saddled with unfamiliar letter combinations, like the Georgian mtsvane (muh-TSVAH-neh), for example, or unexpected consonants, like rkatsiteli (ruh-KAHT-see-teh-lee, also Georgian), or daunting accent marks, like blaufränkisch (BLOW-fren-kish), popular in Austria, Hungary and Germany, all at a distinct handicap.
But it takes surprisingly little effort to break the habit. Learn a handful of less-familiar wine and grape names and yes, you’re likely to impress friends and family — maybe even the sommelier the next time you order at a restaurant. More importantly, you’re gaining the confidence to try bottles you might otherwise pass over, and an invitation to an even broader landscape of wines to explore.
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Here are a few to start with.
Alemany i Corrió 2023 Principia Mathematica Penedès Xarel-lo ($36 at Verve Wine)
Xarel-lo is a white grape that originates in Catalonia in Spain. It’s best known as a blending grape for Cava, the sparkling wine, but Rousseau is particularly fond of this rare 100% xarel-lo made by Irene Alemany and Laurent Corrió in Penedès (peh-neh-DES). “It’s easy drinking, it’s fresh and interesting,” she says. “People would really gravitate to it more if it was an easier name, or if no one looked at them like they were crazy when they said it.”
Domaine Lagille NV Fleur de Meunier Brut Rose Champagne ($71 at Verve Wine)
Pinot Meunier (pee-NOH muh-NYAY) is one of Champagne’s three main grapes, a red variety that often plays a supporting role in the region’s traditional blends. “I’d love more people to try meunier on its own instead of part of the traditional Champagne blend,” Rousseau says. Given the spotlight, it’s a distinctly berry-fruited, floral wine with versatility to pair with everything from fresh berries and cheese to sushi or pork. Rousseau is particularly fond of this 100% pinot meunier Champagne made by the Lagille family, winegrowers since the 17th century who recently completed their conversion to certified organic farming.
Paul Blanck 2018 Altenbourg Alsace Gewürztraminer ($35 at Grand Cru)
Gewürztraminer might be the most universally difficult wine name to pronounce, says Esser. The grape can be polarizing, he admits, but its heady perfume is hard to match. “It’s so aromatic,” he says; think jasmine blossoms, orange peel and spice. For benchmark examples, Esser looks to Alsace (al-SASS), France, where the Blanck family has been growing wine since 1610. Their gewürztraminer is a standout – fresh and floral, with a balanced richness that makes it especially compelling.
Gaudio Bricco Mondalino 2022 Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese ($33 at Grand Cru)
Grignolino (green-yo-LEE-no) is a lesser-known red grape from Italy’s famed Piedmont region, and one Esser thinks deserves more attention. Think of it as a more savory, structured cousin to gamay (gam-AY), he suggests, light-bodied and chillable, but with more tannin and substance, compared with today’s trendy chillable reds. It’s a “crunchy,” zesty wine with “lean cherry and delicate cranberry” flavors, he says, but also a savory, slightly dusty character that makes it unmistakably Italian. Better yet, it tends to be relatively affordable, says Esser, making it a smart alternative for drinkers drawn to nebbiolo (neh-BYOH-loh), its better-known Piedmontese cousin.
Fraga do Corvo 2023 Monterrei Godello ($24 at Grand Cru)
Godello (go-DELL-oh), a white grape from Galicia in northwestern Spain, is another Esser likes to steer curious drinkers toward. Albariño (al-bah-REE-nyoh) fans will find some familiar territory, he says, but godello is typically less peachy, a crisp wine with “bright, snappy tangerine” flavors. It’s an easy next step for drinkers who already know albariño but are ready to venture beyond it.
Anna Lee Iijima is a freelance writer.
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