Monopole

Used most frequently in Burgundy and to a lesser extent in Champagne, a monopole is a vineyard owned entirely by one estate.

The word sauvignon comes from the French words sauvage and vigne, meaning wild vine. What does wild refer to?

A. The fact that the variety predates the domestication of grape vines.

B. The fact that the variety belongs to the species Vitis sauvagea.

C. The wild and riotous way the vines grow.

D. The fact that wild animals love to eat grapes from this variety.

Sauvignon is a fitting name for a vine that, if left to its own devices, would grow with riotous abandon. Sauvignon blanc is a high vigor variety which can grow with almost jungle-like speed.

“I hover over the expensive Scotch and then the Armagnac, but finally settle on a glass of rich red claret. I put it near my nose and nearly pass out. It smells of old houses and aged wood and dark secrets, but also of hard, hot sunshine through ancient shutters and long, wicked afternoons in a four-poster bed. It’s not a wine, it’s a life, right there in the glass.”

—Nick Harkaway, author, The Gone-Away World

—Nick Harkaway, author, The Gone-Away World

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