Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

Open house wine

French translation:

Vin de la maison

Added to glossary by Valérie KARAM
Apr 30, 2017 12:56
7 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

Open house wine

Non-PRO English to French Other Cooking / Culinary Menu
In a menu (Greek restaurant) , I have :

OPEN HOUSE WHITE WINE (Dry wine, Thrapsathiri variety)
OPEN HOUSE RED WINE (Dry wine, Kotsifali, Mandilari varieties)
deux autres lignes du même acabit

Je ne pense pas que la traduction 'portes ouvertes' convienne ici.
Merci et bon dimanche !

Discussion

Valérie KARAM (asker) Apr 30, 2017:
@ Tony Thank you, that's probably the 'carafe' or 'pichet' serving style then. It is actually for a Cretan restaurant in Crete, not in France, not that it makes any difference here.
I'm not an expert in wine but I rather see "vin de table" as a category of wine, like of standard quality, and not only in restaurants, but also in shops, where it is sometimes mentioned on the bottle's label.
Tony M Apr 30, 2017:
@ Asker It's reassuring to have confirmation of the ... quirky... nature of the EN in your document! Certainly, it is only the presence of that little word 'open' that casts some doubt on the overall meaning.

Personally, I have never ever encountered 'vin de la maison' in a French restaurant — though of course my knowledge of French restaurants is by no means exhaustive (sadly!)

'Cuvée du patron' is a euphemistic term sometimes used — in fact, some wine producers even print it on their bottle labels. However, I would shy away from using it in your particular situation, where it seems to me a much more neutral, general term is called for.

If your quantities are always 0.5 litre, then that confirms everything I've been saying: this is almost certainly wine served in standard ½-litre carafes (or pitchers, etc.), hence NOT by the bottle, and hence why they presumably felt the need to explain it in this rather curious way by saying 'open'.
Valérie KARAM (asker) Apr 30, 2017:
Tony, I just saw your suggestion with "cuvée du patron", maybe it's what they mean.
Valérie KARAM (asker) Apr 30, 2017:
Let's keep cool, Nothing worth fighting for here :-)
Thanks Tony, I thought about the option of wine served by the glass or carafe, but they specify 0.5 L for each type of wine. Mais après tout, l'un n'empêche pas l'autre.

Merci Renate, cela pourrait être vin de la maison, cuvée du patron ou ce genre de chose ?
Oh, and by the way, this wasn't written by a native English speaker. A bit earlier in the doc I had "coffee with blisters" to describe Greek coffee wih the typical foam on top :-D

Proposed translations

9 hrs
Selected

Vin de la maison

Une alternative entre cuvée du patron et vin à la carafe. Il me semble l'avoir vu sur les menus en France
Peer comment(s):

neutral Tony M : Very few relevant Google hits — at least, ones that are not poor translations from EN! / Normally, we just say 'pichet / verre de vin de table' ;-)
8 hrs
yes I know I think we just say pichet de vin
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Cette formulation apparaît aussi dans le Michelin. Merci à tous!"
-1
1 hr

vin maison

sans nom, ni étiquette particulière, servi par verre ot/ou carafe, en principe, ce vin est préparé pour la consommation "de famille" et non pas pour des clients, en principe, je dis !
Peer comment(s):

disagree Tony M : This is the biggest 'faux ami' — 'vin maison' is not used in restaurants here in France, it would imply that it was 'home-made wine'. Various other expressions are used, such as 'vin ordinaire / de table' 'cuvée du patron', etc.
15 mins
neutral writeaway : I agree with the term but definitely ganz und gar nicht with your explanation
1 hr
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4 hrs

vin au verre

http://www.enomatic.fr/le-vin-au-verre/
http://www.francetvinfo.fr/consommation-le-vin-au-verre-une-...

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Note added at 4 hrs (2017-04-30 17:42:06 GMT)
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Vin en pichet, s'il est servi en 0,5 l
Je n'avais pas lu les discussions
Vin en carafe supposerait que le vin a été décanté, ce qui n'est pas certain.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Tony M : Often yes, but not here... Asker has specifically stated this wine is being sold in quantities of ½ litre (e.g. carafe or pitcher) / Yes, for '...en pichet' (we call it a carafe in EN, not the same as a 'decanter').
16 mins
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1 hr

vin de table

This is not standard EN AFAIK, and I certinaly don't think we have the same concept in FR.

I am assuming it means that you may be served from a bottle that is already opened; Asker, in your context, is this being priced per carafe or per glass, for example? In other words, you wan't get your own bottle opened specifically for you (unless, presumably, you actually order it by the bottle — is this one of the options?)

In France, generally, this is what you would normally expect anyway with 'ordinary' wine (vin de table), and I really don't think it is necessary to specify; it is just taken for granted. Very often, of course, this may be BiB wine, for example, i.e. not even available in a bottle to start with.

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Note added at 2 heures (2017-04-30 15:01:23 GMT)
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In EN, 'house wine' is something of a euphemism for 'any non-specific wine the establishment will sell you cheap' — though that's not to say that some of it isn't perfectly palatable. It's just a way of freeing the restaurant owner from having to stock some specific named wine, and also allows them to offer a cheaper alternative to some of the brnaded wines they might have on their wine list.

