Claret

The British often call red Bordeaux claret. The word comes from the French clairet, which originally referred to a light red wine (to distinguish it from Port). Today, of course, the top red Bordeaux are anything but light in color or in body.

In Greek antiquity, krater, kylix, and kythos were:

A. Vessels for serving and drinking wine

B. Parts of an ancient wine production area where grapes were trodden by foot, pressed, and fermented

C. Types of markings on an amphora, indicating where the grapes were grown, the method by which the wine was made, and the level of quality of the wine

D. Minor gods considered the “children” of Dionysus and assorted goddesses

In Greek antiquity, a krater was a shallow bronze or pottery bowl used to serve wine, which would be poured from an amphora into the krater and from the krater, into a kylix–a shallow, two-handled, often beautifully decorated cup from which wine was drunk. A kythos often helped in this process. It was a ladle used to scoop the wine from the krater into the kylix.

“Nobody is growing as fast as Oregon.”

—Danny Brager, Senior VP, Nielsen, commenting on recent data revealing that Oregon wine sales increased 17% last year, compared to 3% for California and 2.8% for the U.S. as a whole.

Claret

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