DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L316.55
Authors: Bertie Neethling
Abstract: South Africa is a well-known wine producer, competing with many other countries. The wine industry is essentially located in the Western Cape, on the southernmost tip of Africa where the two oceans, the Atlantic and the Indian meet. The wine estates are found close to the sea or further inland. The differences in terroir contribute to the huge variety of wines produced. The first wine was produced in 1659 by the early Dutch settlers at the Cape of Good Hope, currently known as Cape Town. The aim with this contribution is to analyse the language used to describe the wine in the wine menu of a restaurant that was selected because of its huge choice. The menu is fairly detailed, describing the popular wine cultivars, and also describing the most prominent wine producing areas often by referring to the type of terroir present in that area. The rating mechanism appearing in a prestigious publication that appears annually, is also included, because every wine in the menu is also rated. Finally the cultivar is highlighted, followed by the individual wine selected for that cultivar, the name of the wine producing estate, and then a fairly detailed linguistic description of the wine regarding appearance, nose and taste. This is done for every wine included in the menu. The total number is 98 wines, but only a selection will feature in this contribution.
Keywords: wine industry; Western Cape in South Africa; wine menu in restaurant; linguistic description; appearance; nose; taste
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