Charles Davis Jun 23, 2011:

Great! I really think it's the best solution. And yes, there are a couple of examples of "wine's dress" with this meaning (the problem with these searches is that you get lots of wine-coloured dresses, which are no help at all!). Anyway, as you say, time to move on...

Lisa Mann (asker) Jun 23, 2011:

Charles, that's just what I've done! It's funny, I was just typing in ..."what is known as the "dress" or outer appearance of the wine." There are about 5 examples of "the wine's dress" on the internet, so yeah, most likely borrowed from French or Spanish... I've also tried other dress-like nouns (cape, cloak, coat), but no luck with them...I'll leave what I've got (got to move on and prepare for the long weekend). Thanks so much for your help!

Charles Davis Jun 23, 2011:

I see what you mean Lisa... The same point occurred to me: 'what is known as the "appearance" of the wine' it doesn't quite work. However, I don't think there's another specific term, and I don't think just adding "outer" (picking up John's phrase) would solve the problem. One way to do it might be to retain the Spanish term and put something like: 'what is known as the vestido ("dress" or appearance) of the wine'. After all, if this is a DO it would do no harm to play up the Spanishness.

By the way, in researching this idea I have hit on what must be the origin of "vestido" here: the French expression "la robe du vin" (many Google hits). I've also found one use of "the dress of the wine" in this sense: "Château D'Yquem, Sauternes 1er Cru Supérieur 2003: The dress of the wine is already a very clear yellow." (http://diningatmeridiendubai.com/masterwinelist/sweetlist.as... ). It's obviously a calque, and probably not well-established enough to use alone, but might ring bells for wine people, if put in inverted commas. I think this could well solve it, even omitting "vestido": 'what is known as the "dress" or appearance of the wine'. I think that's what I'd do.

Lisa Mann (asker) Jun 23, 2011:

Appearance of the wine is too general I think Like I've said, we've already examined the wine from above in the first step, so I don't think that if we change the position of the wine glass we are now looking at the "appearance of the wine". What were we looking at before then? I'm starting to think that there may be no equivalent in English for this specific term (the quotation marks in the text above are the client's, by the way, so he clearly wants to highlight it as something specific). Hmmm...

johncouceiro Jun 22, 2011:

boring wine stuff You look from the side to see the rim of the wine, and then when you swill it round the glass you can see the "legs running down it which denotes the level of alcohol. The reason they use "vestido" is that it is the outer aspect you're looking at just like a dress covers the body the Vestido del vino is its outer aspect.

Lisa Mann (asker) Jun 22, 2011:

A little more context Another step in the wine tasting process is presented just before this one. In that first step the glass is held at tilted at waist level and we're supposed to look at the surface of the wine, the disc of the wine and the depth.