Of course 'house' in this sense means 'the establishment' — nothing to do with 'home', where it might of course be confused with 'home-made' etc.!

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Note added at 4 heures (2017-04-30 17:26:00 GMT)
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There is a world of difference between 'the house wine' (not further specified) which by definition is pretty much sure to be 'vin de table', especially if it is being sold by the carafe / pitcher, and 'a house wine' when it is one of a small number of specific, named wines just chosen by the proprietor as their 'basic' wine.

To Asker: yes, 'vin de table' is also a general category of non-specific wine; but it is also the name given in a restaurant to what would be the 'house wine' in English — the waiter might say "Would you like to see the wine list, Madam?" and she might well reply "No thank you, just bring me a demi of 'vin de table'"

I used to be in charge of the wine cellar in our Logis de France hotel-restaurant here in France.



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Note added at 6 heures (2017-04-30 18:59:14 GMT)
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If this wine were bottled, and available as a whole bottle OR by carafe OR by the glass, then I think 'Cuvée du patron' could work; at worst, people will smile gently at the pretension of it.

BUT as (from the only context we have) this is ONLY being sold in 0.5 l carafe, pitchers, or whatever, then it is extremely likely that this IS simply some kind of local 'plonk' — note the ref. comment provided by W/A:

"house wine
Wine that is bought in bulk and sold at a special price by a restaurant, bar, hotel, etc."

This often equates to something in a cubi (BiB) etc., very much frowned upon, of course, by wine snobs, and ultimately usually with the status of 'plonk'.

Anyway, 'vin de table' isn't NECESSARILY 'plonk' either — it just means a non-specific, unbranded wine — some of it is surprisingly palatable, it's not all 'Vieux Papes' or 'Viillageois'!

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Note added at 1 jour3 heures (2017-05-01 16:20:16 GMT)
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'pichet de vin de table' = 19,500 Ghits

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Note added at 1 jour3 heures (2017-05-01 16:21:06 GMT)
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'verre de vin de table' = 205,000 Ghits
Peer comment(s):

neutral writeaway : I think vin de table is off the mark. It could be a better grade wine than that. /if you suggested cuvée de patron somewhere, that would be more like it. definitely not simply table wine (which is often plonk or close to it)
1 hr
Not really, if it's being sold in ½ litre carafes. / This almost certainly IS Cretan plonk; as M-C says, if it's 'au pichet', what else is it going to be?
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Reference comments

2 hrs
Reference:

fwiw, hth

Definition: House Wine. A wine featured by a restaurant and often served in a carafe or by the glass. Sometimes a winery does a special bottling and labels the wines for a restaurant.

house wine
a wine sold unnamed by a restaurant, at a lower price than wines specified on the wine list
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/hous...


house wine
NOUN

mass noun
Wine that is bought in bulk and sold at a special price by a restaurant, bar, hotel, etc.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/house_wine

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Note added at 2 hrs (2017-04-30 15:33:10 GMT)
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Vin Maison

French name for the house wine in a restaurant or bistro, which is served open (s pichet). Mostly it is a good local wine or wine-AC.
http://www.encyclo.co.uk/meaning-of-Vin Maison
Peer comments on this reference comment:

agree mchd
1 hr
neutral Tony M : Funny your ref. takes you to a GERMAN site! / No, that last one encyclo.co.uk — takes you to: https://glossary.wein-plus.eu/vin-maison / It's the other way round: the EN is a translation from the DE.
1 hr
which one -the Oxford dictionary? /it just repeats in German exactly what it says in English. /it's correct in any language......
agree Rachel Fell
1 hr
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1 day 7 hrs
Reference:

re house wine (ref. in English)

This is the sort of wine I presume they mean, and by "open". probably straight from the barrel, as mentioned below.

A bit late in the day we have discovered the white house wine in restaurants which is cheap and usually comes in a litre carafe pleasantly acceptable.

Can you comment on the local house wines in restuarants? Be it red or white, out of a barrel or in a litre carafe or whatever? Is it cheap, is it drinkable?

We've certainly never had a rough house wine wherever we've been in Greece. We aren't white drinkers so can only talk about the reds but all we've ever had have been decent. The bulk stuff they serve in tatty old tin pots tends to be the real local stuff and we've paid as little as 4 euros for a litre and it was still quite drinkable.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g189413-i424-k122666...

Most Cretan wine is homemade and rarely bottled, and almost every restaurant we have visited has some excellent wine straight from the barrel. Usually locally produced, probably by the restaurant owner, the wines have been a real delight. You can ask for red, white, and sometimes rosé, but don't always expect the colour to meet your expectations.

Often, a restaurant will have a list of bottled imported wines, but we seldom bother with these, generally more expensive wines, because the barrel wine is so good.

We're not wine experts by any means, but we have tasted expensive wines from famous wine regions of the world, and we are happy to go with the taste and what we like. And that's usually the barrel wine! Cheap wine in Crete doesn’t mean "bad"!

http://www.completely-crete.com/cretan-food.html
Peer comments on this reference comment:

agree Tony M : Exactly what I've been saying all along! Plonk... but nice plonk! With the added bonus of possibly sometimes EVEN being home-made ;-)
6 mins
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