Cartouche

The raised glass logo or emblem embossed on a bottle of wine, most often found on the wines from the region of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. A cartouche is added to a wine bottle by pressing a mold filled with molten glass to the already-finished bottle. The word cartouche comes from the oval symbol used in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics to indicate that the name written within the oval was a royal name.

What is Vin de Constance?

A. A crisp white wine from vineyards surrounding Lake Constance near the Swiss-Austrian border

B. A full-bodied red wine made from grapes native to Lebanon

C. A sweet wine from Constantia winery in South Africa

D. A fortified wine from the medieval Constance monastery in eastern France; the wine is thought to have medicinal benefits

Vin de Constance is a dessert wine from South Africa. The celebrated wine was produced in the nineteenth century at Constantia Winery in Cape Town. Founded in 1685, Constantia winery was one of the first wineries in the country. The luscious dessert wine, made from muscat blanc à petite grain grapes, was one of the most sought-after dessert wines in Europe―favored by emperors and kings (Napoléon Bonaparte and King Frederick the Great of Germany) and famous authors and poets. Today, the extraordinary wines are still produced at Groot Constantia and Klein Constantia wineries.

Gyropalette

Also called a girasol, Spanish for “sunflower,” gyropalette is a piece of equipment used in the production of sparkling wine made by the traditional method (where the second fermentation takes place in the bottle) like Champagne. To… Continue reading

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